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Frontline

PBS Documentary 5.0/5 · 6 votes

What it is

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change..

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The Crown Prince & the President

s2026e10 · 2026-07-01

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Episode guide

16 this season · 1634 total
s18e01 The Case for Innocence 2000-01-12 03:00

The Case for Innocence

s18e01 · 2000-01-12 · 03:00

Fifteen years ago, DNA analysis was nonexistent. Today, more than seventy inmates accused of rape and murder have been freed because DNA tests proved their innocence in a way that evidence, courtroom testimony, and eyewitness accounts never could. Why then are prosecutors, courts, and even governors reluctant to use this scientific test? And when evidence has been tested and DNA does not match that of the accused, how can the law overlook the results? FRONTLINE investigates the reasons why inmates remain in prison despite DNA evidence that excludes them as the perpetrators.

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s18e02 The Killer at Thurston High 2000-01-19 03:00

The Killer at Thurston High

s18e02 · 2000-01-19 · 03:00

In May 1998, a year before the massacre at Columbine High, fifteen-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his mother and father, and then opened fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing two fellow students and wounding twenty-five others. In this first in-depth television examination of a school shooter, FRONTLINE reveals the intimate inside story of how the "shy and likable" Kip Kinkel from a solid middle-class family became the boy police call "a cold-hearted killer."

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s18e03 The Survival of Saddam 2000-01-26 03:00

The Survival of Saddam

s18e03 · 2000-01-26 · 03:00

When the Gulf War ended, the United States government believed the Iraqis would quickly overthrow Saddam Hussein. But nine years later, he still rules Iraq. FRONTLINE investigates Saddam's ruthless rise to power and how he has maintained his grip despite pressure from economic sanctions, no-fly zones, UN weapons inspectors, and military attacks from the Iraqi opposition.

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s18e04 Assault on Gay America 2000-02-16 03:00

Assault on Gay America

s18e04 · 2000-02-16 · 03:00

On February 19, 1999, in Sylacauga, Alabama, 39-year-old computer programmer Billy Jack Gaither was murdered - the victim of a violent hate crime. One of the convicted killers testified he killed Gaither because he was "queer." Why have gays like Gaither and Matthew Shepard become the targets of such brutality? On February 15, nearly one year after the Gaither murder, FRONTLINE correspondent Forrest Sawyer explores the roots of homophobia in America-as a catalyst for hate crimes and as a phenomenon that permeates our society-and asks how these attitudes, beliefs, and fears contribute to the recent rise in violence against gays.

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s18e05 War in Europe 2000-02-23 03:00

War in Europe

s18e05 · 2000-02-23 · 03:00

A two-part review of the 1999 campaign against Serbia explores why “we nearly stumbled badly,” says senior producer Michael Kirk. Part 1 covers the events leading to the bombing (particularly Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's “drive to make that happen,” says Kirk) and the first three days of the air war. Albright is interviewed, as is National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former senator Robert Dole and Hashim Thaci of the Kosovo Liberation Army. A two-part review of the 1999 campaign against Serbia concludes by examining shortcomings of the air war and the political infighting that surrounded the initial combat (or, as senior producer Michael Kirk puts it: “The air war hasn't worked. Now what?”). Included: Gen. Michael Short (USAF), the commander of NATO air operations, describes disputes within NATO leadership. Also interviewed: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Gen. Wesley Clark (USA), the Supreme Allied Commander; and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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s18e06 Dr Solomon's Dilemma 2000-04-05 02:00

Dr Solomon's Dilemma

s18e06 · 2000-04-05 · 02:00

Internist Martin Solomon and other physicians at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital are followed as they weigh cost vs. care, patient by patient. The reason: their physician-run health-care network lost $100-million in 1999, and the pressures for “operational discipline” (as the network's CEO puts it) are relentless. Many patients know what's going on, and that development, says correspondent Hedrick Smith, “is eroding the precious bond of trust between doctors and patients.”

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s18e07 What's Up With the Weather? 2000-04-19 02:00

What's Up With the Weather?

s18e07 · 2000-04-19 · 02:00

Since the late 1980s, rising temperatures and dramatic weather-from heat waves and hurricanes to melting glaciers-have fueled a global political and scientific debate about whether life on earth is imperiled by human-caused global warming. NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to examine what climatologists really know about the greenhouse effect. What is the connection between rising levels of carbon dioxide and rising temperatures? And what will the real impact of global warming be? The program examines the enormous difficulty in reducing the levels of greenhouse gases in a highly technological world economy and explores the political struggle between environmentalists and industrialists, between rich and poor countries, to grapple with what promises to be the most perplexing issue of the twenty-first century.

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s18e08 Jefferson's Blood 2000-05-03 02:00

Jefferson's Blood

s18e08 · 2000-05-03 · 02:00

Correspondent Shelby Steele explores how Thomas Jefferson might have tried to reconcile his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Also: how Hemings' descendants live with their legacy. Uneasily---with each other and society at large---a number of them say. As for Jefferson: “He was circled by the terms of America's racial primitivism,” Steele says. “And this man of the Enlightenment must have known himself as primitive.”

