Frontline: Season 2

S2·E1 Mytharc

Crisis at General Hospital

Jan 16, 1984

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 progr

S2·E2 Core

We Are Driven

Jan 23, 1984

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 Japan

S2·E3 Core

The Old Man and the Gun

Feb 6, 1984

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

S2·E4 Core

Give Me That Big Time Religion

Feb 13, 1984

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 preac

S2·E5 Filler

The Campaign for Page One

Feb 27, 1984

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 t

S2·E6 Core

The Mind of a Murderer (1)

Mar 19, 1984

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

S2·E7 Core

The Mind of a Murderer (2)

Mar 26, 1984

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

S2·E8 Core

The Struggle for Birmingham

Apr 2, 1984

A special election report focuses on Birmingham, Alabama -- famously a battlefield for black civil rights. Frontline correspondent Richard Reeves examines black political power tod

S2·E9 Core

Captive in El Salvador

Apr 16, 1984

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 peopl

S2·E10 Core

Chasing the Basketball Dream

Apr 23, 1984

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 ob

S2·E11 Core

The Other Side of the Track

May 7, 1984

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 in

S2·E12 Core

Return of the Great White Fleet

May 14, 1984

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

S2·E13 Core

Warning from Gangland

May 21, 1984

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 wer

S2·E14 Core

Bread, Butter and Politics

Jun 4, 1984

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 polit

S2·E15 Core

Man's Best Friends

Jun 18, 1984

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' r

S2·E16 Core

So You Want to Be President

Oct 9, 1984

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, thro

S2·E17 Core

Welcome to America

Oct 16, 1984

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 u

S2·E18 Core

Not One of the Boys

Oct 23, 1984

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 J

S2·E19 Core

Living Below the Line

Oct 30, 1984

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 th

S2·E20 Core

The Arab and the Israeli

Nov 13, 1984

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 m

S2·E21 Core

Better Off Dead?

Nov 20, 1984

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

S2·E22 Core

Cry, Ethiopia, Cry

Nov 27, 1984

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 t

S2·E23 Mytharc

Red Star Over Khyber

Dec 11, 1984

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

S2·E24 Mytharc

Marshall High Fights Back

Dec 18, 1984

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 di