10 TV Shows That Rewrote American History

The what-if scenario is always an interesting one. It allows creators to explore some historical roads not taken while still telling something about this world and society. Technology, politics, and history might be different, but people still love, hate, and fight for what they believe in. Usually, those stories show a different reality as a way to reflect on the real one, and what might be happening, good or bad (usually bad), in society. Other times, it’s just a fun way to imagine how things would be if magic, time travel, or superheroes were a real thing.

Many movies use the alternative history formula, like Inglourious Basterds or Forrest Gump, and shows like 1983 and Pennyworth. The TV series on this list are all about alternate stories that rewrite American history. The assassination of President Kennedy, the Cold War, and the Nazis winning World War II are some of the what-if scenarios of those shows. Which stories happen in these new realities? Let’s find out.

10 Hunters (2020-2023)

Read Our Season 2 Review

The first season of Hunters tells the story of Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino in his first small-screen role) and the team he recruits to kill Nazis that escaped from Germany. Those men did heinous things during the War and live carefree lives in the United States with new identities while trying to create a Fourth Reich. Not on the Hunters’ watch. That is not really a rewrite of history per se. What changes things is the fact that in the season one finale, it’s revealed (big SPOILER coming) that Adolf Hitler is not dead, and he’s living in Argentina with Eva Brown.

The Twist Makes Season Two a Roller Coaster of Emotions

The second season deals with that surprising twist as the Hunters try to find Hitler, even if it might be a suicide mission for some of the team members. The rumor that Hitler is still alive creates some new American allies for the Nazis, showing how some will do anything for power. Fear, revenge, and fury are some of the feelings those who survived the camps feel at the news that Hitler is alive. The season deals with what they do with that knowledge.

Stream on Prime Video

9 The Umbrella Academy (2019-Present)

The Umbrella Academy is a sci-fi TV show about six siblings, each with powers, and how their lives have changed since the death of their adopted father, Reginald Hargreeves. In season two, the whole team travels back to Dallas, days before the assassination of President Kennedy, and they change many of the things that happened that sad day.

Rewriting American History One Sibling Mess at a Time

As this is a crazy sci-fi show, there’s much more to each character than trying to save President Kennedy. All their efforts create much bigger and catastrophic consequences, rewriting American history one sibling mess at a time. Thankfully, they can go back time and time again to keep trying. In trying to save the President, The Umbrella Academy siblings understand some of their greatest flaws and start improving individually and as a team.

Stream on Netflix

Related: Umbrella Academy Characters Ranked by Most Powerful

8 Motherland: Fort Salem (2020-2022)

What if the Salem Witch Trials hadn’t happened and witchcraft had become an acceptable thing? How would the world work now? That’s the idea behind Motherland: Fort Salem, where witches are in charge of the military, creating a matriarchal society where women lead America.

Amazing World Building in a Matriarchal America

The idea that witchcraft was real and that, by changing what happened at the Salem Witch Trials, the whole history of America would be very different is an interesting one. The creators know it, and their world-building is amazing, as many things are different in this version of America. In particular, the history of what happened in the last 300-plus years is impressive. The military created computers and cell phones, so those don’t exist here, and the Native Americans have kept more of their land after helping the witches. If the world-building wasn’t enough, there are also many exciting magic battles.

Buy on Apple TV

7 11.22.63 (2016)

One of the best adaptations from a Stephen King book, 11.22.63 tells the story of Jake Epping (James Franco), who travels back in time to 1960 with the idea of preventing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The problem is that during his three years there, Jake finds a life that changes his priorities, while time itself tries to kill him.

The Butterfly Effect Makes Things Worse

This story answers the question of what would happen if one went to the past and tried to change one historical event in a different way, as time itself is a villain trying to erase him. Everything Jake does ends up changing things for the worse, especially with both Harvey Lee Oswald and the President himself. That’s the problem with the butterfly effect. Falling in love and trying to avoid an assassination shouldn’t be opposing ideas, but in this show, having it all might not be in the cards, creating a big dilemma for the protagonist.

Stream on Hulu

6 Hollywood (2020)

From the mind of renowned creator Ryan Murphy, Hollywood is a new look at the town of dreams in the late 1940s and early ’50s. Through the actions of its lead characters, Hollywood leans away from racism, homophobia, and misogyny. Without those barriers, Black, queer actors and women become movie stars in the studio system. How would that change the films made back then?

A Fascinating Portrait of a Different Hollywood

Giving talented people their chance, whatever their race or sexual orientation, is what Hollywood is getting into. It creates a fascinating portrait of a different studio system where anyone with talent could become a star. At least, that’s the idea the show leaves audiences with, as the characters try to finance, produce, and star in a movie that will change how the rest of the town and the world see them.

