Frontline (1983)

An Unauthorized History of the NFL

In its premiere broadcast, Frontline investigates the underbelly of the NFL--the secret connections between professional football and the world of sports gambling and organized crime.

88 Seconds in Greensboro

On the morning of November 3,1979, five civil rights demonstrators were killed by a group of Klan and Nazi Party members in Greensboro, North Carolina. Correspondent James Reston, Jr.,investigates the role of a police informant who was with the group when the attack was planned and when it was carried out.

In the Shadow of the Capitol

Frontline correspondent Charles Cobb journeys to a Washington, DC that tourists rarely see. The nation's capital, seventy-five percent black, faces widespread poverty, yet it is run by some of the civil-rights movement's most effective and militant organizers, including Mayor Marion Barry.

A Chinese Affair

For thirty-four years, those who fled to Taiwan in the wake of the Communist victory have had only their memories and fantasies of mainland China. Now they want to know much more, and a political struggle is underway to determine how Taiwan will relate to the mainland.

God's Banker

In 1982,a man was discovered hanging from a bridge over the Thames River in London. He was Roberto Calvi, head of Italy's largest bank and chief advisor to the Vatican's bank. Reporter Jeremy Paxman investigates Calvi's links with the Vatican and with P-2, a secret Italian society, and questions whether his death was really a suicide.

Pentagon, Inc.

Frontline investigates the power of the Pentagon as a business and economic force in the domestic economy. Politicians find themselves chasing Pentagon dollars for the jobs those dollars create in their districts; scientists and universities find themselves dependent on the military if they want to do research in many high-tech areas.

Gunfight USA

Frontline looks beyond the cliches and stereotypes in the debate over gun control. Visiting prison inmates, victims of gun crime, and the sharpest minds on both sides, Frontline explores the underlying fears that make gun control such an emotional issue.

Children of Pride

Kojo Odo, a 42 year-old single black man, took in his first child a decade ago-a 7 year old boy with his arm missing. No one wanted the youngster. Each of Odo's 21 children came to him with a physical or mental handicap. Frontline looks at the daily life of this remarkable family and Odo's battle to keep the family together.

A Journey to Russia

Before Gorbachev and glasnost, three young Americans journey to the Soviet Union on a whirlwind two-week, six-city debating tour. They encounter young, articulate Russians whose world view is completely contradictory to their own.

Daisy - Story of a Facelift

Daisy is 55 and terrified of growing old. She feels she needs a facelift. From the moment of her decision, Frontline follows her through all the procedures, but the heart of the story is an exploration of values, character, cosmetics, and the business of plastic surgery.

Space - The Race for High Ground

Before President Reagan introduced Star Wars, Frontline examined how in the previous 25 years the US and the Soviet Union had gone from designing satellites to designing weapons to blast them out of the sky. The superpowers were converting space from an arena for communications, to a concept of space as 'high ground,' the battle area to control.

Abortion Clinic

For the first time on American television, Frontline's cameras record the most intimate details and one of the most personal decisions a woman can make. By focusing not only on the clinic, but also on a right-to-life doctor who pickets the clinic every Saturday, the film becomes a revealing study of people confronting their most deeply held values.

Crisis in Zimbabwe

Rhodesia, a symbol of white racism, has become Zimbabwe and white minority rule has given way to black majority rule. However, the end of the guerilla war may not mean an end to fighting. Correspondent Charlie Cobb finds a rift between the nation's two black leaders that threatens to split the country along tribal lines.

Air Crash

Frontline investigates the frightening aftermath of one of the worst air disasters in U.S. history-the June 9, 1982 crash of Pan Am flight 759 at the New Orleans airport. The report discovers how human greed and legal machinations over hundreds of millions of dollars bring new horror to survivors and victims' relatives alike.

Looking for Mao

Only seven years after Mao's death, it is clear that China is undergoing another revolution. This is a revolution of political and social relaxation. Frontline explores what has been retained and what has been rejected from the days of the Cultural Revolution.

Israel: Between the River and the Sea

For eight years, Rafik Halabi covered the West Bank and Gaza strip-the only Arab reporter working in the Hebrew section of Israeli Television. This is Rafik's story-a story in which his identity and loyalty became a national controversy.

In Our Water

Frank Kaler's story begins simply enough when he requests a water test. Why? Because his children develop skin lesions after bathing in it. Frontline chronicles Kaler's six-year battle with local and federal officials over the chemical pollution of his drinking water.

Vietnam Memorial

Frontline tells the story of five days in the fall of 1982 when more than 150,000 people gathered in Washington D.C. for the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial. Parents, friends, and survivors came to the emotion-filled event reflecting the pain and conflict many still feel about that war.

For the Good of All

When a national recreation site between Cleveland and Akron was first mandated by Congress in 1974, everyone applauded the project. But Frontline found that park policies of condemning hundreds of businesses and homes soon generated intense local opposition as well as charges that the homes of politically influential citizens were being spared.

The Russians are Here

Who Decides Disability?

Frontline investigates the Reagan administration's effort to remove tens of thousands of people from the Social Security disability rolls. Disabled people face personal hardship and bureaucratic indifference as they take their cases to the courts and to Congress.

Crossfire in El Salvador

In 1983, El Salvador was a nation where murder and torture were an everyday occurrence, a place where loved ones disappear and truth remains elusive. Frontline interviews government soldiers, rebels, and noncombatants to find out why the killing continues.

