Browse episode ratings trends for First Person. Simply click on the interactive rating graph to explore the best and worst of First Person's 19 episodes.
Best Episodes of First Person
Leaving The Earth
S2 Ep6
10.0
11th Sep 2001
A plane with 297 passengers is out of control. One of the engines goes dead and the steering mechanism does not work. No one knows what to do, except Denny Fitch who happens to be on board. He manages to navigate the plane by using the thrust controls and forces it down to a crash landing. 111 people die in the crash, but thanks to Denny Fitch 186 passengers survive. Could he have saved more passengers if he had done things differently? He is haunted by the dream of the perfect landing.
One In A Million Trillion
S2 Ep4
9.0
28th Aug 2001
Rick Rosner is obsessed with doing things right. If he does not get it exactly right the first time, he just does it again. He completed high school four times before he was satisfied, at the age of 34. To manage this he had to use a combination of disguises and false IDs. Now he is just as obsessed with the TV quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"?. He attended the show, but lost due to a trick question. On the brink of madness, he now watches every program again and again in the hope of a one in a million chance of correcting his error from the past.
You're Soaking In It
S1 Ep11
8.5
1st May 2000
After Joan Dougherty's son's shotgun suicide, she was left alone with a gruesome mess. Having no other choice, she started to clean up herself. Now she tries to help others in the same situation. She has started her own company for cleaning up after violent crimes where others don't even stand the sight.
The Little Gray Man
S1 Ep10
8.0
19th Apr 2000
For 25 years Antonio Mendez worked as a secret agent for the CIA. He led two lives. To his friends he was a bureaucrat working for the American Ministry of Defense, but to the CIA he was the master of disguise. He could become whoever, wherever, at any time. To keep his identity hidden he had to stay gray and boring to his friends and to himself.
Stairway to Heaven
S1 Ep3
8.0
1st Mar 2000
A conversation with Temple Grandin. She is a university professor, a diagnosed autistic, and has designed 1/3 of the slaughterhouses in the United States. Temple Grandin understands and relates more easily to cattle than to people. She's renowned for her design "stairway to heaven," a curving, high-wall ramp system that utilises optical illusions to lead livestock calmly from the pen to the bolt gun and ultimately to a humane death.
Worst Episodes of First Person
Mr. Debt
S1 Ep1
2.7
16th Feb 2000
Andrew Capoccia is fighting in his own personal crusade against credit card companies. He is a lawyer that helps people that are ruined by debt coming from their massive use of credit cards. He wins a lot of cases, but at the same time he has been fined, sued and condemned by courts and other lawyers. Is he really a hero threatening the system of credit as we know it, or is he a fraud?
Eyeball to Eyeball
S1 Ep2
6.0
23rd Feb 2000
Clyde Roper has dedicated his life to become the first person to see a giant squid. He started off as a lobster fisherman, but then became a zoologist, and for 30 years he has been searching for this mythical creature. The giant squid is supposed to be the size of a football field with eyes as big as volleyballs.
The Killer Inside Me
S1 Ep4
7.0
8th Mar 2000
A conversation with Sondra London. Her high school boyfriend was Gerald Shaefer, the same man that later became one of America's most notorious mass murderers. They broke up because of his wish to kill young women, but when she sees him in the papers she wants to see him again. They restart their relationship while he is in prison.
I Dismember Mama
S1 Ep5
7.0
15th Mar 2000
A conversation with Saul Kent. He is one of the pioneers in the field of cryonics, that being the freezing of persons for resuscitation in the future. He tells about his thoughts around life extension, and also about his personal experiences about this.
The Stalker
S1 Ep6
7.0
22nd Mar 2000
An interview with Bill Kinsley. He was once a promising post office worker on the brink of promotion to postmaster general. That was before he met Thomas McIlvane, kick boxer, mailman, gun freak and soon to become mass murderer. Kinsley survived the carnage that followed, but McIlvane died. Now Kinsley is living in fear, thinking that someone out there in the night is coming to kill him.
First Person Episode Guide
Mr. Debt
S1 Ep1
2.7
16th Feb 2000
Andrew Capoccia is fighting in his own personal crusade against credit card companies. He is a lawyer that helps people that are ruined by debt coming from their massive use of credit cards. He wins a lot of cases, but at the same time he has been fined, sued and condemned by courts and other lawyers. Is he really a hero threatening the system of credit as we know it, or is he a fraud?
