1990s Documentary TV Shows
The 40 most popular 1990s documentary TV shows on Flickfolio, ranked by popularity. Click any show for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.

Exclusiv - Das Star-Magazin
1994
country: Germany
Exclusiv: das Starmagazin reports on the latest news and topics from the world of celebrities on a regular weekly basis. It covers the latest headlines relating to the stars as well as rumors and insights into the everyday lives of famous personalities around the globe. In addition to the 15-minute weekday magazine, there is a particularly detailed one-hour weekend edition on Sundays with additional reports and background reports on the celebrities.

Dateline
1992
country: United States
Dateline NBC, or simply Dateline, is a weekly American television newsmagazine series. It was previously the network's flagship newsmagazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasional editions that focus on other topics.

Globe Trekker
1994
country: Australia
Globe Trekker is an adventure tourism television series produced by Pilot Productions. The British series was inspired by the Lonely Planet travelbooks and began airing in 1994. Globe Trekker is broadcast in over 40 countries across six continents. Each episode features a host, called a traveller, who travels with a camera crew to a country—often, a relatively exotic locale—and experiences the sights, sounds, and culture that the location has to offer. Special episodes feature in-depth city, beach, dive, shopping, history, festival, and food guides. The show often goes far beyond popular tourist destinations in order to give viewers a more authentic look at local culture. Presenters usually participate in different aspects of regional life, such as attending a traditional wedding or visiting a mining community. They address the viewer directly, acting as tourists-turned-tour guides, but are also filmed interacting with locals and discovering interesting locations in unrehearsed sequences. Globe Trekker also sometimes includes brief interviews with backpackers who share tips on independent travel in that particular country.

Galileo
1998
country: Germany
This daily German magazine show delivers interesting facts on numerous topics centering around technology, life, and bizarre knowledge.

Eisenbahn-Romantik
1991
country: Germany
Railway-related documentary covering modern railway systems, museum railways and their facilities as well as items on model railway layouts. Politics and criticism is not left out; the series reports on closures, controversial model ideas, delays to reconstruction plans or smart commuter transport concepts.

Quarks
1993
country: Germany
No overview available

37 Grad
1994
country: Germany
37° reports on typical life situations in our society from an unusual perspective: the camera accompanies a group or individual people, usually in a particularly exposed social situation. The reportage often outlines a turning point or a decision-making phase in the biography under review.

Mapping the World
1990
country: France
Then complex world of geopolitics broken down into ten minute, bite-sized chunks. You'll never sound uninformed at the dinner table ever again.

Intimate Portrait
1993
country: United States
Intimate Portrait is a biographical television series on the Lifetime Television cable network focusing on different celebrities, which includes interviews with each subject. Among the people profiled were Grace Kelly, Natalie Wood, Carly Simon, Jackie Kennedy, Katharine Hepburn, Carol Burnett, Tanya Tucker, and Marla Maples.

Australian Story
1996
country: Australia
Putting the "real" back into reality television, Australian Story is an award-winning documentary series with no narrator and no agendas — just authentic stories told entirely in people's own words.

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
1997
country: United States
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Several stories of strange, mysterious and incredible occurrences are chronicled during each episode. It is up to the viewer to decide which stories actually happened and which were completely fabricated by the show’s writers. The answer is revealed by Jonathan Frakes at the conclusion of each episode.

Heritage Minutes
1991
country: Canada
Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.

Des racines & des ailes
1997
country: France
A magazine show with each segment telling the story of a country, a civilization, a period or emblematic characters, rich in iconography and archival images.

Foreign Correspondent
1992
country: Australia
Australia's leading international affairs program featuring fascinating, in-depth stories from the ABC's unrivalled network of foreign correspondents.

Forensic Files
1996
country: United States
Real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world are solved by experts using scientific laboratory analysis which helps them find previously undetectable evidence. Brilliant scientific work helps convict the guilty and free the innocent.

Classic Albums
1997
country: United Kingdom
A documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.

Modern Marvels
1993
country: United States
HISTORY’s longest-running series moves to H2. Modern Marvels celebrates the ingenuity, invention and imagination found in the world around us. From commonplace items like ink and coffee to architectural masterpieces and engineering disasters, the hit series goes beyond the basics to provide insight and history into things we wonder about and that impact our lives. This series tells fascinating stories of the doers, the dreamers and sometime-schemers that create everyday items, technological breakthroughs and manmade wonders. The hit series goes deep to explore the leading edge of human inspiration and ambition.