Sanctuary

Frontline follows the journey of a Guatemalan family through the 'new underground railroad' and considers the plight of the people who seek refuge from governments allied to the United States.

Moneylenders

Developing countries have borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from Western banks. Some of the biggest borrowers, Brazil and Mexico,are struggling even to repay the interest. Correspondent Anthony Sampson finds that threats to repudiate the loans are causing American bankers to fear financial catastrophe.

Klaus Barbie: the American Connection

Klaus Barbie, a hated Nazi war criminal, was returned to France in 1983 to face justice. But some Frenchmen were worried that he would reveal embarrassing evidence about French collaboration, and some Americans feared that he would talk about his postwar work for U.S. intelligence agencies.

Crisis at General Hospital

Investor-owned for-profit hospital chains are aggressively marketing themselves to treat only the insured or wealthy patient. But most Americans assume government and charity programs enable everyone -- no matter how poor -- to receive treatment for serious health problems.

We Are Driven

As American corporations begin to adopt a Japanese management style stressing worker involvement in a family-like corporate environment, Frontline looks at the darker side of Japanese labor relations at the Nissan Motor Company in both Japan and Smyrna, Tennessee.

The Old Man and the Gun

Viewing the conflict in Northern Ireland through the eyes of Irish Americans who support the IRA and its strategy of violence. Profiles Michael Flannery, Grand Marshal of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, who participated in an ambush on British troops in Ireland some 50 years ago.

Give Me That Big Time Religion

Investigating whether the tens of millions of dollars raised through the appeals of television evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart goes more to doing God's work or to keeping the preachers on TV. Should the government regulate religious fundraising?

The Campaign for Page One

On the eve of the 1984 New Hampshire primary, the first of four national election reports. Correspondent Richard Reeves looks behind the scenes at the presidential candidates and the political reporters who cover them -- the story behind the story and who writes it.

The Mind of a Murderer (1)

Kenneth Bianchi, who killed two women in Bellingham, Washington, and was one of the Hillside Strangler murderers in Los Angeles, almost escaped punishment for these crimes because he convinced a group of experts that he had multiple personalities and was not mentally competent to stand trial.

The Mind of a Murderer (2)

Amid questionable use of psychiatric evidence in criminal proceedings, Kenneth Bianchi is revealed to be an accomplished faker.

The Struggle for Birmingham

A special election report focuses on Birmingham, Alabama -- famously a battlefield for black civil rights. Frontline correspondent Richard Reeves examines black political power today and the struggle for the heart and soul of the black voter.

Captive in El Salvador

Filmmaker Ofra Bikel takes us into the heart of El Salvador -- a tiny Central America nation about which we know so much, and yet so little -- to examine the politics and the people the U.S. government supports there.

Chasing the Basketball Dream

Charlie Cobb looks at young men who make it big playing basketball, and many who will not. College recruiters promise an education in exchange for play, but 75% of players never obtain a degree. Are colleges too busy with their big-time sports programs to be concerned with educating their players?

The Other Side of the Track

An insider's look at the 'sport of kings' focused on tracks at Belmont, NY, where the rich indulge their interest in horse-racing, and at Great Barrington in Massachusetts where infirm horses run for purses that can barely pay the feed bill. This is America's number one spectator sport, in which tens of millions wager tens of billions every year.

Return of the Great White Fleet

Profiling Navy Secretary John Lehman and the growing debate inside the Navy establishment to build a multi-billion-dollar fleet which critics warn may not be suited to the kind of wars the nation is most likely to fight.

Warning from Gangland

Explores what Los Angeles is trying to do about its gang problem. It's the worst in the nation, killing more than 1,000 people over the past three years -- the majority of whom were not even gang members.

Bread, Butter and Politics

Examines findings from a presidential commission and several private advocacy groups on hunger in America, and the extent to which they capture the human story as well as the political environment surrounding the issue.

Man's Best Friends

Examining ethical arguments over the use of animal testing in American laboratories, hospitals, and medical schools. While some animal rights groups break into labs to 'liberate' research animals, many scientists claim any significant restriction on animal testing would end medical progress.

So You Want to Be President

Following the 1984 presidential campaign of Gary Hart to reveal presidential politics as it has never before been seen on television -- from the early days of lonely ambition, through the months of promise, to the day of denial.

Welcome to America

The bittersweet story of four unforgettable people who flee repression in Poland to find a better life in Chicago. They succeed, fail, fight, love, laugh, and confront an America unlike anything they had ever imagined.

Not One of the Boys

As more women are voting and running for elected office, correspondent Judy Woodruff looks at women and politics in 1984 through the eyes of accomplished women like UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro.

Living Below the Line

It could never happen to you. One day it happened to Farrell Stallings. After 28 years at the same job, he was laid off-a victim of the recession. Now he's broke, afraid, and at the mercy of the welfare system. Frontline follows him into the maze of the bureaucracy.

The Arab and the Israeli

Two men, a Palestinian and an Israeli, born thirty miles apart, journey to America. In synagogues and universities, on television talk shows and interviews, they try to project a message: that a solution for the West Bank is possible.

Better Off Dead?

Frontline goes inside the hospitals where every day doctors, lawyers, and parents face the agonizing choice: how far do we go with medical treatment for infants born so physically and mentally damaged that they have no hope of leading normal lives? Several intimate case histories are examined, as are the politics of recent legal decisions and government rules relating to the medical care for critically ill babies.

