I first wrote about Joe Ligo’s idea of making an American Motors film in early 2020. Two years later he announced that he was retooling the project and would do a six-part series for the Public Broadcasting System. His goal was to produce a program that was compelling to a general audience rather than just car buffs.
This new strategy made a lot of sense. PBS was a good platform and it would presumably be more receptive to picking up the series if it had a broader potential audience. In addition, film may be a less appropriate medium for a detailed historical account of the rise and fall of American Motors than print media.
In ramping up production for the television series, Ligo brought on board Patrick Foster as a co-producer and writer along with Jimm Needle as another co-producer and “creative consultant” (that sounds fun).
Last week the first half-hour episode of The Last Independent Automaker was aired on PBS stations (2025). I think it lived up to Ligo’s stated goal — the episode was engaging enough that I could see it holding the attention of non-car buffs. It has a visually appealing presentation with a narrative that flows well — and even displays some dramatic tension.
Narrative aligns with Patrick Foster’s AMC books
The first episode primarily focuses on American Motors’ early years under the leadership of CEO George Romney — from 1954 through 1959.
Foster is both a writer and a major on-camera narrator. His script is fairly superficial and does not strike me as breaking any major new ground from his AMC books (e.g., 1993, 2013). Thus, if you’ve already read them, the main value of watching the first episode is arguably the interviews of employees (more on them in a moment) and archival footage of key figures such as Romney and his predecessor, George Mason.
Romney’s son Mitt is also interviewed. At least in this episode, that would appear to be more for his star power than insider’s knowledge. When his father became CEO of American Motors in 1954 he was only seven years old (Wikipedia, 2025).
If you mainly seek nostalgic entertainment, the episode has eye candy such as classic cars, ads and other artifacts from the 1950s. This can be an enjoyable way to spend a half hour even if you have little interest in American Motors.
Series covers diversity issues at inopportune moment
The heart of the series may be interviews with more than 35 former AMC employees, such as designers, engineers, assembly line workers, salespeople and two CEOs. Ligo recently stated that filming the interviews began way back in March 2017. He prioritized doing them first because key participants were getting up there in age — and some have passed away since they were filmed (Davis, 2025).
In watching the first episode I wished that it had been filmed in the early-1990s, when more people from the 1950s were still alive. This underlines the importance of funding oral history projects on an ongoing basis.
The first episode pays attention to a topic that is not often addressed in the auto history media, which is how women and minorities fared in the auto industry during the 1950s. Indeed, the first-person accounts of AMC employees may be the most important contribution the series makes to the historical record.
Also see ‘Patrick Foster’s George Romney bio is rose-tinted but valuable’
For example, Blacks escaped the segregation of the south to seek factory jobs in the north. However, Anthony Davis, the son of an American Motors factory worker, said that the only place many minorities worked was in the foundry, because it had some of the dirtiest jobs.
One irony is that the film’s discussion of diversity issues comes at a time with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress have attacked so-called “wokeism” in both the public and private sectors (Hutchinson, 2025). If this project had been proposed right now rather than three years ago, I wonder whether it would face pressure to remove the diversity angle.
Why focus so much attention on interviewing factory workers? “Very few of us have actually talked to someone who has built a car,” Ligo recently told MotorWeek. “This was a tough job” (Davis, 2025). He is clearly more focused on looking at AMC from a sociological perspective rather than merely admiring old cars.
Developing the series represented a meaningful risk
When Ligo (2025) announced that he was working on the series in 2022 he asked for donations via a GoFundMe account. The original goal was to raise $10,000 but as of this writing he has tallied $22,665.
Indie Auto would be on easy street if it raised that much money, but I suspect that it may not go very far in producing a television series, which is more technically complex and expensive than running a website. For example, Ligo had to find old film footage and take it to a specialist to get it restored. It could also be difficult to find specific types of cars for filming that were in original condition (Davis, 2025).
In other words, producing this series was a huge amount of work — with accompanying expenses. Trying to pull off such a big project would appear to have been risky, particularly when Ligo (2022) quit his day job to work on the project.
Judging from the comment thread on his GoFundMe page, Ligo’s (2025) project would appear to have generated considerable support from former AMC employees and those who have owned the automaker’s cars and trucks. For example, one donor wrote about how his family’s foundry built the casting for the automaker’s six-cylinder engine.
Will series spark more interest in auto documentaries?
The Last Independent Automaker does not appear to have generated much buzz thus far. The most prominent media mention I have come across is a piece by The Truth About Cars writer Corey Lewis (2025), who was given advanced access to the entire six-part series. His initial article functioned as more of a summary of the first three episodes rather than a review — although he complained about too much focus on labor and not enough on “the particulars of the lineup offered for each model year.”
That’s par for the course in the auto history media, where reviews rarely offer much analysis. Why? One factor is that the few media outlets which still run reviews are mostly written by volunteers or journalists with minimal training in this specific type of writing. In addition, the American auto history field tends to have a small-town vibe where robust criticism is mostly avoided.
Also see ‘Joe Ligo is overly kind in Nash/AMC Ambassador film’
At any rate, what Ligo’s project may most need at this point is publicity rather than critique, so hopefully more auto media outlets will give it some visibility. Or perhaps the series will take off organically. If it does well, that could plausibly make it easier for additional automotive documentaries to be produced.
Unfortunately, Ligo’s series is starting to run on PBS just as the network is trying to fight an executive order from President Trump that would cease federal funding. CBS News (2025) reported that the White House explained its action by arguing that PBS and National Public Radio “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'”
Is The Last Independent Automaker “radical, woke propaganda” just because it mentions that minorities got the dirty foundry jobs in the 1950s?
