TELEVISION : The Long, Hard Look : A producer’s passion for ‘rattling good stories’ helps ‘Frontline’ win awards--and preserve a dying genre.

In “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a “Frontline” documentary last November about the Iran/Contra scandal, news footage of what White House officials were saying publicly before the scandal broke was juxtaposed with the tap, tap, tapping of computer entries--the record of what was actually going on behind the scenes, from the now-declassified diary of Lt. Col. Oliver North. It was a simple technique that, along with months of solid investigation and interviews with participants in the scandal, dramatized an otherwise untelegenic “paper trail” of evidence.

That is illustrative of the guiding principle of PBS’ “Frontline” under David Fanning, the only executive producer it has had: Giving viewers “rattling good tales” told by talented documentary filmmakers.

“Sometimes someone on our advisory committee will say, ‘Why haven’t you done a program about international debt?’ ” Fanning wryly recounted in his office at WGBH-TV here. “The fact of the matter is, if you start out to make a program about international debt, the program is just going to dig itself into a hole and die, even though it might be very worthy and serious. It’s hard to make a rattling good tale out of international debt.

“But, on the other hand, there are great tales to be told that have to do with money and lending practices and deals and go-go cowboy banking--whether it’s (convicted Wall Street trader) Dennis Levine or BCCI, stories of individuals caught inside questions of ethics and morality--that can tell you something about how those big international banks operate. I tend to think that truth lies in the collisions inside the culture, whether it’s the death of a porn queen (the subject of a 1987 “Frontline”) or dark doings at secret meetings about the hostages in Iran in 1980 (another “Frontline” investigation last season). That’s the territory inhabited by Graham Greene in his novels. That’s the perfect ‘Frontline.’ ”

An engaging, soft-spoken South African who was drawn to America as a high-school exchange student in Newport Beach, Calif., Fanning grew up on “Treasure Island” and other exciting tales and got into documentary filmmaking for the British Broadcasting Corp. as a means of adventure and a “license to be curious.”

Yet despite this upbringing outside the mainstream of American journalism, his series has become practically the sole practitioner of a dying TV-news genre in this country: the one-hour documentary. At a time when the Big Three broadcast networks have abandoned their regular documentary series (“CBS Reports,” ABC’s “Closeup” and NBC’s “White Paper”), PBS’ “Frontline” is flourishing as it begins its 10th season Tuesday.

“In a world full of schlock, these are serious-minded people who are willing to put in the long hours of grueling drudgery that it takes to do their homework,” said Tom Bettag, executive producer of ABC’s “Nightline.” “They put in the effort that very few organizations today are willing to do to produce serious, thoughtful journalism on important topics.”

Considered somewhat uneven in its early years, “Front-line” has grown into a critically praised, respected series whose voice reaches far beyond its PBS audience of 5 to 7 million viewers each week. Last spring, in “The Election Held Hostage,” “Frontline” broke evidence of a secret meeting between Iranians and then-Reagan campaign director William Casey in 1980 that helped launch the continuing inquiry into whether Ronald Reagan’s campaign managers conspired to make a deal with the Iranians to time the release of the hostages until after Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the Presidential election.

In September, the TV-news establishment recognized “Front-line” with five news Emmys for “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” and other documentaries. That’s as many news Emmys as were won by ABC and more than were won by CBS and NBC.

“ ‘Frontline’ is doing important, necessary work. What’s distressing is that, along with the investigative unit at Cable News Network, they’re the only ones doing documentaries in TV news,” said Reuven Frank, a former NBC News president and author of “Out of Thin Air,” a recent history of broadcast news. “It used to be that even the most hard-bitten guy in network sales knew that networks had to do news and documentaries to justify themselves in terms of their prestige and their licenses from the Federal Communications Commission. There was one year in the late 1960s when we did 25 hours of one-hour documentary programs at NBC News, and that wasn’t exceptionally high. Today, there’s no pressure from the FCC anymore, and the new owners treat the networks like a delicatessen where it’s not enough that the entire delicatessen--the network overall--makes a profit. The cole slaw has to make a profit, the bologna has to make a profit, the news division has to make a profit--so documentaries are out. They’ll tell you that they do documentary-like programming in the longer segments of their evening-news programs--but that’s not the same thing as a considered, hourlong look at an important topic.”

“Frontline” will present 28 hours of new programming this season on topics ranging from a biography of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov (on Tuesday) to an investigation into how the federal government has bungled the savings-and-loan bailout (Oct. 22). Another program will look at the financial empire of the Unification Church; in another, the lives of a psychiatrist and a former patient are examined in intimate detail as the patient pursues a medical-malpractice suit against the doctor because he became her lover. Political reporter William Greider is working with “Frontline” as a correspondent on a series on the state of American democracy.

