The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a 2009 documentary film for television, DVD and companion book by director/producer Ken Burns and producer/writer Dayton Duncan which features the United States National Park system and traces the system's history. The series won two 2010 Emmy Awards for outstanding writing in episode 2 "The Last Refuge", and for outstanding non-fiction series. Peter Coyote is the narrator of all episodes, with first-person voices supplied by Adam Arkin, Philip Bosco, Kevin Conway, Andy García, Tom Hanks, John Lithgow, Josh Lucas, Carolyn McCormick, Campbell... Scott, George Takei, Eli Wallach and Sam Waterston. Some foreign releases of the series – notably Australia – have separated it into 12 hour-long episodes. 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 for the Arts at Dartmouth College on April 17, 2009. Episodes debuted daily, beginning Sunday September 27 to Friday October 2, with full episodes online the following day.
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| On the air: | September 27, 2009 |
| Writers: | Dayton Duncan |
| Producer: | Ken Burns |