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s18e09 Return of the Czar 2000-05-10 02:00

Return of the Czar

s18e09 · 2000-05-10 · 02:00

An examination of the precarious state Russia finds itself in as Vladimir Putin steps into its presidency. It is “a country in collapse,” says producer Sherry Jones, pointing to endemic corruption, increasing autocracy, widespread poverty and a host of social problems. Jones interviews Russians and looks at how the U.S. government reacted to Russia's fall. She also assesses Putin. “After Communism,” she says, “Russia has returned to czarism.”

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s18e10 The Battle Over School Choice 2000-05-24 02:00

The Battle Over School Choice

s18e10 · 2000-05-24 · 02:00

The state of education in the U.S.---and its role as an issue in the 2000 Presidential race---is explored in “The Battle Over School Choice.” Al Gore and George W. Bush are interviewed during the hour, which also visits the schools their children attend (a public high school for Bush's twin daughters; a private school for Gore's son), as well as a Washington, D.C., public high school located near Gore's home. Also: a visit with a “voucher family” in Cleveland; and interviews with former New York City school chancellor Rudy Crew and former Assistant Secretary of Education Chester Finn.

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s18e11 The Choice 2000 2000-10-03 02:00

The Choice 2000

s18e11 · 2000-10-03 · 02:00

Parallel portraits of Presidential rivals George W. Bush and Al Gore are presented. Producer Michael Kirk and correspondent Peter Boyer probe their backgrounds and explore their personalities in interviews with some 70 people (including the candidates' wives), all of whom have known the two men and none of whom are pundits. Accordingly, Kirk says, “we're not wrestling with a lot of policy; we're wrestling with who they are.”

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s18e12 Drug Wars (1) 2000-10-10 02:00

Drug Wars (1)

s18e12 · 2000-10-10 · 02:00

Veteran reporter-producer Lowell Bergman charts the U.S. Government's largely futile efforts to stem drug trafficking in this panoramic two-part report. Bergman enlists both drug “warriors” (retired U.S. agents) and former traffickers to tell this sad 30-year saga. As Part 1 begins, the Nixon Administration is focusing its antidrug efforts on treatment. The strategy didn't last, and Bergman believes that it's too bad it didn't. As he puts it: “People involved in the drug business say, 'hey, this is a business. If there is no great demand, we wouldn't be supplying it'.”

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s18e13 Drug Wars (2) 2000-10-11 02:00

Drug Wars (2)

s18e13 · 2000-10-11 · 02:00

The conclusion of “Drug Wars” focuses on the increase in smuggling through Mexico and the introduction of crack cocaine into U.S. cities, both in the 1980s. The smuggling led to an increase in corruption in Mexico, while the crack epidemic led to the passage of laws mandating draconian sentences for drug violators, filling U.S. prisons. Also examined: allegations that Nicaragua's Sandinista government and Contra rebels were involved in trafficking. Interviewed: former National Security adviser Oliver North; U.S. drug “czar” Barry McCaffrey; former DEA chief Jack Lawn. Lowell Bergman reports.

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s18e14 The Future of War 2000-10-25 02:00

The Future of War

s18e14 · 2000-10-25 · 02:00

“The Future of War” examines efforts by Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, to streamline his service to enable it to strike faster. As Shinseki, who's interviewed throughout the report, put it at his induction ceremony: “Our heavy forces are too heavy and our light forces lack the staying power that we need.” The hour explores problems (potential and actual) with “lethality and survivability” in the Persian Gulf, Somalia and the Balkans, and weighs differences of opinion over armored vehicles and military-readiness policy. Interviewees include vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney (R) and Joseph Lieberman (D).

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s18e15 Real Justice (1) 2000-11-01 03:00

Real Justice (1)

s18e15 · 2000-11-01 · 03:00

The wheels of justice turn---creakily, but they do turn---as shown in this two-part chronicle of daily operations in Boston's court system. Part 1 focuses on District Court, where minor criminal cases are heard. That's where prosecutor Viktor Theiss and public defender Lisa Medeiros are seen juggling up to 15 cases a day. For Medeiros, success isn't necessarily an acquittal, it's a “sweet deal” with prosecutors---a teenager not losing his chance for a driver's license; a welfare-fraud convict's restitution cut in half. And the thanks she gets? A “thank you,” occasionally.

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s18e16 Real Justice (2) 2000-11-22 03:00

Real Justice (2)

s18e16 · 2000-11-22 · 03:00

Conclusion. Three criminal cases in Boston's Superior Court are followed. Two of the cases involve deaths, and all three involve plea bargaining. In one case, a mother is accused of hitting her children. A child died in another. The defendant: his teenage baby-sitter. And in the third case, two brothers are on trial for killing a man in a South Boston bar. If they plea-bargain, one would get seven years, the other 18. If they don't, both could get life.

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