“Frontline” is dedicated to the proposition that documentaries don’t have to be dull to be worthy. “People approach TV documentaries with real prejudice because they think they’re going to be ‘good for you’ but dull,” Fanning said. “One of the reasons the documentary declined is that the networks didn’t allow the form to grow and be innovative. They didn’t sense that people might want something beyond the traditional ‘White Paper’ approach of throwing a net over an important subject and telling us about our troubles.

“I believe that many viewers may dismiss a lot of TV news coverage because it feels interchangeable. The subjects may be different, but the stories are edited with the same rhythms. It is true that it’s hard to get viewers’ attention in the TV landscape today, but even as they’re zapping across their TV dials, I believe that they can be stopped by provocative storytelling that may have a different voice.”

One of the reasons that “Front-line” has a different feel is that it is the product of different voices. As an anthology, it can accommodate Martin Koughan’s more traditional hard-news approach in presenting issues involved in trade with Japan, and the more “filmic” approach of Ofra Bikel, whose documentary “Innocence Lost” last May showed how close friends turned against each other during a protracted child-abuse trial in a small town in North Carolina.

“ ‘Frontline’ is really a repertory company of independent filmmakers,” said Koughan, a longtime broadcast-news producer whose program about problems in the U.S-Japan trade relationship will air later this season, “and independent filmmakers tend to have big egos about what they do. David is a genuinely talented filmmaker himself, and he’s able to work with producers without sacrificing their vision. He’s also a very charming guy. He’s been able to negotiate the difficult waters of PBS, putting on controversial subjects in a system where many people have many different ideas about how programming should be done.”

Indeed, while it often confronts controversial subjects, the series generally has been able to avoid charges of ideological bias. “Having grown up in the caldron of South African politics, I tend to be skeptical of establishments,” Fanning said. “But I’ve never had any political agenda--I’m not vain or arrogant enough (for that).”

PBS’ “P.O.V.” (Point of View) series, which also showcases the work of independent filmmakers, stirred up a whirlwind of turmoil earlier this year with “Tongues Untied,” about gay black men, and “Stop the Church,” which castigated Catholic policies toward homosexuals and AIDS. But “P.O.V.” acquires completed work by independents, while “Frontline’s” producers work very closely with Fanning and his staff, from researching the idea to writing the script and editing the footage.

On one recent day at the “Frontline” offices, Fanning pored over the Sakharov script and discussed the film at length with program producer Sherry Jones and one of the series’ senior producers, Martin Smith. Another producer called in to discuss problems in getting rights to some foreign news footage. In another room, a group from the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, which is co-producing the savings-and-loan film with “Frontline,” spent hours going over individual phrases in their script.

“David loves film and stories, but when he’s going over a script, he’s as tough as a lawyer,” said “Frontline” producer Bikel. “When you show him a film, you don’t have to show it to him again--he’s got a kind of visual memory of all of the shots. And when you’re beginning a project, he’s the best sounding-board there is. Before ‘Innocence Lost,’ I just knew that I wanted to do the story of a small town. When I got onto the story of how one’s life could be ruined merely by allegations of child-abuse, he’s the one who said, ‘Do that story; tell me about that little town.’ ” The result was a “Rashomon” series of portraits of the townspeople that took Bikel nearly a year to make.

Within PBS, Fanning operates with considerable independence. Unlike many PBS series that have corporate underwriting in addition to PBS funds, “Frontline’s” annual budget of $11 million comes solely from within the public-broadcasting system: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS stations.

The series has a board of directors that includes representatives from five PBS stations--WGBH in Boston, KCTS in Seattle, WNET in New York, WPBT in Miami and WTVS in Detroit--and they meet quarterly to approve the budget and make other administrative decisions. But Fanning and the staff at WGBH are the ones who come up with the ideas for the documentaries and produce them. Board members do not approve the topics or prescreen the documentaries.

“It was clear when we created a PBS documentary series that we had to create something that was insulated from everybody, even from the board of directors,” said Peter McGhee, the head of programming at WGBH.

“We will screen a finished documentary for PBS executives and PBS stations as a courtesy to them before it airs, but there’s no editorial approval involved,” Fanning said. “Occasionally I’ll get a call from someone at PBS (network) saying, ‘Are you sure about this fact?,’ but that’s about it.”

Fanning said that the series had never been subjected to pressure from officials in the White House or other government agencies. “I think we’re respected too much as a journalistic entity for anybody to try to do that--and, besides, it would be counterproductive.”

Despite its current reputation, “Frontline” got off to a controversial start with its premiere documentary under Fanning in 1983. “An Unauthorized History of the NFL” was criticized for allegations about the mysterious circumstances of the death of former L.A. Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom that critics said were unsubstantiated.

“In one segment, we described the circumstances of his death, which were questionable,” said Fanning, “but we went too far in raising questions about whether he had been murdered. We made a misstep the first show out of the box, but it was helpful because it made us realize how absolutely accurate about everything you have to be if you’re doing investigative journalism.”

