The HISTORY Channel’s The Mega-Brands That Built America is all about the companies and people who shook up our country—so it’s fitting that the show itself is setting a high standard for documentary TV. With Season 3 featuring some of the biggest stories yet, executive producer and contributor Peyton Manning joined TVBrittanyF.com to talk about the series’ relevance and how it makes important subjects equally entertaining.

People know Peyton as a Super Bowl champion and one of the greatest NFL players of all time, but what they may not know is his affinity for history. “When you asked me in middle school, high school what my favorite subject was, I feel like I was probably always saying history,” he explained. “Whether it was history growing up in New Orleans and New Orleans history. And then, because my dad played in the NFL, I had a real appreciation for the history of football. That’s why I really enjoy being a part of this show and other things we’ve done with the HISTORY Channel and A&E—because I need to learn something.

“I make my kids watch this show because especially this season, all of the brands that we’re talking about are products and things that we use every day, and so might as well learn a little bit about the history of it,” he added. “So it’s always been interesting to me.”

The Mega-Brands That Built America Season 3 has covered some of the largest and most influential companies in America history, with episodes devoted to the rise of Target, Walmart, Amazon and eBay—to name just a few. It alternates between scripted segments narrated by House of Cards actor Campbell Scott and discussions with various relevant personalities, including Peyton himself and his brother, fellow Super Bowl champion Eli Manning. That may not come as a surprise to folks who are used to seeing the Manning brothers in front of a camera with all the work they do for ESPN, but it wasn’t planned that way. Peyton sees himself as a piece of the team that makes The Mega-Brands That Built America work, not the star of the show.

“We try to get different talking heads to weigh in, obviously some that are experts,” Peyton reflected. “Eli was on there talking about the Internet… You try to have some different people on there, saying something about [the subjects].

“I was asked a lot of questions, kind of in an interview almost, about all these different brands and some that I knew more than others,” he recalled, pointing toward the Season 3 premiere about the rise of the smartphone as one example. “The iPhone, I held out as long as I could, until 2012. I was a free agent. I was getting emails and attachments from NFL teams that I needed to read and learn. But I had a flip phone; I couldn’t download it. so I finally sold out and switched to an iPhone. I think had I not become a free agent, I never would have switched to the iPhone. So I can weigh in on that a little bit.

“But we have Bill Rancic, Adam Richman, the other real experts in each arena talking about the history of the brands. I don’t think anybody wants to get lectured to the whole time—so we can learn a little history and have a little fun along the way. That’s a good thing.”

And that’s the reason that The Mega-Brands That Built America stands out among other documentary TV shows, adding to HISTORY’s impressive catalog that also includes The Men Who Built America and The Engineering That Built The World. The program finds the human stories that are underneath these corporate brands, putting faces and emotions to what audiences primarily know as faceless logos. And the people recruited to talk about them are doing so in relatable terms, pointing out why viewers should care to know these stories.

“To me, it’s about all the hard work that went into place to get these companies to where they are. That’s in Omaha [Productions] what we talk about—celebrating hard work. Championing hard work. And that’s what we’re doing,” Peyton said. “We’re celebrating the hard work of all the people behind the scenes at these huge brands that have literally built America. The episode coming up this Sunday [June 22] is called ‘Hardware Warfare.’ It’s Lowe’s versus Home Depot, and it’s a great rivalry between these two companies. For the past 100 years, they’ve been innovating, they’ve taken risks, all trying to be the number one hardware store in America.

“I’m not featured a lot in this particular episode because I’m just not very handy when it goes to hardware,” he added with a laugh. “Get me on Kodak versus Polaroid, I’m a little more safe because I’m kind of a photo taker and a scrapbooker, but I’ll stay in my lane.”

His lane also includes finding ways to entertain the viewing public. Audiences are well aware of how much fun Peyton and Eli have on their Monday Night Football simulcasts, known as the “Manningcast.” Peyton brings that same approach to The Mega-Brands That Built America, where it’s critically important. TV shows about history have a deserved reputation for being dry and predictable, with talking heads recounting facts and explaining context, but not necessarily engaging the audience directly. They also tend to have a very serious tone. But in this show, viewers are given information on a one-to-one level, and they’re encouraged to feel the emotions of what’s going on in each episode instead of just passively processing it.

“That’s the balance that we’re looking for,” Peyton explained. “We want it to be something they can say, ‘Boy, I had no idea.’ I did not realize that that was true about Home Depot or Lowe’s. But we love to laugh a little bit as well. And I think when you see the people being interviewed laughing or telling a story, whether it’s me about being sort of a dinosaur for having a flip phone, or Eli talking about what a 14-year-old could do with the Internet, to me, that gives it a good balance.”

He credited his football experience with informing the work he does on The Mega-Brands That Built America and other projects—but said he’s also learned from exploring these groundbreaking stories as well. “A lot of things I’ve learned from playing football helped me in this second chapter,” he reflected. “There’s a lot of things that I’m involved with, but I’m not super-knowledgeable of, and so I have good coworkers around me to help teach me. On a football team, if you’re struggling with something, you’ve got teammates to pick you up.

“But I think hard work is so evident in all of these brands, and the making of these brands and how successful they’ve been. Hard work is the theme in all of them. And so if there’s one thing that I’ve learned from watching Mega-Brands Season 3, it’s just a reminder that you’ve got to work hard in whatever it is that you’re doing.”

The Mega-Brands That Built America airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HISTORY. Episodes from all three seasons are also streaming on the HISTORY app, history.com and on demand. Photo Credit: A&E Television Networks/Lucky8, courtesy of the HISTORY Channel.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.