Cry, Ethiopia, Cry

In one of the first comprehensive reports broadcast in the U.S., Frontline presents the searing reality of the famine in Ethiopia. In desert camps described as 'the closest thing to hell on earth,' nearly 100 children, old people, and the infirm were dying every day. They were dying while the US and the Soviet Union argued over how to feed them and what to do about Ethiopia.

Red Star Over Khyber

In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. On the fifth anniversary of the invasion, Frontline correspondent Richard Reeves reports from Afghanistan and Pakistan, examining the stalemate in the Persian Gulf and the pressure placed on Pakistan to accept over one million Afghan refugees.

Marshall High Fights Back

Marshall High School is one of the poorest in Chicago-both academically and economically. But it is fighting back, trying desperately to upgrade academic standards and to make a difference in the lives of it students. Frontline looks at the struggle to salvage Marshall High and the lessons this school has for a nation trying to improve its public schools.

Vietnam Under Communism

Frontline takes a rare look inside the new Vietnam, 10 years after the fall of Saigon and the US pullout. While the Vietnamese celebrate their victory, the countryside remains scarred and war-torn. Frontline examines the legacies of the longest and most unpopular war in American history on the country where it was fought.

Shootout on Imperial Highway (1)

Seventy-two year-old James Hawkins,Sr. has turned his home and business into an armed camp. Living in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Hawkins is fighting gang members who live across Imperial Highway. It's a war being fought on the streets and in the courtroom between gang members and the Hawkins family.

Shootout on Imperial Highway (2)

The trial of gang members accused of conspiracy concludes this special two-part report. Through interviews in prison and inside the housing project where they live in the Watts section of Los Angeles, gang members talk about gangs and why they form, and the threat they pose to ordinary citizens.

The Lifer and the Lady

He was a convicted murderer. She was a prison volunteer. They fell in love. Frontline follows the story of Ron Cooney, who tries to work his way through the prison system to parole from a life sentence, and Lesley Earl, the woman who wants to help him go straight.

The Child Savers

Over a million cases of child abuse were reported in 1984-and the figure is growing. Frontline follows a dedicated group of case workers from the Emergency Children's Service of New York into homes where they confront violent parents and battered children.

Down for the Count

Professional boxing is one of the most popular and profitable sports in America. It can also be fatal. Frontline goes inside the world of fighters, promoters, and fans who love the sport-and critics who say it should be banned.

Retreat from Beirut

They went to keep the peace. But 241 died-caught in a military and political cross fire.

Buying the Bomb

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh presents his first television investigation for Frontline. After six months of work, Hersh uncovers the story of a Pakistani businessman who tried to ship electrical devices which can be used as nuclear bomb triggers out of the US to Pakistan.

A Class Divided

One day in 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power 30 years later.

Potomac Fever

Every two years, a desire to represent their home districts in Washington brings a group of first-time freshmen congressmen to the nation's capital on the shores of the Potomac river. Frontline follows two newly elected representatives from their homes to Washington where they experience the rewards-and the frustrations-of making the transition from citizen to congressman.

Crisis in Central America 1: Yankee Years

From the Spanish-American War in 1898 until the 1950's, US preeminence in Central America and the Caribbean was never successfully challenged. Part 1 looks at these turbulent years that set the stage for today's crises-from the glory days of building the Panama Canal, through the early US Marine occupation of Nicaragua, to the Cold War crisis in Guatemala in 1954, which resulted in the CIA's first 'covert' war in the region.

Crisis in Central America 2: Castro's Challenge

The Cuban revolution of the 1950's was the first successful challenge to US preeminence in the Western hemisphere. Part 2 looks at the roots of the revolution, Fidel Castro's rise to power, the establishment of the first Communist state in the Americas, the support for his revolution abroad, and Cuba's troubled history with the United States.

Crisis in Central America 3: Revolution in Nicaragua

In 1979, the Sandinistas led a revolution that overthrew the Somoza dynasty which had ruled Nicaragua for almost 50 years. It was a revolution the US first tried to prevent, then tried to court, and later tried to undermine. Part 3 traces the evolution of US involvement in Nicaragua and the struggle for control of the revolution.

Crisis in Central America 4: Battle for El Salvador

Many Americans had never heard of El Salvador until a few years ago. It is now the focus of American policy in Central America. Part 4 traces the evolution of El Salvador's civil war and the US policy toward El Salvador.

Men Who Molest

Experts estimate there are at least four million child sexual abusers in the US, and they do not fit our stereotypes. Almost half of those guilty of incest also molest children outside the family. Many also commit adult rape-and they come from every social background. Should they be treated, punished, or both? Frontline examines a controversial Seattle, Washington, program aimed at treating child sexual abusers.

Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred?

One in four American citizens is Catholic, yet few seem to agree with-or follow-every doctrine and practice of their church. Frontline examines the conflicts within the American Catholic Church and its ongoing struggle with the Vatican.

The American Way of War

Frontline examines the complex relationship between the US Army, its fighting doctrine, the American people, and the government in an effort to understand the army's role in fighting modern wars.

Memory of the Camps

Forty years ago, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world's conscience. Frontline presents the world broadcast of a 1945 film made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. The film was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and is broadcast for the first time in its entirety on Frontline.