Eyeball to Eyeball
S1 Ep2
6.0
23rd Feb 2000
Clyde Roper has dedicated his life to become the first person to see a giant squid. He started off as a lobster fisherman, but then became a zoologist, and for 30 years he has been searching for this mythical creature. The giant squid is supposed to be the size of a football field with eyes as big as volleyballs.
Stairway to Heaven
S1 Ep3
8.0
1st Mar 2000
A conversation with Temple Grandin. She is a university professor, a diagnosed autistic, and has designed 1/3 of the slaughterhouses in the United States. Temple Grandin understands and relates more easily to cattle than to people. She's renowned for her design "stairway to heaven," a curving, high-wall ramp system that utilises optical illusions to lead livestock calmly from the pen to the bolt gun and ultimately to a humane death.
The Killer Inside Me
S1 Ep4
7.0
8th Mar 2000
A conversation with Sondra London. Her high school boyfriend was Gerald Shaefer, the same man that later became one of America's most notorious mass murderers. They broke up because of his wish to kill young women, but when she sees him in the papers she wants to see him again. They restart their relationship while he is in prison.
I Dismember Mama
S1 Ep5
7.0
15th Mar 2000
A conversation with Saul Kent. He is one of the pioneers in the field of cryonics, that being the freezing of persons for resuscitation in the future. He tells about his thoughts around life extension, and also about his personal experiences about this.
The Stalker
S1 Ep6
7.0
22nd Mar 2000
An interview with Bill Kinsley. He was once a promising post office worker on the brink of promotion to postmaster general. That was before he met Thomas McIlvane, kick boxer, mailman, gun freak and soon to become mass murderer. Kinsley survived the carnage that followed, but McIlvane died. Now Kinsley is living in fear, thinking that someone out there in the night is coming to kill him.
The Parrot
S1 Ep7
7.0
29th Mar 2000
This documentary is about an unusual murder mystery. Jane Gill is found murdered in her bedroom. Next to the body the police find Max, an African parrot with a highly developed ability to speak, and a vocabulary of 450 words. Max repeated the line "Richard. No, no, no..." over and over again. Gary Grasp is charged with the murder, and his only hope to escape the gas chamber is Max and his testimony.
Smiling in a Jar
S1 Ep8
7.0
5th Apr 2000
An interview with Gretchen Worden. She is the director of Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Here exists a unique collection of medical curiosities and deformations preserved in jars. Worden does not find the specimens monstrous, but thinks of them as having their own special and important stories to tell.
In the Kingdom of the Unabomber
S1 Ep9
7.5
12th Apr 2000
Gay Greenberg was a psychotherapist that wanted to become a writer. His career as a writer lead to nowhere, and he decided to seek help from a famous author. This is why he started to correspond with Ted Kaczynski, not knowing that he was the notorious Unabomber. Instead of finding help on his career as an author, Greenberg found himself dragged into Kaczynski's paranoid nightmare.
The Little Gray Man
S1 Ep10
8.0
19th Apr 2000
For 25 years Antonio Mendez worked as a secret agent for the CIA. He led two lives. To his friends he was a bureaucrat working for the American Ministry of Defense, but to the CIA he was the master of disguise. He could become whoever, wherever, at any time. To keep his identity hidden he had to stay gray and boring to his friends and to himself.
You're Soaking In It
S1 Ep11
8.5
1st May 2000
After Joan Dougherty's son's shotgun suicide, she was left alone with a gruesome mess. Having no other choice, she started to clean up herself. Now she tries to help others in the same situation. She has started her own company for cleaning up after violent crimes where others don't even stand the sight.
First Person was an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals.
Interviews were conducted with "The Interrotron", a device similar to a teleprompter: Errol and his subject each sit facing a camera. The image of each person's face is then projected onto a two-way mirror positioned in front of the lens of the other's camera. Instead of looking at a blank lens, then, both Morris and his subject are looking directly at a human face. Morris believes that the machine encourages monologue in the interview process, while also encouraging the interviewees to "express themselves to camera".
The best rated episodes of First Person are:
Leaving The Earth S2E6 rated 10.0
One In A Million Trillion S2E4 rated 9.0
You're Soaking In It S1E11 rated 8.5
The Little Gray Man S1E10 rated 8.0
Stairway to Heaven S1E3 rated 8.0
The lowest rated episodes of First Person are:
Mr. Debt S1E1 rated 2.7
Eyeball to Eyeball S1E2 rated 6.0
The Killer Inside Me S1E4 rated 7.0
I Dismember Mama S1E5 rated 7.0
The Stalker S1E6 rated 7.0
The first episode of First Person aired on February 16, 2000.
The last episode of First Person aired on October 02, 2001.
