| Alt Name: | The First Republic | ||||
| Native Name: |
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| Screenplay: | Kim Gi-pal | ||||
| Open Theme: | Fanfare for the Common Man | ||||
| Country: | South Korea | ||||
| Language: | Korean | ||||
| Num Seasons: | 1 | ||||
| Num Episodes: | 39 | ||||
| Producer: | Go Seok-man, Lee Yeon-hun | ||||
| Channel: | MBC TV |
1st Republic is a South Korean historical television series that was originally broadcast on MBC TV from 2 April 1981 to 11 February 1982. According to some sources, it is considered the first political drama television series in South Korean history, and the first to depict a recent president during an era of heavy media censorship. It covers the First Republic of Korea: the government of South Korea between 1948 and 1960. The series consisted of 39 episodes, each around an hour long, and led to multiple sequel series over the next few decades that covered each of the Five Republics of Korea, including the 2005 5th Republic TV series.
The show covers events from 1945 to 1960, including the 1945 liberation of Korea from the Japanese Empire, the 1950 Korean War, and the 1960 establishment of the Second Republic of Korea.
The series was created just after Chun Doo-hwan seized power at the beginning of the Fifth Republic of Korea, shortly after Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979. During both the Chun and Park eras, media censorship was common, making dramas depicting political topics extremely sensitive.
The president of MBC at the time,, closely monitored the creation of the show, to ensure it did not draw the ire of the government.
Go later served as the head of the Korea Creative Content Agency in the Korean Government from 2007 to 2009.
| 1 | 2 April 1981 | Syngman Rhee and Kim Ku | ||
| 2 | 9 April 1981 | Assassination, Assassination, Assassination | ||
| 3 | 16 April 1981 | Cho Man-shik and Kim Il Sung | ||
| 4 | 23 April 1981 | Terror | ||
| 5 | 30 April 1981 | Syngman Rhee in 1946 | ||
| 6 | 7 May 1981 | The Namro Party | ||
| 7 | 14 May 1981 | The Three Leaders of Summer 1947 | ||
| 8 | 21 May 1981 | United Nations Commission on Korea | ||
| 9 | 28 May 1981 | Kim Ku and North-South Talks (Part 1) | ||
| 10 | 4 June 1981 | Kim Ku and North-South Talks (Part 2) | ||
| 11 | 11 June 1981 | The First President Syngman Rhee | ||
| 12 | 18 June 1981 | Female Spy Kim Soo-im | ||
| 13 | 25 June 1981 | Miscalculation | ||
| 14 | 2 July 1981 | Jogakdang at | ||
| 15 | 9 July 1981 | The National Assembly's | ||
| 16 | 16 July 1981 | The Banmintukui Affair (Part 1) | ||
| 17 | 30 July 1981 | The Banmintukui Affair (Part 2) | ||
| 18 | 6 August 1981 | The President's People | ||
| 19 | 27 August 1981 | Ah, Baekbeom (Part 1) | ||
| 20 | 3 September 1981 | Ah, Baekbeom (Part 2) | ||
| 21 | 10 September 1981 | The May 30th Election | ||
| 22 | 17 September 1981 | 90 Days Under the Enemy | ||
| 23 | 24 September 1981 | During Wartime | ||
| 24 | 1 October 1981 | The | ||
| 25 | 8 October 1981 | Woonam's Restart | ||
| 26 | 15 October 1981 | The Peace Line | ||
| 27 | 28 October 1981 | Merchants During Wartime | ||
| 28 | 5 November 1981 | The Release of Anti-Communist Captives and Truce | ||
| 29 | 12 November 1981 | The KNYA's Elimination and Lee Ki-poong | ||
| 30 | 19 November 1981 | The Park In-soo Affair | ||
| 31 | 26 November 1981 | The Liberal Party's Landslide Victory (Part 1) | ||
| 32 | 10 December 1981 | The Liberal Party's Landslide Victory (Part 2) | ||
| 33 | 17 December 1981 | Lee Ki-poong and the Liberal | ||
| 1982 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34 | 7 January 1982 | Kim Il Sung and the Purge | ||
| 35 | 14 January 1982 | The | ||
| 36 | 21 January 1982 | Kim Du-han and Lee Jeong-jae | ||
| 37 | 28 January 1982 | Adoptee Lee Gang-seok | ||
| 38 | 4 February 1982 | The Artists Corps and Lim Hwa-su | ||
| 39 | 11 February 1982 | The Democratic Party's Dispute with New and Old Parties and the End of the First Republic | ||