You Are in the Computer

You go to rent an apartment and are turned down without any obvious reason. Then you find out your name is in a computer file of undesirable tenants and every other landlord in the city has access to the information. Correspondent Robert Krulwich investigates computerized information systems and the issues of privacy they raise.

What About Mom and Dad?

Breaking the Bank

In 1984, there were more bank failures in the US than at any time since the Great Depression. Correspondent Judy Woodruff investigates one of the largest banks that failed, Penn Square in Oklahoma City, and another which nearly failed, Continental Illinois in Chicago, to examine the implications on the nation's banking system.

Hostage in Iran

While the whole world watched, 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran by Islamic revolutionaries for 444 days. On the fifth anniversary of their release, using never-before-seen footage from inside the American embassy compound in Tehran, the hostages tell the story of their long ordeal.

Sue the Doctor?

For many doctors, practicing medicine has become a nightmare. Today, one out of every six American doctors faces a malpractice suit. Frontline takes an inside look at the fierce battle developing between doctors and lawyers over medical malpractice suits.

Growing Up Poor

The children of Chester, Pennsylvania are plagued by poor health, malnutrition, drugs, and family problems. Half of them live below the poverty line. Frontline follows them through the maze of social service programs available to them and discovers what it is like growing up poor.

Russia-Love It or Leave It

A unique look at the Soviet Union through the eyes of Americans as they attempt to escape the confines of a carefully managed Russian tour. They elude their government guides and search for their fellow man on the streets of the Soviet Union.

Tobacco on Trial

Life-long smokers who say their health has been destroyed by cigarettes are suing tobacco companies. Frontline correspondent Judy Woodruff takes an inside look at the preparation of these massive lawsuits, concentrating on a suit that would later reach the Supreme Court as well as presenting the emphatic denials of the tobacco industry, which says smoking is a simple question of personal choice and responsibility.

Divorce Wars

Half of all American marriages end in divorce. Using unique access to mediation and court proceedings, Frontline profiles the couples, the lawyers, the judges, and most poignantly, the children caught between parents.

Who's Running this War?

Eight months before the Iran-contra scandal broke, Frontline investigated the contras, probed the legality of private aid, and asked questions about the role of the White House and a mysterious Marine colonel named Oliver North.

AIDS: a National Inquiry

Fabian Bridges, a homosexual prostitute, bragged he had sex with six partners a night and refused to stop even though he knew he had AIDS. In a special broadcast, Frontline first follows Bridges' tragic journey across the US and later, a panel of national experts, led by Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, discuss how Americans should respond to this urgent public health issue.

Standoff in Mexico

Political violence is breaking out in northern Mexico. Frontline documents the growing unrest in Mexico caused by fixed elections, corruption, violence, and the widening gap between Mexico City and the more conservative border states.

Inside the Jury Room

For the first time on American television, Frontline cameras move inside a jury room to record the deliberations in a Wisconsin criminal trial. The results yield a view of 12 Americans grappling with guilt, innocence, and the nature of justice as never before seen.

Taxes Behind Closed Doors

For more than a year, Frontline has been behind the scenes with congressmen and lobbyists covering the deals, dollars, and politics of tax reform. Correspondent William Greider investigates how Washington really works as seen through this exclusive access to the inner circles of Congress.

The Disillusionment of David Stockman

Former budget director David Stockman gives an exclusive interview to correspondent William Greider on what has been called 'the greatest free lunch fiscal policy' in modern times.

Visions of Star Wars

Frontline and Nova combine resources for the first time to explore the Strategic Defense Initiative. The program contains the most comprehensive information on Star Wars ever produced. Correspondent Bill Kurtis interviews Russian and American scientists, arms-control experts, and politicians to reveal the scientific and political implications of what could become the world's most sophisticated military technology.

Hollywood Dreams

Hollywood is called an industry, a place, a state of mind. But making it in Hollywood, and making movies, persists as part of the American dream. In the real world of agents, casting directors, aspiring actors, and studio executives, how are movies made? Frontline examines the fantasy and reality of Hollywood's five billion dollar a year industry.

The Bloods of 'Nam

A high percentage of men on the frontlines in Vietnam were young, poor, undereducated, and black. By most accounts, they had the highest casualties. But these young men say they were fighting two wars-against the enemy and against discrimination. Correspondent Wallace Terry, the author of 'Bloods,' the national bestseller on which this film is based, talks with black veterans who fought discrimination in Vietnam and who later confronted disillusionment when they came home.

A Matter of the Mind

Millions of Americans are mentally ill. They live in a world that is fragile and often frightening. Inside a halfway house in St. Paul, Minnesota, Frontline examines mental illness from the point of view of those who struggle with it as they fight their psychological demons and confront the social stigma of their disease.

Holy War, Holy Terror

Frontline correspondent John Laurence examines the background of the Islamic Revolution, the roots of radical Shiism and reveals why Iran's war with Iraq is an important step in spreading their brand of Islam throughout the world.

Will There Always Be an England?

England is a country divided. One in five workers in northern England is unemployed, while in the south of the country, power, privilege prevail. Ofra Bikel explores Britain's social structure, cultural values, and attitudes toward enterprise and work.

Assault on Affirmative Action

The Supreme Court ruled against a Memphis firefighter who successfully fought for an affirmative action plan for the hiring of fellow firefighters in 1984. As a result, the Justice Department asked 50 cities to tighten their affirmative action policies. Correspondent George Curry examines the 20 year conflict over these policies and reveals the point of view of those whom it affects.

