The BEST episodes of Connections

Every episode of Connections ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Connections!

The original ten volume series was made in 1978. The popular success of the series led to two sequels, Connections 2 (sometimes written Connections2) in 1994, and Connections 3 (or Connections3) in 1997, both produced for TLC. By turning science into a detective story James Burke creates a series that will fascinate students and adults alike. This interdisciplinary approach has never before been applied to history or science and it succeeds tremendously. Winner of the Red Ribbon in the American Film Festival, the scope of the series covers 19 countries and 150 locations, requiring over 14 months of filming. As the Sherlock Holmes of science, Burke tracks through 12,000 years of history for the clues that lead us to eight great life changing inventions-the atom bomb, telecommunications, the computer, the production line, jet aircraft, plastics, rocketry and television. Burke postulates that such changes occur in response to factors he calls "triggers," some of them seemingly unrelated. These have their own triggering effects, causing change in totally unrelated fields as well. And so the connections begin...

Last Updated: 1/25/2024Network: CuriosityStreamStatus: Ended
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Faith in Numbers
star
9.46
119 votes

#1 - Faith in Numbers

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/7/1978

Each development in the organization of systems (political, economic, mechanical, electronic) influences the next, by logic, by genius, by chance, or by utterly unforeseen events. The transition from the Middle ages to the Renaissance was influenced by the rise of commercialism, a sudden change in climate, famine and the Black Death, which set the stage for the invention of the printing press.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Yesterday, Tomorrow and You
star
9.15
47 votes

#2 - Yesterday, Tomorrow and You

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/19/1978

"Why did we do it this way?" Essential moments from the previous programs are reviewed to illustrate the common factors that make for change. Will they go on operating to affect our futures? And if so, can we recognize them? The second half looks at the extent to which we have become increasingly incapable of understanding how change occurs in our complex world and at why we are in such a predicament. Finally, there is a look ahead to the need for radical change in the availability and use of information in the future, if we are to remain in control of our destinies.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:Amazon
The Long Chain
star
9.04
53 votes

#3 - The Long Chain

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/28/1978

Often, materials discovered by accident alter the course of the world. In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Competing British lines induced America to produce pitch to protect hulls of their royal vessels. This arrangement lasted until 1776, after which a Scottish inventor tried to produce pitch from coal tar. By the time he succeeded the navy was using copper instead. Subsequent experiments with coal tar yielded gaslight lamps, waterproofed garments, a brilliant mauve dye that established the German chemical industry and nylon, the first of the miracle plastics.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:Amazon
Countdown
star
8.98
51 votes

#4 - Countdown

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/12/1978

What happens when you combine a carbon arc light, a billiard ball coating, a spoked wheel and consecutive images? Motion pictures! Complex and sometimes incredible events led to Thomas Edison's remarkable invention; the beginnings of limelight on a Irish mountain; George Eastman's production of celluloid from the slightly explosive gun cotton; the ""magic lantern"" of an Austrian ballistics teacher. Then Eadweard Muybridge settled a bet in 1872 by photographs; does a horse raise all four feet when galloping? (Yes.) Today moving pictures, together with television, are enormously powerful mass media. Have we become trapped by our own technology?

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:Amazon
The Trigger Effect
star
8.60
163 votes

#5 - The Trigger Effect

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/17/1978

Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our present dependence on complex technological networks illustrated by the NYC power blackouts. Life came almost to a standstill: support systems are taken for granted failed. How did we become so helpless? The technology originated with the plow and agriculture. Each invention demands its own follow-up: once started, it is hard to stop. This segment ends in Kuwait, where society has leaped from ancient Egypt to the technology of today in 30 years.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:Amazon
The Wheel of Fortune
star
8.41
88 votes

#6 - The Wheel of Fortune

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/14/1978

The power to see into the future with computers originally rested with priest-astronomers who knew the proper times to plant and harvest. The constellations influenced life spectacularly, particularly when the ailing Caliph of Baghdad was cured by an astrologer using Greek lore. His ancient medical secrets were translated and spread throughout Europe, ushering in an era of scientific inquiry. The need for more precise measuring devices in navigation gave rise to the pendulum clock, the telescope, forged steel and interchangeable machine parts-the basis of modern industrial system.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:Amazon
Distant Voices
star
8.38
125 votes

#7 - Distant Voices

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/31/1978

Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a revolution in the increasingly expensive science of warfare. Europe turned its attention to making money to wage wars. As mine shafts were dug deeper, they became flooded, stimulating scientists like Galileo to investigate vacuums, air pressure and other natural laws to mine deeper silver. This led to the discovery of electricity and magnetism's relationship and to the development of radio, and deep space telecommunications that may enable contact with galactic civilizations.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Death in the Morning
star
8.37
90 votes

