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15 January 1984 · 24 episodes
Judy Woodruff's first season as on-air host.
16 January 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 programs enable everyone -- no matter how poor -- to receive treatment for serious health problems.
23 January 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 Japanese labor relations at the Nissan Motor Company in both Japan and Smyrna, Tennessee.
6 February 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 City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, who participated in an ambush on British troops in Ireland some 50 years ago.
4. Give Me That Big Time Religion
13 February 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 preachers on TV. Should the government regulate religious fundraising?
27 February 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 the political reporters who cover them -- the story behind the story and who writes it.
19 March 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 he convinced a group of experts that he had multiple personalities and was not mentally competent to stand trial.
26 March 1984
Amid questionable use of psychiatric evidence in criminal proceedings, Kenneth Bianchi is revealed to be an accomplished faker.
8. The Struggle for Birmingham
2 April 1984
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.
16 April 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 people the U.S. government supports there.
10. Chasing the Basketball Dream
23 April 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 obtain a degree. Are colleges too busy with their big-time sports programs to be concerned with educating their players?
11. The Other Side of the Track
7 May 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 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.
12. Return of the Great White Fleet
14 May 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 wars the nation is most likely to fight.
21 May 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 were not even gang members.
14. Bread, Butter and Politics
4 June 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 political environment surrounding the issue.
18 June 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' research animals, many scientists claim any significant restriction on animal testing would end medical progress.
16. So You Want to Be President
9 October 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, through the months of promise, to the day of denial.
16 October 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 unlike anything they had ever imagined.
23 October 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 Jeane Kirkpatrick and vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro.
30 October 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 the mercy of the welfare system. Frontline follows him into the maze of the bureaucracy.
13 November 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 message: that a solution for the West Bank is possible.
21. Better Off Dead?
20 November 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 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.
27 November 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 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.
11 December 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 stalemate in the Persian Gulf and the pressure placed on Pakistan to accept over one million Afghan refugees.
18 December 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 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.