After that faltering beginning, “Frontline” began to develop as a journalistic enterprise. In only its second season, “Frontline” was awarded the prestigious DuPont-Columbia award for its slate of shows that year. Since then, “Frontline” has won three other DuPont Awards, a Peabody Award and 18 Emmys.

With the addition of two senior producers--Michael Sullivan, formerly the head of the investigative unit at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, in 1987, and Martin Smith, producer of the PBS series “Inside Gorbachev’s Russia,” in 1990--”Frontline” took on an even timelier edge. “I think we’re more on the news today,” Smith said. “We’re trying to cover the issues of the day in a compelling manner.”

Impressed by Fanning’s accomplishments, ABC News executives recently approached him about resurrecting regular long-form documentaries for them. “I was flattered by their interest, but without sounding arrogant, I don’t think it would be good for me to leave ‘Frontline’ just as we’re hitting our stride,” Fanning said. “I’d have to reach back into the company of people I’ve worked with, and I wouldn’t want to do that to the series. Besides, I like my life here. I work with a wonderful group of people, I have a lovely house, and I can take my boat and fishing rod and be casting for striped bass at 5:30 in the morning.”

Fanning lives in an old house in Marblehead, Mass., and paints in his spare time. He is involved in a long-term relationship with Renata Simone, executive producer of “The Health Quarterly” series on PBS.

Several years ago, Fanning flirted with Hollywood, thinking he’d try his hand at screenwriting. He found it “a silly town.”

“Everybody’s always saying that ‘Bob’--i.e., Redford--may be interested in their movie. Everyone pretends to be serious about some part of the world, but that’s only because people are guilty about having abandoned any real pursuit of ideas. In the end, it’s, ‘If we can remake “Porky’s,” that’s good.’ ”

Despite his harsh words about Hollywood moguls, Fanning is poetical about California. The son of teachers in South Africa, he was impressed with the high-school students he met as an exchange student in Newport Beach in 1964. “The students were reading ‘Cry, the Beloved Country,’ and they wanted to know about apartheid. I was so impressed with their curiosity--and by the fact that you could ask questions here. In South Africa, you couldn’t ask very many questions, and the lines were very clearly drawn. The coach said, ‘You’re a track star in Africa’ because it had on my record that I had run track in my school in South Africa. I never ran as fast in my life as I did that year. The extraordinary thing about America was that you were allowed to reinvent yourself.”

Fanning, who became active in South African politics as the editor of his student newspaper at the University of Cape Town, later came back to the United States after a stint as a free-lance documentary filmmaker for the BBC. In 1973, he talked his way into a low-paying job as a producer for KOCE, the public-TV station in Huntington Beach. Since there were no staff positions available, Fanning went out for free with a cameraman until he was able to be hired. A low-budget documentary Fanning produced for PBS on the war in Angola caught the eye of Peter McGhee at WGBH. In 1977, Fanning came to WGBH to be producer of an international documentary series called “World.”

“The general manager had wanted to hire somebody from commercial television who would be reassuring to the stations,” McGhee recalled. “I thought David had some interesting ideas about documentaries. He was willing to gamble, and so was I.”

Fanning won a news Emmy for one investigative program he produced for “World,” but he also created an international uproar with another show he produced and co-wrote for the series, “Death of a Princess.” After the 1980 program, which investigated the execution of a Saudi Arabian princess for adultery and relied in part on a controversial dramatic re-creation of the execution, Fanning was sued for billions of dollars “on behalf of the world’s Muslims.” (The suit was later dropped, but Mobil Oil, the corporate underwriter of the WGBH-produced ‘Masterpiece Theatre”--publicly condemned the program.) “Death of a Princess” was one of the highest-rated PBS programs at the time.

That experience notwithstanding, Fanning found himself accused of having joined the Establishment when he was chosen to be the executive producer for “Frontline” in 1982. Independent filmmakers questioned whether he would become simply a new gatekeeper to limit their access to documentary funds. But these days, there usually is a tall stack of phone messages on Fanning’s desk from independent filmmakers, broadcast journalists and others who want to pitch projects to “Frontline.” “We get hundreds of ideas,” Fanning said, “but the simple arithmetic of it is that we usually have to say no.”

As he looks to the future, Fanning is concerned about the impact of PBS’ financing plans on his series. Along with other series, “Frontline” is “level-funded,” meaning that there will be no growth in its budget for next year. “Public television has decided that it needs to save up some money to develop new programming,” Fanning said. “They’ve got no new monies in the system, and they want to create new programming, so they’re holding back across the board.

“I don’t want to second-guess what they will do, but I believe that ‘Frontline’ is a potential growth area for PBS. We’ve got a body of work, access to producers, more ambitious investigative pieces that we’d like to do. This kind of model is what you need in a creative environment--and it could be enlarged in other ways at PBS. The most talented people in television aren’t writing proposals for series--they’re busy waiting for someone to help give them the shot in the arm, the encouragement that gets them to do their best work.”