Comrades I: The Education of Rita

Rita Tikhonova, 21, is a model Russian citizen. The lifestyle and ambitions of an outstanding Young Communist League member in Moscow are depicted as she completes her education at a prestigious school and begins her first teaching job.

Comrades II: Hunter and Son

For four months every year, Mikhail Kuzakov and his son, Yuri, leave the comforts of home for the Siberian wilderness, where they hunt on horseback for sable and other valuable fur animals. Frontline examines life in the taiga and follows the hunt of father and son.

Comrades III: All that Jazz

Sergei Kuryokhin is a popular Russian jazz and rock musician who is disapproved of by the state because his music is difficult to control. Made without the permission of Soviet authorities on a home video camera, Frontline takes a look at the Soviet music subculture and this one talented musician.

Comrades IV: The Trial of Tamara Russo

Frontline examines the differences in Soviet and Western justice systems as it contrasts the lives of Tamara Russo, a 50-year-old hospital orderly on trial for theft in Soviet Moldavia, and Lyubov Bubulic, the female judge presiding over Russo's case.

Comrades V: Master of Samarkand

Abdugaffar Khakkulov is a master craftsman of Uzbek heritage who for 35 years has been restoring the great Islamic mosques in Samarkand. Frontline examines daily life in a Muslim community and explores the uneasy relationship between Islamic faith and Soviet power.

Comrades VI: Pacific Outpost

Frontline gained unique access in filming the inner workings of the local government system in Nakhodka, a town six thousand miles and seven time zones from Moscow. Here, Frontline profiles the workaholic lifestyle of Tatyana Naumova, a communist zealot and town official in Nakhodka, and the tensions it creates with her husband, who cares for their two daughters.

Comrades VII: Steel Mill Soccer

Frontline profiles the lives of players on a factory soccer team in the southern Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan as they fight for the town championship.

Comrades VIII: Doctor in Moscow

Svyatoslav Nilolaevich Fyodorov is an outspoken and provocative eye surgeon whose surgical technique for correcting nearsightedness has made him famous. He lives like a superstar with a chauffeur, a sumptuous apartment in Moscow, and a house in the country. Frontline follows Fyodorov through his day and reveals what life is really like for privileged Soviet Citizens.

Comrades IX: Baltic Chic

Comrades X: Soldier Boy

For the first time on Western television, Frontline details a recruit's life inside a Soviet Army barracks. Frontline cameras follow Valera Krylov, 18, through the exertion and boredom of basic training in the military and focuses on his parents, who worry that in the next two years he may be fighting in Afghanistan.

Comrades XI: October Harvest

The Kulinich family lives and works on a collective farm in southern Russia. Frontline follows the Kulinichs through their daily lives during harvest time and takes a close look at the workings of the collective farm system to find that they, like many other Russian peasants, have discovered their own version of the Communist way of life-Leninism with loopholes.

Comrades XII: Leningrad Movie

Soviet film directors have one advantage over Westerners: the state takes care of the budget. But in return, the state expects firm control over all productions. Dinara Asanova, one of the few female directors of Soviet features, knows how to bend the rules-departing from approved scripts and changing characters and locations, with controversial results.

The Real Stuff

One year after the Challenger disaster, Frontline examined the all-too-human side of the space program as seen through the eyes of the astronauts and engineers responsible for making it work. Correspondent James Reston tells the inside story of a program plagued by problems and politics.

The Earthquake Is Coming

Frontline examines the startling implications of what will happen when the big earthquake hits California, detailing the awesome effects as systems rupture and the entire nation's economy, industries, and national security are jeopardized.

Stopping Drugs (1)

A two-part special examining efforts to stamp out drugs. Part 1 examines the personal struggles of addicts trying to kick the habit and the effectiveness of drug treatment programs. Part 2 journeys into America’s schools to find out if drugs are really a major problem and if anti-drug efforts are working.

Stopping Drugs (2)

A two-part special examining efforts to stamp out drugs. Part 1 examines the personal struggles of addicts trying to kick the habit and the effectiveness of drug treatment programs. Part 2 journeys into America’s schools to find out if drugs are really a major problem and if anti-drug efforts are working.

The Nazi Connection

German scientists were responsible for putting the first American on the moon. Now, 15 years later, government investigators are asking whether some of them were also responsible for Nazi war crimes. Frontline examines their war records and the role of American officials who decided to bring them to the United States.

Desperately Seeking Baby

Two million American couples desperately want babies and can’t have them. They are turning to private adoption deals brokered by lawyers and counselors. Sometimes they get a new baby and a happy home; sometimes their hearts are broken. Frontline looks at a system filled with ambiguity and heartbreak.

Street Cop

Frontline takes a gritty look at street cops. In Boston’s busiest, most violent police district, they confront the never-ending calls for help and the never-ending chase after drugs.

The Secret File

How could an ordinary citizen be considered a national security risk? Penn Kimball, a university professor, former New York Times editor, Rhodes scholar, and Eagle Scout, was stunned to discover that for 30 years, government files existed declaring him as a disloyal American. As he tries to clear his name, Frontline examines the government decision to gather information on American citizens.

War on Nicaragua

As the Iran-contra scandal was still unfolding, Frontline correspondent William Greider revealed how the US began supporting the contras in Nicaragua and why our involvement there continues. The program is a meticulous reconstruction of US policy toward Nicaragua, and an investigation into how US foreign policy is made.

