What was the first episode of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage called?

The first episode of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was called “The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean.” It introduced Carl Sagan’s sweeping approach by moving from the immense universe to humanity’s place on Earth.

The episode opens with Sagan describing the cosmos and the “Ship of the Imagination,” a fictional spacecraft shaped like a dandelion seed. The journey passes through galaxies, the Local Group, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula, the Solar System, and finally Earth. This opening established the series’ characteristic blend of astronomy, history, visual storytelling, and philosophical reflection.

The episode also turns to ancient science. Sagan discusses Eratosthenes’ measurement of Earth’s circumference and the Library of Alexandria, then introduces the “Cosmic Calendar,” which compresses the history of the universe into a single year. The title is sometimes confused with later episode names such as “The Edge of Forever” or “The Lives of the Stars,” but those belong to different installments. The original series premiered on PBS in 1980 and contained 13 hour-long episodes.