President Theodore Roosevelt’s life and impact will be explored in a two-part documentary series set to premiere on Memorial Day, History revealed during its Television Critics Association Winter Tour session on Wednesday.
The five-hour series, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Doris Kearns Goodwin, will premiere on May 30 on two consecutive evenings. The miniseries will explore the breadth and depth of one of history’s most fascinating men—a cowboy, soldier, statesman, conservationist, adventurer, reformer, and author who suffered profound personal loss and became the youngest president of the United States at the age of 42, according to History.
According to Eli Lehrer, Executive Vice President and Head of Programming for The History Channel, “History has cemented itself as the premier destination for presidential documentary content that tells the definitive yet complex stories of their most influential leaders – Washington, Grant, Lincoln, and now their fourth installment – Theodore Roosevelt.”
Teddy Roosevelt was a fascinating man full of contrasts, and we’re thrilled to work with Doris and Leo, two modern-day leaders in their own right, to bring this President’s larger-than-life narrative to their audience.
The news follows the network’s upcoming three-night documentary series Abraham Lincoln, which premieres on February 20.
Is Theodore Roosevelt based on true events?
Roosevelt was the second of four children born into a wealthy, slave-owning plantation family of Dutch and English descent. His father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., was a notable businessman and philanthropist, and his mother, Martha Bulloch of Georgia, was from a wealthy, slave-owning plantation family. Roosevelt was schooled by private tutors as a child due to his fragile health. He had a deep, wide-ranging intellectual curiosity since he was a child. In 1880, he received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
He then attended Columbia Law School for a short time before deciding to pursue a career in writing and politics. He married Alice Hathaway Lee in 1880 and had one daughter with her, Alice. After his first wife died, he married Edith Kermit Carow (Edith Roosevelt) in 1886 and resided with her at Sagamore Hill, an estate near Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, for the rest of his life. Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin were their five children.
Theodore Roosevelt is a two-part series with two-hour segments about Roosevelt, often regarded as the first modern US President. It will examine the 26th President’s personal story, as well as his work as a progressive reformer and his contradictions, such as being a passionate conservationist who also hunted; a friend and supporter of the common man who also worked closely with Wall Street, and robber barons; and a scion of an elite family who yearned to be a cowboy. It will also have expert interviews and live-action sequences, as well as live-action scripted moments.
RadicalMedia produces the two-part series, with Jon Kamen and Dave Sirulnick serving as executive producers alongside Goodwin and Laski for Pastimes. Appian Way is executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson. The showrunner is Knute Walker. History’s executive producers are Lehrer, Donahue, and Wagman.
A sequel to The Men Who Built America is also being developed by DiCaprio and Appian Way. The Men Who Built America 2 (w/t) looks at how a new era of robber barons emerged from the Great Depression to reinvent autos and create monuments and skyscrapers.
The next presidential miniseries on the History Channel, centered on Theodore Roosevelt, will premiere on Memorial Day. On May 30 and 31, the five-hour series will air across two nights.
Theodore Roosevelt is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s New York Times bestseller Leadership: In Turbulent Times, and will provide a portrait of the 26th President of the United States, who served from 1901 to 1909 after William McKinley’s assassination.
Roosevelt’s life and career will be examined, including his roles as a cowboy, soldier, statesman, environmentalist, adventurer, reformer, and author, as well as his election as the youngest president of the United States at the age of 42.
H.W. Brands, Col. USMC Ret. Doug Douds, Kathleen Dalton, Douglas Brinkley, Megan Kate Nelson, Leroy G. Dorsey, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Clay Jenkinson, Roosevelt’s great-grandson Tweed Roosevelt, and others are among the historians and authors featured in the series. Roosevelt will be played by Rufus Jones in the series.
Goodwin, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way Productions are executive producers on Theodore Roosevelt. RadicalMedia is producing it for History, with executive producers Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick, and Zara Duffy. Pastime Productions’ executive producers are Goodwin and Beth Laski. The series was directed by Malcolm Venville, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Knute Walker. The History Channel’s executive producers are Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue, and Jennifer Wagman.
Working with The History Channel has been an ongoing source of pride because they are unified in their goal to convey significant stories of presidential history and leadership to audiences across the world, stated Goodwin.
The two-night History Channel series “Theodore Roosevelt” will focus on the president who called Long Island home.
The five-hour documentary airing May 30 and 31 is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” which chronicles the cowboy, soldier, conservationist, adventurer, author, and U.S. vice president who became America’s youngest chief executive when President William McKinley was assassinated at the age of 42 in 1901. Executive producers include Goodwin and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Roosevelt bought land in adjacent Cove Neck and moved into his newly built house, Sagamore Hill, in 1885, after spending summers there as a boy. He lived there until his death in 1919. On July 25, 1962, the mansion at 12 Sagamore Hill Rd., which served as his “summer White House” while he was president, was designated as a National Historic Site.
The previous miniseries on presidents of the United States have focused on George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and, most recently, Abraham Lincoln.