National Parks

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a 2009 documentary film for television, DVD and companion book (ISBN 978-0307268969) by director/producer Ken Burns and producer/writer Dayton Duncan which features the United States National Park system and traces the system's history. It began to air September 27, 2009. The film was previewed in a

seven-minute segment at the end of the fourth episode of Burns's 2007 PBS documentary, The War. The first two-hour segment premiered at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College on April 17, 2009. Peter Coyote is the narrator of all episodes, with first-person voices supplied by Adam Arkin, Philip Bosco, Kevin Conway, Andy Garcia, Tom Hanks, John Lithgow, Josh Lucas, Carolyn McCormick, Campbell Scott, George Takei, Eli Wallach and Sam Waterston. Episodes debuted daily, beginning Sunday September 27 to Friday October 2, with full episodes online the following day. Funding for the documentary came from WETA and foundations: plus corporations such as General Motors and Bank of America.