DAVID FANNING

It was January 1983 when we launched 'Frontline' on PBS with 'An Unauthorized History of the NFL.' The program was anchored by Jessica Savitch. We wanted to get attention, and we got it.

Movies, to a large extent, stand or fall on the strength of their scripts. But a documentary is a collection of found objects: fragments you've collected, accidents of interview and happenstance, pieces of stock footage that surface in the course of six to nine months of research and production.

At the heart of the best documentaries, there is a journey of inquiry - someone who travels out into the world, comes back with a story, and who then finds meaning in it, and intrigue; someone who tells you about something you never quite knew before, or in a way you hadn't quite thought about.

I don't really think of 'Frontline' as a strictly public affairs series; I think of it as a work of journalism that is constantly reinventing itself.

It was January 1983 when we launched 'Frontline' on PBS with 'An Unauthorized History of the NFL.' The program was anchored by Jessica Savitch. We wanted to get attention, and we got it.

At the heart of the best documentaries, there is a journey of inquiry - someone who travels out into the world, comes back with a story, and who then finds meaning in it, and intrigue; someone who tells you about something you never quite knew before, or in a way you hadn't quite thought about.

Movies, to a large extent, stand or fall on the strength of their scripts. But a documentary is a collection of found objects: fragments you've collected, accidents of interview and happenstance, pieces of stock footage that surface in the course of six to nine months of research and production.

I don't really think of 'Frontline' as a strictly public affairs series; I think of it as a work of journalism that is constantly reinventing itself.