Apartheid Part I: 1652-1948

S06 E01 • Monday, Dec 14, 1987 • Dec 14

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

S06 E02 • Monday, Dec 14, 1987 • Dec 14

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

S06 E03 • Tuesday, Dec 15, 1987 • Dec 15

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

S06 E04 • Tuesday, Dec 15, 1987 • Dec 15

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

S06 E05 • Wednesday, Dec 16, 1987 • Dec 16

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

S06 E06 • Tuesday, Jan 26, 1988 • Jan 26

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

S06 E07 • Tuesday, Feb 2, 1988 • Feb 2

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

S06 E08 • Tuesday, Feb 9, 1988 • Feb 9

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

S06 E09 • Tuesday, Feb 16, 1988 • Feb 16

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

S06 E10 • Tuesday, Feb 23, 1988 • Feb 23

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

S06 E11 • Tuesday, Mar 1, 1988 • Mar 1

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

S06 E12 • Tuesday, Mar 29, 1988 • Mar 29

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

S06 E13 • Tuesday, Apr 5, 1988 • Apr 5

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

S06 E14 • Tuesday, Apr 12, 1988 • Apr 12

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

S06 E15 • Tuesday, Apr 19, 1988 • Apr 19

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

S06 E16 • Tuesday, Apr 26, 1988 • Apr 26

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

S06 E17 • Tuesday, May 10, 1988 • May 10

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

S06 E18 • Tuesday, May 17, 1988 • May 17

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

S06 E19 • Tuesday, May 24, 1988 • May 24

The Choice

S06 E20 • Monday, Oct 24, 1988 • Oct 24

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?

S06 E21 • Tuesday, Jun 7, 1988 • Jun 7

Our Forgotten War

S06 E22 • Tuesday, Jun 14, 1988 • Jun 14

Indian Country

S06 E23 • Tuesday, Jun 21, 1988 • Jun 21

My Husband is Going to Kill Me

S06 E24 • Tuesday, Jun 28, 1988 • Jun 28