From the "Billy the Kid" production team, a time-lapse video from the point of view of a train streaming across the Western landscape.

In January 2012, American Experience presents the Wild West Collection: Billy the Kid, Custer's Last Stand, Wyatt Earp, Geronimo, Annie Oakley, and Jesse James.

Our 2012 season is announced with a special video from Executive Producer Mark Samels. We hope you enjoy our upcoming season, which kicks off with our "Wild West Collection" on your local PBS station January 10 at 9/8C.

October 20, 1973: Nixon fired Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox in what becomes known as "The Saturday Night Massacre." The attorney general resigns and Congress files 21 resolutions calling for Nixon's impeachment.

Rosalynn Carter was a major figure in her husband's campaigns and policy meetings. "She wanted to be more than a fashion plate and somebody who gave teas," says historian E. Stanly Godbold.

On the White House lawn on August 5, 1990, H.W. Bush took a stand against Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. "He led with his gut, with his instincts," says biographer Timothy Naftali.

President Roosevelt's inaugural address filled the American people with confidence in their new leader. "They hear coming through their loudspeakers this voice so filled with courage, with self confidence, with a sense of leadership," says historian William Leuchtenburg.

As the 1984 election approached, many voters voiced their concerned with Reagan's age. At 73, he was already the oldest President in history.

The spotlight did not appeal to Bess Truman. "She would return home to Independence as often as possible, leaving the President feeling very alone, often desolate," says historian David McCullough. "It's hard for some people to understand what she was like, and why the President was so devoted to her."

In 1992, President HW Bush seemed increasingly out of touch. His critics panned actions such as spending $28 on presents for his grandchildren and not understanding the technology of a grocery store checkout counter.

In 1981, Reagan aided the Polish workers movement and in Afghanistan backed factions fighting a Soviet invasion.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt was deeply shaken "knowing the navy was caught unawares."

The delegations of Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan met in Geneva in 1985. "The President, from the very start, started to speak in a kind of lecturing tone, as though I was a suspect, or maybe a student," says Gorbachev.

Nancy Reagan made things difficult at times with her stubbornness. Nancy's importance to her husband "goes with the turf when you're dealing with the Reagans," says advisor Stuart K. Spencer.

Franklin Roosevelt used the power of the federal government to relieve the suffering caused by the Great Depression.

After WWII, Truman watched most of Eastern Europe fall to the Communist "Iron Curtain." "I do not think we should play compromise any longer," Truman wrote.

Despite his firm stand against dealing with terrorists, in November 1986 Reagan admitted that arms had been shipped to Iran but denied that the arms were a trade for hostages.

President Truman interpreted the North Korean attack upon South Korea as direct aggression from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's support for the invasion, however, was limited and not driven by the Soviet leader Stalin. "What the United States got involved with in 1950 was not aggression from the Soviet Union," says historian Walter LaFeber, but "an incredibly bloody Civil War in Korea."

President Roosevelt did not tell Congress or the American people the truth behind the Greer incident that led to US involvement in World War II. "I am perfectly willing to mislead and tell untruths if it will help win the war," FDR told a friend.

President Roosevelt's attempt to reshape the Supreme Court landed short and drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. "It was a recognition on his part that he had lost some measure of power," says David Ginsburg, member of FDR's administration.