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Theodore Roosevelt, a five-hour two-part documentary event, will be The History Channel’s fourth presidential miniseries, the network said Wednesday.
Theodore Roosevelt, about the life of America’s 26th president, is executive produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author Doris Kearns Goodwin, Appian Way’s Jennifer Davisson and Leonardo DiCaprio, and RadicalMedia. It will air on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30 and Tuesday, May 31, starting at 8 p.m. ET both evenings. It’s based on Goodwin’s best-seller, “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” and it follows History’s Presidents Day weekend airing of three-part presidential miniseries Abraham Lincoln, which also comes from Goodwin and RadicalMedia. History also has aired original documentaries on Presidents George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant.
“Working with The History Channel has proved an ongoing source of pride as we are united in our commitment to tell meaningful stories of presidential history and leadership for audiences across the globe,” said Goodwin in a statement. “Bringing the fiery and fair-minded Theodore Roosevelt to life has been a particular `dee-light’, as it’s been to work with partners Appian Way and RadicalMedia, to show how Teddy sought to create a sense of common purpose among all people, using his leadership not simply to stoke his base and solidify faction, but rather, to find common ground in order to knit classes and regions of people together.”
“History has cemented itself as the premier destination for presidential documentary content that tells the definitive yet complex stories of our most influential leaders – Washington, Grant, Lincoln and now our fourth installment – Theodore Roosevelt,” said Eli Lehrer, executive vice president and head of programming for The History Channel, also in a statement. “Teddy was a fascinating man of many contradictions and we are proud to partner again with modern-day leaders in their own right—Doris and Leo—to bring this President’s larger-than-life story to our audience.”
Theodore Roosevelt left a mythology of being a larger-than-life man who rose early, read a book a day, ate 12 hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and would have rather been a Rough Rider than a president. In fact, he began life as a fragile child, encouraged by his father to toughen up, before becoming the youngest president to date at 42. At one point, he completed an 84-minute speech even though he was bleeding from the chest after being shot in a failed assassination attempt.
The documentary features such historians and authors as Goodwin, Dr. H.W. Brands, Col. USMC Ret. Doug Douds, Dr. Kathleen Dalton, Dr. Douglas Brinkley, Dr. Megan Kate Nelson, Dr. Leroy G. Dorsey, Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Clay Jenkinson, Roosevelt’s great-grandsonTweed Roosevelt and more. Rufus Jones (Camping, Hunderby) portrays Theodore Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt is produced for History by RadicalMedia. Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick and Zara Duffy serve as executive producers for RadicalMedia. Goodwin and Beth Laski serve as executive producers for Pastimes Productions. DiCaprio and Davisson serve as executive producers for Appian Way Productions. Malcolm Venville serves as director and executive producer with Knute Walker also serving as executive producer. Eli Lehrer, Mary E. Donahue and Jennifer Wagman are executive producers for History.