S01E01 Get Action (1858-1901)
A frail, asthmatic young Theodore Roosevelt transforms himself into a champion of the strenuous life, loses one great love and finds another, leads men into battle and then rises like a rocket to become the...
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
S01E03: The Fire of Life (1910-1919)
Theodore Roosevelt leads a Progressive crusade that splits his own party, campaigns for American entry into World War I — and pays a terrible personal price. Franklin masters wartime Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, while Eleanor finds personal salvation in war work. Her discovery of Franklin’s romance with another woman transforms their marriage into a largely political partnership.
Overview
Chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, fourteen hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962.
Episodes
S01E02 In the Arena (1901-1910)
Murder brings Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency, but in the seven years that follow, he transforms the office and makes himself perhaps the best-loved of all presidents, battling corporate greed, preserving American wilderness, carrying the...
S01E03 The Fire of Life (1910-1919)
Theodore Roosevelt leads a Progressive crusade that splits his own party, campaigns for American entry into World War I — and pays a terrible personal price. Franklin masters wartime Washington as Assistant Secretary of the...
S01E04 The Storm (1920-1933)
Franklin Roosevelt runs for vice president in 1920 and seems assured of a still brighter future until polio devastates him. He spends seven years struggling without success to walk again, while Eleanor builds her own...
S01E05 The Rising Road (1933-1939)
FDR brings the same optimism and energy to the White House that his cousin Theodore displayed. Aimed at ending the Depression, his sweeping New Deal restores the people’s self-confidence and transforms the relationship between them...
S01E06 The Common Cause (1939-1944)
FDR shatters the third-term tradition, struggles to prepare a reluctant country to enter World War II and, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, helps set the course toward Allied victory. Meanwhile, Eleanor struggles to...
S01E07 A Strong and Active Faith (1944-1962)
Frail and failing but determined to see the war through to victory, FDR wins re-election and begins planning for a peaceful postwar world, but a cerebral hemorrhage kills him at 63. After her husband’s death,...
Cast
Peter Coyote
Narrator (voice)
David McCullough
Self - Historian
Meryl Streep
Eleanor Roosevelt (voice)
Edward Herrmann
Franklin Roosevelt (voice)
Paul Giamatti
Theodore Roosevelt (voice)
Theodore Roosevelt
Self (archive footage)
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Self - Historian
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Self (archive footage)
John Lithgow
James Roosevelt (voice)