The Bombing of West Philly

‘I could hear the bullets all around me, hitting all around the house. I was forced back by gunfire,’ says Ramona Africa, the only adult survivor of MOVE, a small, violent, urban cult. Years of tension ended May 13, 1985, when police bombed Africa’s house. The surrounding neighborhood burned out of control, leaving 250 homeless. Frontline correspondent Leon Dash examines why the bombing really happened.

In Search of the Marcos Millions

The day Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fled the Philippines in 1986, they left with $8.9 million in jewelry, cash, and bonds. But the Philippine government claims they took much more, plundering the wealth of the nation, stashing it in fake companies and secret bank accounts. Frontline tracked hundreds of millions of dollars of the Marcos money and asked whether the Philippine government will ever get it back.

Israel: the Price of Victory

The Six Day War was a decisive victory for Israel. But many Israelis feel that something has gone wrong. On the war’s twentieth anniversary, Frontline finds a nation struggling with its image and its role as a democracy and reveals what has happened to the dream.

Death of a Porn Queen

She was from Minnesota. Young, pretty, and fresh. She went to Hollywood in search of a dream and found herself in X-rated movies, on drugs, and estranged from her family and friends. Correspondent Al Austin retraces her story, discovering why after two years as a porn queen, she took her own life.

Keeping the Faith

The black church was once the soul of its community. It was a rallying point and a force for change. Now, as the black middle class grows and the church evolves, correspondent Roger Wilkins asks whom does it serve and to what end?

The Politics of Greed

As corruption scandals rock New York City, the careers of dozens of high officials are being destroyed. Frontline takes an inside look at the seamy side of urban politics and asks whether this is any way to run a government.

Apartheid Part I: 1652-1948

Many white South Africans claim that the entire country is theirs by right. No black man, they say, occupied South Africa before the first tiny Dutch settlement in 1652. Part 1 refutes this claim and traces the country’s colonial history, the emergence early in the 20th century of the African National Congress, the rise to power of Afrikaner nationalists, and the formal policy of apartheid.

Apartheid Part 2: 1948-1963

Part 2 details the new policy which included classifying all South Africans by race, removing blacks from cities where many had lived for generations, and establishing separate and unequal schooling for blacks. Frontline focuses on the increasing black resistance in the 1950s and the rise of resistance leader Nelson Mandela.

Apartheid Part 3: 1963-1977

Independent homelands' for blacks was the centerpiece of Prime Minister Hendrick Verwoerd's vision of apartheid. Part 3 focuses on how the white government found African leaders to collaborate with them in a plan to make foreigners of black South African citizens by deporting them to independent homelands in rural areas of the country. The program looks at the increased resistance to the homeland policy as seen through the first nationwide attack by young black South Africans in the Soweto ghetto in 1976.

Apartheid Part 4: 1978-1986

When PW Botha became prime minister of South Africa two years after the Soweto uprising in 1976, he realized that apartheid must ‘adapt or die.’ Part 4 explores the reforms undertaken by Botha to maintain white supremacy, changes that have deeply divided Afrikaners and have provoked explosive reactions from many blacks.

Apartheid Part 5: 1987

Part 5 looks at an unprecedented meeting in the struggle for South Africa’s future. Two years before the release of Nelson Mandela, dissident white Afrikaners met with black leaders from the outlawed African National Congress in Dakar, Senagal, to discuss strategies for change in South Africa, presaging the reforms that would come later.

Praise the Lord

Frontline traces the rise and fall of television evangelists Jim and Tammy Bakker and investigates why government agencies failed to vigorously investigate charges of corruption in the Bakker empire.

Operation Urgent Fury

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh investigates one of Ronald Reagan’s greatest truimphs-the rescue of American students during the 1983 invasion of Grenada. Hersh’s reporting reveals an inept US military operation and questions whether the students needed rescuing at all.

The Man Who Shot John Lennon

Frontline goes inside the mind of Mark David Chapman, the man who shot and killed John Lennon in 1980. Newly acquired records paint the chilling portrait of a celebrity stalker who meticulously planned the murder, believing it would make him famous.

Your Flight is Cancelled

Since deregulation, America's airline industry has become a nightmare of delays, cancellations, and near misses. This film probes the air traffic dilemma inside America's busiest airport -- in the control tower and behind the ticket counter.

Shakedown in Santa Fe

Eight years after one of the most violent prison uprisings in US history, Frontline returns to the penitentiary in New Mexico to probe the contininuing struggle between the inmates and the guards, the wardens and the reformers, for control of one of our most dangerous prisons.

Let My Daughter Die

Joe and Joyce Cruzan want doctors to remove their severely brain damaged daughter from the life-support system that keeps her alive. Nearly two years before it became the US Supreme Court’s first right-to-die case, Frontline explored the complex legal and moral issues of this Missouri couple’s battle to allow their daughter to die.

Back in the USSR

In 1968, American journalist Jerry Schecter, accompanied by his wife and five young children, moved to Moscow on assignment for Time magazine. In 1987, Frontline returned with the Schecter family to the Soviet Union as they renewed old friendships and explored Russia under glasnost.

Poison and the Pentagon

The military is America’s largest producer of toxic waste. Frontline reporter Joe Rosenbloom investigates the Pentagon’s poor record of cleaning up its pollution that contaminates the ground water in communities across the country.

