Jean Shepherd's America
TV ShowEnded

Jean Shepherd's America

1971
2 seasons
23 episodes
DocumentaryComedy

In these humorous and affectionate television poems, humorist Jean Shepherd celebrates America in all its richness and diversity -- from cars to candy, baseball to beer, motels to money. Each week a different aspect of our national psyche is explored as Shepherd travels to the Okefenokee Swamp, Death Valley, Milwaukee, the Old South, and other far-flung locations -- using the PCP-90 portable camera.

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Cast

Seasons

  • Ep 1

    1.The Phantom of the Open Hearth Lives -- Somewhere in Indiana

    11-04-197129m

    Shep recalls the sights, sounds, and experiences of working in a steel mill at age 17, as the operations of a contemporary steel mill play out on screen.

  • Ep 2

    2....One Man's Version of Heaven Is a Super Howard Johnson's with 28 Flavors and No Lines for the Rest Room

    18-04-197129m

    Shep loses his bait but comes up with some tall tales on a fishing trip in Maine's backwaters on the banks of the Kennebec River, with a stop at the Skowhegan County Fair to meet B...

  • Ep 3

    3....The End of an Era -- Riding the 'City of Los Angeles' on Its Last Journey Across the American West

    25-04-197129m

    While rumbling across Wyoming aboard a Union Pacific railroad car, Shep recalls a previous trip during his World War II Army days when he pulled KP duty on a troop train.

  • Ep 4

    4.A Bunch of the Boys Were Whooping It Up at the Malamute Saloon

    02-05-197129m

    Recalling the origins of his interest in Alaska in the second grade, Shep journeys through the Alaskan frontier exploring the captivating landscape, the sights and sounds of an Esk...

  • Ep 5

    5.There's More to Life Than a Hostess Twinkie

    09-05-197129m

    While he cracks lobster claws, Shep cracks jokes and stories about his crazy love affair with all manner of delicacies, from rainbow trout to pecan pie.

  • Ep 6

    6.And the Bad Guys Are Back on the Shore, Shaking Their Fists

    16-05-197129m

    Recalling a comic-strip from his boyhood in which the hero escapes on a houseboat from the pursuing villains, Shep takes the helm of a houseboat and contemplates a nomadic life at...

  • Ep 7

    7.The Perpetual Swish of Windshield Wipers Is the Soundtrack of Our Lives

    23-05-197129m

    Shep gets behind the wheel and moves out on the turnpike of life, as he muses on the mystique of the open road.

  • Ep 8

    8.It Won't Always Be This Way

    30-05-197129m

    Shep contrasts man's "nesting" instinct with his desire for mobility in a vision of tomorrow's styles of living.

  • Ep 9

    9....From Its Golden, Ice-cold Depths Come the Echos of Lost Battles, the Sound of Ancient Victories, the Noise of a Million Ball Games

    06-06-197129m

    Beer, considered by some to be the universal language, is the focus as Shep travels to the archetypal neighborhood tavern in Milwaukee and presents a poetic pastiche of beer commer...

  • Ep 10

    10.I Might Even Snag One for Old Ahab Himself

    13-06-197129m

    Shep talks with one of Florida's natural wonders: Sea Weed Ernie, a hermit who lives in an old wrecked boat in the middle of a watery nowhere, trades fish stories and casts a line...

  • Ep 11

    11.When There's No Place to Go But Up

    20-06-197129m

    Tall stories -- airborne. Shep takes off at the controls of his four-seater and visits a convention that features home-made airplanes built with some interesting components.

  • Ep 12

    12.Like All Great Inner-Tube Specialists, He Finally Made the Classic Mistake

    27-06-197129m

    What happens when you let a guy like Jean Shepherd loose in a place like Hawaii? He has a luau, watches the surfers and talks about his old man, the All Time Inner-Tube Specialist...

  • Ep 13

    13.Make School or Die

    04-07-197129m

    Stranded during a blizzard in Wyoming, Shep and the crew romp in the snow outside the "Little America" motel while he recalls another childhood memory of cold mornings in northern...

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