Back in 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush needed to pick a running mate. He asked Dick Cheney to look over all the prospective candidates for vice-president and get back to him.

Mr. Cheney labored long and hard over the assignment, then reported the results of his intensive search to George: “I’m the guy. Big time.”

George agreed readily, thinking “Gee, that was easy.” If Mr. Cheney knew anything, he knew that George likes stuff easy.

And it came to pass that George came to be called President, and Mr. Cheney came to be called Vice-President. And Mr. Cheney continued to work hard to keep stuff easy for George, becoming a sort of co-president.

Tonight on PBS, Frontline examines Cheney’s role in the role on terror, the war in Iraq, and beyond.

There’s so much garbage on television that it’s tempting to think television is nothing but garbage. But Frontline is consistently superb. My DVR is programmed to automatically record every episode. Sometimes I’ll read the summary of an episode and be tempted to erase it without watching it. But I don’t think there’s been a single episode of Frontline that wasn’t well worth watching. It’s true educational programming, because I learn something every time I watch it.

Many stations run Frontline more than once. If you miss it tonight, see if there's a repeat showing on your local station. If you have a high-speed internet connection, you may be able to watch this program and other programs online at the Frontline website.

(Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the link to this episode.)