To a Safer Place

When Shirley Turcotte was a child, she was sexually abused by her father. After years of therapy she takes a remarkable journey back into her past-confronting her mother and other adults who failed to protect her, reuniting with her brothers and sister who were also brutally abused, and trying to make peace with the horror story that was her childhood.

Murder on the Rio San Juan

Frontline investigates the unsolved 1984 terrorist bombing at a press conference held by contra leader Eden Pastora. Eight people, including an American reporter, died that night on the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. This report dissects the motives of possible conspirators and follows the trail of the man suspected of planting the bomb.

American Game, Japanese Rules

Can America succeed in Japan? Frontline paints an intimate portrait of Americans living and working in Japan-baseball players, businessmen, and an American bride-all confronting a society that looks Western, but operates by a very different set of rules.

Racism 101

Frontline explores the disturbing increase in racial incidents and violence on America’s college campuses. The attitudes of black and white students reveal increasing tensions at some of the country’s best universities where years after the civil rights struggle, full integration is still only a dream.

Guns, Drugs, and the CIA

An accountant for the Medellin drug cartel explains how he was asked by the CIA to provide funding to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

The Defense of Europe

The Choice

Frontline examines in-depth the background, character, qualifications, and beliefs of the Republican and Democratic candidates, George Bush and Michael Dukakis.

Who Pays for AIDS?

Our Forgotten War

Indian Country

My Husband is Going to Kill Me

The Politics of Prosperity

The Choice

The Real Life of Ronald Reagan

The Spy Who Broke the Code

The Battle for Eastern Airlines

Running with Jesse

Children of the Night

Who Profits from Drugs

Prescriptions for Profit

The Dallas Drug War

Murder in the Amazon

The Shakespeare Mystery

Extraordinary People

Yellowstone Under Fire

Remember My Lai

Israel: the Covert Connection

Babies at Risk

Death of a Terrorist

Who's Killing Calvert City?

Tracking the Pan Am Bombers

The Right to Die?

The Bombing of Pan Am 103

The Noriega Connection

Miss USSR

Throwaway People

The Faces of Arafat

Anatomy of an Oil Spill

Poland - the Morning After

Born in Africa

New Harvest, Old Shame

Hilary in Hiding

Other People's Money

Plunder!

Seven Days in Bensonhurst

Inside the Cartel

Teacher, Teacher

The Arming of Iraq: Frontline Special

Decade of Destruction (1): Ashes of Forest

Decade of Destruction (2): Killing for Land

Decade of Destruction (3): Mountains of Gold

Decade of Destruction (4): Chico Mende

Global Dumping Ground

When Cops Go Bad

The Hunt for Howard Marks

Broken Minds

Three million Americans are thought to be schizophrenic. As medical science searches to find its cause, society struggles to understand a crippling disease that has shattered families and left tens of thousands on the nation’s streets.

Betting on the Lottery

Lottery fever is spreading. Twenty-nine states now raise $20 billion a year in revenues. Frontline correspondent James Reston, Jr., goes behind the scenes of state lotteries to look at the promoters selling them, the people buying the tickets, and to ask the question, ‘Who really wins and who loses?’

Springfield Goes to War

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

The Struggle for South Africa

The Spirit of Crazy Horse

To the Brink of War

Cuba and Cocaine

The Man Who Made the Supergun

Guns, Tanks, and Gorbachev

The Mind of Hussein

Black America's War

War and Peace in Panama

The Election Held Hostage

Who Pays for Mom and Dad?

Innocence Lost

The Spy Hunter

To the Last Fish

The Color of Your Skin

The Gates Nomination

In the Shadow of Sakharov

The Great American Bailout

The War We Left Behind

Don King, Unauthorized

My Doctor, My Lover

Losing the War with Japan

The Secret Story of Terry Waite

Who Killed Adam Mann?

The Resurrection of Reverend Moon

The Last Communist

Coming from Japan

After Gorbachev's USSR

Who is David Duke?

The Death of Nancy Cruzan

Saddam's Killing Fields

Investigating the October Surprise

The Betrayal of Democracy

The Bank of Crooks and Criminals

Who Cares About Children?

China After Tiananmen

Dear Frontline

A Kid Kills

Your Loan is Denied

Thomas and Hill: Public Hearing, Private Pain

The Politics of Power

The Best Campaign Money Can Buy

Monsters Among Us

JFK, Hoffa, and the Mob

In Search of Our Fathers

Thomas and Hill: Public Hearing, Private Pain

The Politics of Power

The Choice '92

The Best Campaign Money Can Buy

Monsters Among Us

JFK, Hoffa, and the Mob

In Search of Our Fathers

Clinton Takes Over

Journey to the Occupied Lands

What Happened to the Drug War?

The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover

The Arming of Saudi Arabia

Apartheid's Last Stand

Choosing Death: Health Quarterly Special

In the Netherlands, euthanasia has been openly practiced for twenty years. Through the personal accounts of doctors, patients, and families in Holland, this program explores the complexities and dilemmas of euthanasia. Anchored by veteran newsman Roger Mudd and co-produced by The Health Quarterly and Frontline, the documentary is interspersed with a studio discussion relating the Dutch experience to the euthanasia debate in the United States.

In Our Children's Food

The Trouble with Baseball

Iran and the Bomb

LA Is Burning: 5 Reports from a Divided City

Ashes of the Cold War

The Health Care Gamble

Innocence Lost: The Verdict Parts I and II

The Heartbeat of America

Prisoners of Silence

Secrets of a Bomb Factory

Showdown in Haiti

Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?

