On November 4, 1979, Iranian student activists stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking over 60 Americans hostage. What was planned as a 48-hour sit-in to protest American imperialism, ballooned into an international crisis and 24/7 media event that would last 444 days. With never-before-seen archival footage and revelatory new interviews with the American hostages and Iranian hostage-takers alike, the series is a gripping chronicle of one of the most dramatic international deadlocks in American history, a deep dive into the geo-political history that led to the crisis, and an exploration of the political fallout that reverberates today.
Episodes
S01E01 Part One: The Peacock Throne
September 28, 2022 60 min
Under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, Iran experiences an oil-driven economic boom, but the government’s excesses and repressive tactics lead to increasing hostility towards the monarch and his closest ally: the United States. As...
November 1979. In protest of the United States’ long-standing relationship with the now-deposed Shah, an Iranian student group plans a 48-hour sit-in at the American embassy in Tehran. But what starts as a political statement...
With 1980 fast approaching, and the crisis nowhere near ending, the situation takes on a life of its own in American and Iranian media. After diplomatic efforts to secure the hostages’ release fail, and their...
A year into the siege, Carter works furiously to secure a deal as the 1980 U.S. presidential election approaches. As Ronald Reagan prepares to take office, the outgoing administration enters a final, desperate diplomatic push....
