The Men Who Built America

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Men Who Built America
Region 1 DVD cover
Genre	Biography, Docudrama
Written by	Randy CounsmanStephen DavidPatrick ReamsDavid C. WhiteAlec MichodEd FieldsJohn FahyKeith Palmer
Directed by	Patrick Reams, Ruán Magan
Starring	David DonahoeMatt BoliekAdam Jonas SegallerCary DonaldsonJohn C. BaileyEric RollandJustin Morck
Narrated by	Campbell Scott
Theme music composer	“Save My Soul” by Blues Saraceno
Original language	English
No. of episodes	4
Production
Cinematography	Richard V. Lopez Brian O’Carroll
Editors	Tim W. KellyJonathan SouleBeatrice SisulTina PachecoJohn KilgourSheri Bylander
Production company	Stephen David Entertainment
Original release
Network	History Channel
Release	October 16 – November 11, 2012
Related
The Men Who Built America: FrontiersmenThe Titans That Built America

The Men Who Built America (also known as The Innovators: The Men Who Built America in some international markets) is an eight-hour, four-part miniseries docudrama which was originally broadcast on the History Channel in autumn 2012, and on the History Channel UK in fall 2013. The series focuses on the lives of Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, and Henry Ford. It tells how their industrial innovations and business empires revolutionized modern society. The series is directed by Patrick Reams and Ruán Magan and is narrated by Campbell Scott. It averaged 2.6 million total viewers (1.2 million adults 25–54 and 1 million adults 18–49) across four nights.

It is the first installment of the That Built franchise.

Cast

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In alphabetical order:

William Jennings Bryan – James Kidd
Andrew Carnegie – (The Elder) – Adam Jonas Segaller
- Andrew Carnegie – (The Younger) – AJ Achinger
Thomas Edison – Justin Morck
James Fisk – Kenneth Cavett
Henry Ford – Cary Donaldson
Henry Clay Frick – John C. Bailey
Jay Gould – Cameron McNary
William McKinley – Dan Odell
J. P. Morgan – (The Elder) – Ray Reynolds
- J. P. Morgan – (The Younger) – Eric Rolland
Junius Spencer Morgan – Daniel Berkey
John D. Rockefeller – Tim Getman
Theodore Roosevelt – Joseph Wiegand
Charles M. Schwab – John Keabler
Thomas A. Scott – Don Meehan
Nikola Tesla – Alex Falberg
Cornelius Vanderbilt – David Donahoe
William Henry Vanderbilt – Michael Chmiel
George Westinghouse – Einar Gunn

Episodes

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Note: The series consists of eight one-hour episodes; for TV they were combined into four two-hour episodes.

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	“A New War Begins”	Ruán Magan	David C. White, Keith Palmer	October 16, 2012
Cornelius Vanderbilt grows from a steamboat entrepreneur to the head of a railroad empire, and gets into a heated rivalry with James Fisk and Jay Gould; the up and coming John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil. Many business owners lay their own rail lines which leads to the Panic of 1873. Later, Rockefeller starts to expand his wealth by diverting his business from the railroads to a new innovation, oil pipelines.
2	“Bloody Battles/Blood Is Spilled”	Patrick Reams	David C. White, Keith Palmer	October 23, 2012
Andrew Carnegie builds an empire around steel, but finds himself struggling to save face after the ruthless tactics of his business partner, Henry Clay Frick, result in both the Johnstown Flood as well as the bloody 1892 strike at the Homestead Steel Works.^[1]^[2]
3	“Changing the Game”	Patrick Reams	David C. White, Patrick Reams, Keith Palmer	October 30, 2012
J. P. Morgan proceeds to banish the dark with the direct current electric light of Thomas Edison, but the two soon face serious competition from the alternating current of George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla. As the 19th century comes to a close, the titans of industry must try to work together to stop a new threat in budding politician William Jennings Bryan, who threatens to dissolve monopolies in America.
4	“When One Ends, Another Begins”	Patrick Reams	David C. White, Keith Palmer	November 11, 2012
Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan team up to help elect William McKinley to the U.S. presidency by paying for his 1896 campaign, to avoid a possible attack on monopolies. However, fate intervenes when McKinley is suddenly assassinated, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt assumes the presidency and promptly begins dissolving monopolies and trusts in America. Meanwhile, Morgan buys out Carnegie Steel to make Carnegie the richest man in the world, and Henry Ford designs an affordable automobile with his Model T and starts his own business, Ford Motor Company, which sets a new business model for companies to follow.

Reception

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Neil Genzlinger from The New York Times observed that the series did not contain startling revelations about its principal subjects, although certainly gave them a modern-day relevance.^[3]

Linda Holmes writing for NPR ridiculed the series for dull presentation, corny re-enactments and ineffective narration. She criticized the production for feeling “a lot like a tricked-out version of an elementary school filmstrip” and suggested that the series might be popular among those who accepted Donald Trump as one of the experts.^[4]

Geoff Berkshire from Variety criticized the series for “overblown recreations backed by bombastic music, combined with tepid performances by the re-enactors and rudimentary writing”. Mentioning the series’ “ostentatious style [that] begins to grate within the first 30 minutes”, he scorned “the talking heads [that] simply feel like filler” and the particular style of padding out the runtime when “the viewers are subjected to the customary recap of the previous segment after every ad break.” He concluded that unlike the game-changing icons it intended to celebrate, the series failed to leave its mark.^[5]

Verne Gay from Newsday gave the series “C” grade for “self-serving, obvious or of the fortune cookie variety” tips dispensed by the guests and for the lack of subtlety and historic context. On another hand, he praised the well-produced, although often static, recreations.^[6]

On Metacritic the series has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.^[7] Most fans of the series found it very informative and entertaining, with high production value. The DVD got rave reviews, although many viewers wished that the constant recaps of each episode had been edited out.