Stream on Netflix

Related: Every Ryan Murphy TV Show, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

5 The Plot Against America (2020)

An adaptation from Philip Roth’s book of the same name, The Plot Against America rewrites history when it establishes that Charles Lindbergh (a rumored Nazi sympathizer) wins the Presidency against Franklin D. Roosevelt. With the ex-pilot as the leader, America becomes an antisemitic country where being a Jew is as dangerous as it would be in Nazi Germany.

This Alternative History Shares Many Traits with the Real One

This TV series shows how scary an America where antisemitism and xenophobia are not only allowed but encouraged would be, creating a much worse country in the process. Led by a populist who nobody thinks can win the Presidency, who makes peace with a maligned country, he also creates a program where minorities are sent to farms to make them “more American.”

Those are just some examples of this alternative history. One where the story shares some aspects with our real moment in time, making it much more poignant and scary. The show is also one of the best limited series on Max you can watch right now.

Stream on Max

4 Timeless (2016-2018)

Timeless starts when an ex-NSA agent steals a time-traveling machine and goes to the past. He wants to change it for the worse to give himself and those he works for more power, so the good guys must recruit a team to avoid those changes happening. That’s how a history professor (Abigail Spencer), a soldier (Matt Lanter), and one of the engineers who created the time machine (Malcolm Barrett) become a team traveling through time.

Rewriting American History for the Better

Although the mission is to stop changing history, some of the episodes and missions end up rewriting American history, especially for the better. Actress Hedy Lamarr patents her radio-guiding torpedo system, and everyone who was going to travel in The Hindenburg is saved. With an easy episodic story and great chemistry between its three leads, if you’re a story enthusiast and love alternative history, this show might be perfect for you. This is also one of the best time-travel TV series of all time.

Stream on Hulu

3 The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019)

What if the Americans had lost World War II, and now the country was occupied by both the Japanese and Nazi Germany? That’s the idea behind Philip K. Dick’s book The Man in the High Castle and its adaptation as a TV series. The show starts in 1962, almost 20 years after the occupation, when a selected few discover newsreels showing that Germany and Japan lost the war. Trying to understand what they’ve just seen, they start a conspiracy to discover how and where that happened. They also look for the Man in the High Castle. Rumor has it he’s the one who created the footage.

Incredible World Building in a Divided America

The show has incredible world-building, showing what being conquered by the Nazis and Japanese in the ’40s would’ve felt like, changing history, people, and culture in the United States. What do queer and Black people do? And those with disabilities in a society that only wants perfect, pure specimens? Why is there a robust Nazi space program but no TV? Those are some of the ideas that make this story so well-thought-out and interesting. As with any K. Dick story, there are also some sci-fi shenanigans about alternate realities involved, but its strength is in the rewriting of American history.

Stream on Prime Video

2 Watchmen (2019)

The Watchmen TV series is a follow-up to the comics and Zack Snyder’s film. The show deconstructs the superhero genre by following Tulsa police detective Angela Abar (Regina King) as she investigates a white nationalist group called the Seventh Kavalry. Abar moonlights as a vigilante named Sister Night. Her journey will mix her up with some of the superhero vigilantes the audience knows from the earlier adaptation, like Dr. Manhattan and Adrian Veidt (a very funny Jeremy Irons).

Vigilantes and Monsters From Another Dimension Rewrite History

In this alternative version of the world, the Americans and the Soviets stopped World War Three after a strange monster from another dimension arrived and destroyed New York. Steven Spielberg even made a movie about that tragedy in this reality. If that wasn’t enough, Vietnam became the 51st state after Doctor Manhattan helped the military win the war there. Those are just a couple of details about how history changed in the show; one where double identities and a look at Black history are as important as who is under every vigilante’s hood.

Stream on Max

1 For All Mankind (2019-Present)

Soviet astronaut Alexei Leonov is the first man on the moon. That’s how For All Mankind starts. That what-if scenario makes the space race between Americans and Soviets a focal point in history, changing both countries and the world. A longer Cold War, female astronauts, and new technologies are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s different.

One Small Historical Change, One Giant Leap For All Mankind

The show rewrites America’s and NASA’s history. Female astronauts advance the Women’s Rights Movement sooner, John Lennon is alive, and gasoline stops being such an important material. More importantly, with much more interest and money in space exploration, the moon is just the first step on humanity’s way to the rest of the universe, as every season moves a decade into the future and the shows’ history and the real one become more and more different. Those are some of the many reasons why it’s the perfect show for space enthusiasts.

Stream on Apple TV+