NOTES:
The Last Independent Automaker‘s website is here and a link to the PBS series here. New episodes of the six-part series will air weekly.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- CBS News; 2025. “Trump signs executive order cutting funding to PBS, NPR.” Updated on May 2.
- Davis, John; 2025. “Special Guest Joe Ligo Talks His Upcoming AMC Documentary, Plus New Navigator & 2025 Easter Jeep Safari.” MotorWeek Podcast # 352. Posted May 1.
- Foster, Patrick R.; 1993. American Motors: The Last Independent. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- ——; 2013. American Motors Corporation: The Rise and Fall of America’s Last Independent Automaker. MBI Publishing Co., Minneapolis, MN.
- Hutchinson, Bill; 2025. “Trump’s war on ‘woke’: Both sides say the issue is further dividing the country.” ABC News. Posted April 29.
- Lewis, Corey; 2025. “Early Access Review: The Last Independent Automaker, Covering Everything AMC.” The Truth About Cars. Posted May 1.
- Ligo, Joe; 2022. “Why I Quit my Job to Make a Documentary About American Motors Corporation.” The Autopian. Posted July 18.
- ——; 2025. “The Last Independent Automaker – a documentary.” Gofundme.com. Page accessed May 5.
- PBS; 2025. “The Last Independent Automaker.” Public Broadcasting System. Page accessed May 5.
- Wikipedia; 2025. “Mitt Romney.” Page last modified May 4.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Rambler Rebel (1958); Nash (1956)
I had a little bit of trouble watching the first installment. I did a search on my Dish Network and none of those PBS stations carried it. (I’m in the Los Angeles area.) I had to stream it from the PBS website and use Air Play to see it on my TV. I am not sure how often the new episodes come out. Weekly? I enjoyed it and if anything, the show went too quickly through a lot of information.
I agree about encouraging efforts to gather firsthand accounts on video while key people are still alive. I enjoy Adam Wade’s interviews on his You Tube channel. He just posted one with Dick Ruzzin.
I also had trouble finding the series. I could view the first episode from my computer once I set up an account on the PBS website. Subsequent episodes will apparently air weekly.
I agree that Adam Wade’s interviews are important. The problem is that a lone vlogger can’t do what’s really needed by him or herself and there doesn’t seem to be much current institutional support for oral histories. The most ambitious effort was apparently made by the Ford museum in the 1980s (go here). That initiative ended and no one else has stepped into the void.
I also wasn’t able to watch this series on my local PBS station (KERA – Dallas) or on the PBS site. Fortunately, the series will be available on YouTube (on the Auto Moments channel) starting on May 22nd…
What happens when you click on this link to the PBS.org website? On my screen it goes directly to The Last Independent Automaker. To get this I first had to create a free PBS account on the website.
That’s what I did and I just used Air Play to watch it on my TV. Episode 2 has not dropped yet.
I’ve been following progress from their Facebook page for the last year. Not yet seen any episodes. They will later be on YouTube for viewing.
With regards to auto history, the Fort Wayne , Indiana PBS affiliate aired a movie documentary on international Harvester and the trucks/SUVs and heavy semis that rolled off the assembly line in that particular town. It’s entitled Truck Town. Iowa’s PBS station aired a documentary called tractor wars detailing the early battle between IH, John Deere and Ford for supremacy in the agricultural realm. Further O/t the PBS station for the Dakotas produced a show on the Bobcat skid steer company. So there are some recent historical documents in the field that are attempting to expand the knowledge of the public.
No. Seeing the sad demise and consolidation of the “Hemmings” family of publications into one monthly magazine dominated by the classifieds, and the appeal by the editors to pass older magazines on to others to try to build the hobby and industry, I don’t think six non-P.B.S. (independently produced) half-hours will move the meter much. It’s like the WNIT-TV, South Bend, (also a P.B.S.-member station) produced program on Studebaker. I only found the program on YouTube. I worked in management for a joint N.P.R.-P.B.S. licensee in Indianapolis between 1998 and 2004. Independent TV productions rarely get wide distribution nationally. A history of A.M.C. 38-years after its demise is not important to most P.B.S. content managers nationally.
I miss the old Specialty Interest Auto which became Hemmings” Classic Car. There also used to be the Sports & Import magazine (forgot the exact title) but years ago they consolidated by including a few import articles within Classic Car. That dwindled down to maybe only one or two articles. Repeated letters to the editor didn’t effect any change. After decades of being a subscriber, I canceled my subscription last year.
After reading this article, I dialed up the first episode of the show using my Google browser and it popped right up off of the PBS website. Other than the obligatory PSA’s at the beginning and end, I found the show to be both entertaining and informative. However, many content-rich areas were glossed over, probably to fit a lot into its 28 minutes. Have we all become short attention span nitwits? My only criticism – I wanted a slower pace with more substantive content.
In my limited experience of producing videos, I was not able to include as much information as with “written” articles. In addition, video-making convention tends to further reduce the amount of content by such techniques as slowing down the narrative for dramatic effect. My guess is that the decision to make the series in six, 30-minute installments rather than six, one-hour installments was primarily based upon finances.
The other thing to keep in mind is that a series produced for a mass-market network such as PBS will inevitably have an audience that is much less knowledgeable about basic auto industry background than readers of a car blog — and may need more convincing as to why the subject is worth exploring. That can take up air time. In addition, my guess is that there may also be a need for more “eye candy” and narratives that add drama.
All in all, if one is trying to convey a maximum amount of historically substantive information, a PBS video may not be the way to go. However, it didn’t sound like that was the goal of the project.