Independent Lens
1999
country: United States
This acclaimed Emmy Award-winning anthology series features documentaries and a limited number of fiction films united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement and unflinching visions of their independent producers and featuring unforgettable stories about a unique individual, community or moment in history.

American Justice
1992
country: United States
Hosted by Bill Kurtis, American Justice looks at groundbreaking criminal cases, presenting viewers with an inside look at the case through the eyes of those directly involved, ranging from law enforcement officers to the victims.

Behind the Music
1997
country: United Kingdom
An intimate look into the personal lives of pop music's greatest and most influential artists.

360° Reportage
1999
country: Germany
Stories of extraordinary lives and extraordinary lands across the globe.

Unanswered Questions
1992
country: South Korea
A current affairs/journalism program that investigates unsolved cases and looks into various problems in society, religion and more.

Antiques Roadshow
1997
country: United States
Based on the popular BBC series running since 1979, the PBS Antiques Roadshow combines history with discovery. Each year, the show visits a handful of cities to appraise items brought in by viewers. Are these items worth a lot of money, more than the visitors expect?

Storyville
1997
country: United Kingdom
Showcasing the best in international documentaries, Storyville has developed an enviable reputation since its inception more than a decade ago. Screening over 340 films, from some 70 different countries, the strand has garnered a staggering array of awards: five Oscars, 15 Griersons, three Peabodys and two International Emmys. In true, unique, Storyville style, the new series promises to deliver the strand's usual eclectic mix of compelling stories from across the globe.

Zone interdite
1993
country: France
For thirty years, Zone Interdite has been the magazine that documents and analyzes the upheavals in French society. Conducted over time, the investigations broadcast in the program reveal the taboos, passions, and struggles of the French people at the heart of current events.

Modern Times
1995
country: United Kingdom
Documentaries showing faces and places that make up the way we live today.

Grands Reportages
1998
country: France
No overview available

Zembla
1995
country: Netherlands
Zembla is a Dutch television documentary programme by VARA and NPS. The documentaries are based on in-depth research which can take months. The subjects are often controversial. A documentary in 2001 about fraud in the Dutch construction sector led to parliamentary inquiries. In May 2006 the programme exposed the fact that politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali had lied in her claim for asylum, which led to her resignation from parliament.

La facture
1995
country: Canada
No overview available
Where Are They Now?
Where Are They Now?
1999
country: United States
Where Are They Now? was a television series on VH1 that featured past celebrities and updated on their current professional and personal status. Each episode was dedicated to another genre. Though not always in sequence, some episodes were a continuation of the motif of episodes from the past. Those episodes sometimes had Roman numerals in their title to signify their sequel status.

Horizontes da Memória
1996
country: Portugal
Horizontes da Memória is a Portuguese historical documentary television series about the History of Portugal. As of 2011, it airs on RTP Memória.

Twice in a Lifetime
1999
country: Canada
Prematurely deceased people are given the opportunity to correct something that went wrong in their lives and thus change them for the better.

Baseball
1994
country: United States
The history of the sport of baseball in America, told through archival photos, film footage, and the words of those who contributed to the game in each era. Writers, historians, players, baseball personnel, and fans review key events and the significance of the game in America's history.

Cutting Edge
1990
country: United Kingdom
The flagship documentary series show distinctive, compelling films that offer a snapshot of life in Britain today.

HBO First Look
1992
country: United States
HBO First Look is an American television show on HBO that chronicles up and coming movies. It first started in 1992 with a documentary on A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks, and still airs today. The series shows behind-the-scenes looks at the filming and interviews with the actors. The show is part documentary and part advertisement. It airs on HBO with no set schedule.

Grand Designs
1999
country: United Kingdom
British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

Blik op de Weg
1991
country: Netherlands
No overview available

It's Not Rocket Science!
1993
country: France
C'est pas sorcier is a French educational television program that originally aired from November 5, 1994 to present.

Ushuaïa Nature
1998
country: France
In each episode, an exotic part of the world, of various extent, either on land and/or in the sea, defined by natural geography or human population, is presented. Native wildlife, natural conditions and their interaction with local people are examined.

Superquark
1995
country: Italy
Television program of cultural diffusion, born in September 1995, designed and conducted by Piero Angela, development of transmission appreciated Quark.