As of July 2026, Frontline Season 1 aired in 1983 with 25 episodes — streaming now on PBS. Full episode guide and where to watch below.

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Frontline Season 1

1983 25 Episodes Documentary · News ⭐ 7/10

If you want a documentary that respects its subject, Frontline Season 1 is available on and right now. A compact run that never overstays its welcome. 57 people have weighed in on TMDB, and the verdict leans heavily positive. The storytelling serves the subject rather than the other way around. Put it on tonight and see for yourself.

Whatever else is competing for your attention this week, Frontline Season 1 is worth clearing space for. The access Frontline Season 1 gets is remarkable — and the storytelling does full justice to it. Jessica Savitch's first and only season as on-air host. She died in a car accident in October. Jessica Savitch and Will Lyman lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was aired in 1983. What elevates Frontline Season 1 above most documentary work is a refusal to settle for the easy version of the story. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Frontline Season 1 is the kind of documentary you immediately want to recommend to someone else. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Short enough to finish in a weekend, substantial enough to feel satisfying. Rigorous in a way documentary work does not always commit to. Not background viewing — it rewards your full attention.

📡 Where to Watch Frontline Season 1

🇺🇸 United States

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

PBS America Amazon Channel

🎬 Frontline Season 1 — Episode Guide

An Unauthorized History of the NFL

In its premiere broadcast, Frontline investigates the underbelly of the NFL--the secret connections between professional football and the world of sports gambling and organized crime.

88 Seconds in Greensboro

On the morning of November 3,1979, five civil rights demonstrators were killed by a group of Klan and Nazi Party members in Greensboro, North Carolina. Correspondent James Reston, Jr.,investigates the role of a police informant who was with the group when the attack was planned and when it was carri...

In the Shadow of the Capitol

Frontline correspondent Charles Cobb journeys to a Washington, DC that tourists rarely see. The nation's capital, seventy-five percent black, faces widespread poverty, yet it is run by some of the civil-rights movement's most effective and militant organizers, including Mayor Marion Barry.

A Chinese Affair

For thirty-four years, those who fled to Taiwan in the wake of the Communist victory have had only their memories and fantasies of mainland China. Now they want to know much more, and a political struggle is underway to determine how Taiwan will relate to the mainland.

In 1982,a man was discovered hanging from a bridge over the Thames River in London. He was Roberto Calvi, head of Italy's largest bank and chief advisor to the Vatican's bank. Reporter Jeremy Paxman investigates Calvi's links with the Vatican and with P-2, a secret Italian society, and questions whe...

Frontline investigates the power of the Pentagon as a business and economic force in the domestic economy. Politicians find themselves chasing Pentagon dollars for the jobs those dollars create in their districts; scientists and universities find themselves dependent on the military if they want to ...

Frontline looks beyond the cliches and stereotypes in the debate over gun control. Visiting prison inmates, victims of gun crime, and the sharpest minds on both sides, Frontline explores the underlying fears that make gun control such an emotional issue.

Children of Pride

Kojo Odo, a 42 year-old single black man, took in his first child a decade ago-a 7 year old boy with his arm missing. No one wanted the youngster. Each of Odo's 21 children came to him with a physical or mental handicap. Frontline looks at the daily life of this remarkable family and Odo's battle to...

A Journey to Russia

Before Gorbachev and glasnost, three young Americans journey to the Soviet Union on a whirlwind two-week, six-city debating tour. They encounter young, articulate Russians whose world view is completely contradictory to their own.

Daisy - Story of a Facelift

Daisy is 55 and terrified of growing old. She feels she needs a facelift. From the moment of her decision, Frontline follows her through all the procedures, but the heart of the story is an exploration of values, character, cosmetics, and the business of plastic surgery.

Space - The Race for High Ground

Before President Reagan introduced Star Wars, Frontline examined how in the previous 25 years the US and the Soviet Union had gone from designing satellites to designing weapons to blast them out of the sky. The superpowers were converting space from an arena for communications, to a concept of spac...

Abortion Clinic

For the first time on American television, Frontline's cameras record the most intimate details and one of the most personal decisions a woman can make. By focusing not only on the clinic, but also on a right-to-life doctor who pickets the clinic every Saturday, the film becomes a revealing study of...

Crisis in Zimbabwe

Rhodesia, a symbol of white racism, has become Zimbabwe and white minority rule has given way to black majority rule. However, the end of the guerilla war may not mean an end to fighting. Correspondent Charlie Cobb finds a rift between the nation's two black leaders that threatens to split the count...

Frontline investigates the frightening aftermath of one of the worst air disasters in U.S. history-the June 9, 1982 crash of Pan Am flight 759 at the New Orleans airport. The report discovers how human greed and legal machinations over hundreds of millions of dollars bring new horror to survivors an...

Looking for Mao

Only seven years after Mao's death, it is clear that China is undergoing another revolution. This is a revolution of political and social relaxation. Frontline explores what has been retained and what has been rejected from the days of the Cultural Revolution.

Israel: Between the River and the Sea

For eight years, Rafik Halabi covered the West Bank and Gaza strip-the only Arab reporter working in the Hebrew section of Israeli Television. This is Rafik's story-a story in which his identity and loyalty became a national controversy.

Frank Kaler's story begins simply enough when he requests a water test. Why? Because his children develop skin lesions after bathing in it. Frontline chronicles Kaler's six-year battle with local and federal officials over the chemical pollution of his drinking water.

Vietnam Memorial

Frontline tells the story of five days in the fall of 1982 when more than 150,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. for the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial. Parents, friends, and survivors came to the emotion-filled event reflecting the pain and conflict many still feel about that war.

For the Good of All

When a national recreation site between Cleveland and Akron was first mandated by Congress in 1974, everyone applauded the project. But Frontline found that park policies of condemning hundreds of businesses and homes soon generated intense local opposition as well as charges that the homes of polit...

The Russians are Here

🎭 Cast of Frontline Season 1

Jessica Savitch

Jessica Savitch

Will Lyman

Self - Narrator (voice)

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