AIDS, Blood and Politics

Behind the Badge

A Place for Madness

The Diamond Empire

Tabloid Truth: the Michael Jackson Story

Red Flag Over Tibet

Sarajevo: the Living and the Dead

Sarajevo: the Living and the Dead is a 1993 documentary film directed by Radovan Tadic.

In the Game

The Kevorkian File

Mandela

The Struggle for Russia

Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo

Public Lands, Private Profits

Go Back to Mexico!

The Trouble with Evan

School Colors

Is This Any Way to Run a Government?

Hot Money

How to Steal $500 Million

Hillary's Class

In 1969, Hillary Rodham Clinton and four hundred other smart, privileged, young women graduated from Wellesley College into a world that for the first time was opening its doors to women. But what about her classmates who left college believing they could do anything? In 1969, Hillary Rodham Clinton and four hundred other smart, privileged, young women graduated from Wellesley College into a world that for the first time was opening its doors to women.

The Nicotine War

Does TV Kill?

What Happened to Bill Clinton?

The Godfather of Cocaine

FRONTLINE travels to Colombia for an investigative biography of the rise and fall of the richest and most violent cocaine drug lord, Pablo Escobar. Before Colombian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency hunted him down and killed him, Escobar built an estimated $4 billion fortune through international cocaine smuggling alliances and the violent repression of his enemies.

The Begging Game

Each day, thousands of panhandlers work the streets and subways of cities all across America. Are the hard luck stories they tell believable? What are their lives really like off the street? Correspondent Deborah Amos explores the hidden world of panhandlers in New York City, gaining access to the intimate details of the their lives, investigating the real story of why they beg, and examining the impact of New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s crackdown on panhandlers.

Rush Limbaugh's America

Divided Memories (1)

Divided Memories (2)

The Homecoming

When the Bough Breaks

FRONTLINE explores the bond between parents and children and the profound implications for children’s behavior later in life if that attachment is hampered. These characteristics may include overly aggressive behavior, serious learning problems, and delinquency. The program uses surveillance cameras in the homes of three middle-class families who are struggling with troubled children between the ages of sixteen months and three years and observes the behavior and interactions of the children and their parents. ‘Even before they can speak, children give out signals,’ says producer Neil Docherty. ‘What are those signals? And what happens when they are misread or missed entirely?’

The Vanishing Father

In less than two generations, a seismic shift has occurred in the makeup of the American family. Today,fatherlessness has become the norm for about forty percent of American children and, some experts believe, contributes to some of our most urgent social problems. FRONTLINE explores this dramatic change in the American family and the startling findings of sociologists that, despite economic status, children from single parent homes are twice as likely to drop out of high school, to become teen-age mothers, and to spend time in jail.

The Confessions of Rosa Lee

Welcome to Happy Valley

Prozac is the most prescribed antidepressant drug in America. FRONTLINE travels to the prozac capital of the world, Wenatchee, Washington, and talks to the ‘Pied Piper of Prozac,’ Dr. Jim Goodwin, a clinical psychologist who says Prozac is ‘probably less toxic than salt’ and has had it prescribed for all his seven hundred patients. Psychiatrist Peter Breggin and members of the Prozac Survivors Support Group, however, question the use of the drug.

Currents of Fear

Waco: the Inside Story

FRONTLINE investigates the April 1993 FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas. With access to secret government documents, audio and videotapes, correspondent Peter Boyer of "The New Yorker" probes the untold story of the fierce political infighting inside the FBI's Waco command center and in the corridors of power at the Justice Department in Washington.

The Search for Satan

High Stakes in Cyberspace

Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?

Natasha and the Wolf

FRONTLINE takes a riveting and intimate look at a notorious murder case--the story of Maduev, a cunning Russian gangster and killer known as 'The Wolf.' Maduev charmed and seduced all who crossed his path, including his state prosecutor, Natasha Voronstova, who smuggled him a gun to make his escape from prison. With exclusive access to the central characters, the trial, and to secret KGB tapes, this film reveals the heart of a killer's chilling story that has mesmerized Russia.

Living on the Edge

The Gulf War

The Long March of Newt Gingrich

In this investigative biography of the outspoken and controversial speaker, which first aired in 1996, correspondent Peter J. Boyer takes an inside look at how Gingrich led the GOP to become the majority party and examines the childhood, people and events that shaped his personality and political career.

So You Want to Buy a President?

Murder on 'Abortion Row'

Clinic workers Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols are murdered by John Salvi, a radical, young, Catholic abortion opponent.

Breast Implants on Trial

Smoke in the Eye

Angel on Death Row

Shtetl

FRONTLINE producer Marian Marzynski travels to Poland to search for remnants of the lives and memories of an entire Jewish village, a shtetl lost in the Holocaust.

The Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson

The Kevorkian Verdict

Does America Still Work?

The Gate of Heavenly Peace

The Choice '96

The Navy Blues

Why America Hates the Press

Loose Nukes

Secret Daughter

Betting on the Market

Six O'Clock News

What Jennifer Saw

Valentina's Nightmare

A Journey Into the Rwanda Genocide

Murder, Money, and Mexico

The Fixers

Nuclear Reaction

Little Criminals

The Opium Kings

Innocence Lost: the Plea

Hot Guns

Easy Money

Nazi Gold