History Series / OurAmericaWithLisaLing

* TheRez: "Life On The Rez", of course; the political variety is featured, specifically Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

The series went on for five seasons from 2011 until 2014. Afterward, Ling began a SpiritualSuccessor series for Creator/{{CNN}} called ''This Is Life''.

The series went on for five seasons from 2011 until 2014. Afterward, Ling began a SpiritualSuccessor series for Creator/{{CNN}} called ''This Is Life'',.

''Our America with Lisa Ling'' is a documentary series airing on {{OWN}} since the network's [[NetworkDecay rebranding]] from Discovery Health in 2011. Each episode sees Ling travel to one or more locations around the United States (usually more, and in at least one case outside the United States) to cover a specific topic. The hallmark of the show is the slow, methodical pacing given to every topic, and the considerable effort Lisa makes in making sure that everyone at least gets heard and is given a reasonable chance to present their particular vantage point, regardless of the reputation they might have coming in. Not necessarily ''agreed with'' at the end of the show, but ''heard''.

* ArrangedMarriage: The topic of 'Holy Matrimonies'.
* CrapsackWorld: With an episode title like 'The Lost American Dream', there's really not any getting around it. Not that Lisa doesn't try at one point.
* DownerEnding: At the end of 'Heroin in the Heartland', an episode about heroin addiction, we're told that one of the subjects died in the time between production and airing. This gets explored further in an update episode, where we catch up with her [[TearJerker distraught surviving husband.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The show was originally to be called 'Inside with Lisa Ling'. In several of the Season 1 episodes, there are traces of this as Lisa says towards the start of the episode, "Let's go inside". She hasn't said the phrase since, after the title 'Our America' was implemented.
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: In 'State of Sex Offenders'... well, really, the entire episode documents this trope as an overarching theme of an offender's post-sentence life, but in particular, one recently-released prisoner decided to go to the beach just to soak up the fact that he was out of prison. His ankle bracelet went off, because unbeknownst to both him and Lisa, the beach was not a place he was allowed to be. Nor was his parents' house, where he had also been. Lisa accompanied him to the police station to see what was up. He went in, she waited outside. He didn't come back out. Eventually Lisa went in to check on him, only to find he'd already been sent back to jail.
** Hit again in 'Labeled For Life'.
* GilliganCut: In 'Sparkle Babies', an episode about toddler beauty pageants, one apprehensive dad says he will not allow his daughter to get a fake spray tan in advance of a pageant. Cut to the spray tan being applied, supervised by the mom, and Lisa and the dad looking on.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Sister Margaret in 'Brides of Christ', an episode about nuns.

* OffTheRails: Happened with the episode 'Pray The Gay Away?'. Lisa started out wanting to profile a summer camp in Minnesota for gay teenagers. Somewhere along the line, the final aired product became mostly about the ex-gay community, which believes prayer can turn a gay person straight, complete with episode title focusing on the latter. The summer camp didn't show up until late in the episode. The non-ex-gay community, which was under the impression that they'd thoroughly discredited the ex-gays by now, flipped their lid. It took Lisa quite a bit of time and energy, including an extra hour after the original airing devoted to discussing the episode they'd just aired, to mostly-but-still-not-entirely smooth things over.
** A couple years later, the ex-gay ministry featured in the episode, Exodus International, shut down after a chain of events that began with the episode. ''That'' smoothed things over quite nicely.
* SafeSaneAndConsensual: The primary image of BDSM in 'Shades Of Kink'.
* TeenPregnancy: The topic of 'Teen Mom Nation'.
* {{Streetwalker}}: The subject of '3 AM Girls'. Though Lisa was adamant that they be considered straight-up [[SexSlave Sex Slaves]], and their pimps slave owners.
* TheRez: 'Life On The Rez', of course; the political variety is featured, specifically Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Somehow manages to pull this off while ''still being an active show producing new episodes.'' The cable deal they have is... not great. As in, good luck finding the episodes online. Or on DVD. Or on OWN, unless you're watching the original airing. Reruns are scarce, despite it being one of OWN's highest-rated shows. Lisa's not happy about it either.

-->-- '''[[{{LisaLing}} Lisa Ling]], opening narration'''

** Hit again in 'Labeled For Life'. And oh, why not, 'Incarceration Generation', concerning ex-prisoners in general.

* OffTheRails: Happened with the episode 'Pray The Gay Away?'. Lisa started out wanting to profile a summer camp in Minnesota for gay teenagers. Somewhere along the line, the final aired product became mostly about the ex-gay community, which believes prayer can turn a gay person straight, complete with episode title focusing on the latter. The summer camp didn't show up until late in the episode. The non-ex-gay community, which was under the impression that they'd thoroughly discredited the ex-gays by now, flipped their lid. It took Lisa quite a bit of time and energy, including an extra hour after the original airing devoted to discussing the episode they'd just aired, to mostly-but-still-not-entirely smooth things over

-->-- '''Opening narration'''

* UnacceptableTargets: Just about everybody (save the aforementioned pimps). Lisa is [[http://www.mediabistro.com/So-What-Do-You-Do-Lisa-Ling-Host-and-Executive-Producer-of-Our-America-a10730.html on record]] as saying she won't put hate groups on the show.

''Our America with Lisa Ling'' is a documentary series airing on {{OWN}} since the network's [[NetworkDecay rebranding]] from Discovery Health in 2011. Each episode sees Ling travel to one or more locations around the United States (usually more, and in at least one case outside the United States) to cover a specific topic.

* OffTheRails: Happened with the episode 'Pray The Gay Away?'. Lisa started out wanting to profile a summer camp in Minnesota for gay teenagers. Somewhere along the line, the final aired product became mostly about the ex-gay community, which believes prayer can turn a gay person straight, complete with episode title focusing on the latter. The summer camp didn't show up until late in the episode. The non-ex-gay community, which was under the impression that they'd thoroughly discredited the ex-gays by now, flipped their lid. It took Lisa quite a bit of time and energy, including an extra hour after the original airing devoted to discussing the episode they'd just aired, to mostly-but-still-not-entirely smooth things over.

* DownerEnding: At the end of the episode about heroin addiction, we're told that one of the subjects died in the time between production and airing. This gets explored further in an update episode, where we catch up with her [[TearJerker distraught surviving husband.]]

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: In the episode on sex offenders... well, really, the entire episode documents this trope as an overarching theme of an offender's post-sentence life, but in particular, one recently-released prisoner decided to go to the beach just to soak up the fact that he was out of prison. His ankle bracelet went off, because unbeknownst to both him and Lisa, the beach was not a place he was allowed to be. Nor was his parents' house, where he had also been. Lisa accompanied him to the police station to see what was up. He went in, she waited outside. He didn't come back out. Eventually Lisa went in to check on him, only to find he'd already been sent back to jail.

* {{Streetwalker}}: The subject of '3 AM Girls'. Though Lisa was adamant that they be considered straight-up [[SexSlave Sex Slaves]], and their pimps slave owners.

* Streetwalker: The subject of '3 AM Girls'. Though Lisa was adamant that they be considered straight-up [[SexSlave Sex Slaves]], and their pimps slave owners.

* OffTheRails: Happened with the episode 'Pray The Gay Away?'. Lisa started out wanting to profile a summer camp in Minnesota for gay teenagers. Somewhere along the line, the final aired product became mostly about the ex-gay community, which believes prayer can turn a gay person straight, complete with episode title focusing on the latter. The summer camp didn't show up until late in the episode. The non-ex-gay community, which was under the impression that they'd thoroughly discredited the ex-gays by now, flipped their lid. It took Lisa quite a bit of time and energy, including an extra hour after the original airing devoted to discussing the episode they'd just aired, to mostly-but-still-not-entirely smooth things over.

* GilliganCut: In 'Sparkle Babies', an episode about toddler beauty pageants, one apprehensive dad says he will not allow his daughter to get a fake spray tan in advance of a pageant. Cut to the spray tan being applied and Lisa and the dad looking on.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Somehow manages to pull this off while still being an active show producing new episodes. The cable deal they have is... not great. As in, good luck finding the episodes online. Or on DVD. Or on OWN, unless you're watching the original airing. Reruns are scarce, despite it being one of OWN's highest-rated shows. Lisa's not happy about it either.