#8 - Death in the Morning

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/24/1978

How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precious metal in coins stimulated trade from Greece to Persia, causing the construction of a huge commercial center and library at Alexandria. This wealth of nautical knowledge aided navigators 14 centuries later. Mariners discovered that the compass's magnetized needle did not point directly north. Investigations into the nature of magnetism led to the discovery of electricity, radar and to the atomic bomb.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
star
8.23
81 votes

#9 - Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/5/1978

When Napoleon marched huge forces across Europe, he needed an efficient way to store provisions. A Frenchman preserved sterilized food in empty champagne bottles, an idea modified by the British, who tried tin cans. Still, canned foods sometimes spoiled, which led to experiments with refrigeration. Later, it was discovered that gases may be stored at very low temperatures in a thermos flask, a device handy for picnics, for polar explorers, and for storing large quantities of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. When lit by a spark these gases can send rockets into space.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Thunder in the Skies
star
8.20
87 votes

#10 - Thunder in the Skies

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/21/1978

A dramatically colder climate gripped Europe during the 13th century profoundly affecting the course of history for the next seven centuries. The changes in energy usage transformed architecture and forced the creation of new power sources. The coming of the Industrial Revolution, spurred on by advances in the steam engine, scarred England indelibly: but a moment in history later, gasoline-powered engines opened the way to the heavens.

Writer: James Burke
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bright Ideas
star
8.00
29 votes

#11 - Bright Ideas

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/31/1994

A Baltimore man invented the bottle, which led to razors and clock springs, and the Hubble telescope.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Something for Nothing
star
8.00
29 votes

#12 - Something for Nothing

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/31/1994

Something impossible happened 400 years ago. And we wound up in outer space, thanks (en route) to pigeon lovers, the Pope, and electric Italian frogs.

Watch Now:Amazon
Separate Ways
star
7.50
58 votes

#13 - Separate Ways

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/31/1994

Two trails split over slavery in the 18th Century. One route leads to the Wild West and Brooklyn Bridge, the other coining money and TV. Both end with a threat to peace.

Watch Now:Amazon
Life is No Picnic
star
7.10
29 votes

#14 - Life is No Picnic

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/31/1997

The advent of modern coffee-vending machines spurs the creation of freeze dried coffee. This begins a revolutionary effort by the U.S. Army in World War II to lighten the soldiers' rations packs. The Star Spangled Banner lyrics are adapted from an ancient Greek poem. Mme de Stael of Switzerland drives the Romantic Movement forward in Europe. The Romantic Movement affects all thinkers which leads to future studies of animal development. Based on this research, Darwin proposes his Theory of Evolution.

Watch Now:Amazon
Hot Pickle
star
7.00
29 votes

#15 - Hot Pickle

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/31/1994

The connections between a cup of tea, opium dens, the London Zoo and a switch that releases bombs.

Watch Now:Amazon
Feedback
star
7.00
29 votes

#16 - Feedback

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/31/1997

In the twenty-first century, electronic agents will be our servants on the great web of knowledge. They will use the kind of feedback that won World War II. Feedback mathematics is invented to help guns hit their targets. The concept of feedback originated in the vineyards of France by a winemaker and physiologist named Claude Bernard. His ex-wife began the Humane Society, created to save people from drowning. Drownings increased due to an increase in shipping. All of this eventually leads to the hiring of a doctor at a sanitarium in Michigan. The doctor tries out new diets on the patients. The most successful product is named after him -- Kellogg's cornflakes.

Watch Now:Amazon
Flexible Response
star
7.00
29 votes

#17 - Flexible Response

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 12/31/1994

Robin Hood starts us on a trail from medieval showbiz to land drainage, to the invention of decimals that end up in U.S. currency, thanks to the guy who started the Erie Canal.

Watch Now:Amazon
Better Than the Real Thing
star
7.00
29 votes

#18 - Better Than the Real Thing

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 12/31/1994

How the zipper started with technology Jefferson picked up in Paris during a row about Creation.

Watch Now:Amazon
Sign Here
star
7.00
58 votes

#19 - Sign Here

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 12/31/1994

Dutch piracy starts international law and French probability math, phonetics and Victorian séances.

Watch Now:Amazon
Making Waves
star
7.00
29 votes

#20 - Making Waves

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/31/1994

Hairdressers, Gold Rush miners, Irish potato farmers and English parliamentarians are really tied together.

Watch Now:Amazon
The Big Spin
star
7.00
29 votes

#21 - The Big Spin

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/31/1994

The greatest medical accident in history starts a trail that leads to Helen of Troy, 17th Century flower-power, the invention of soda pop and earthquake detection.

Watch Now:Amazon
New Harmony
star
7.00
29 votes

#22 - New Harmony

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/31/1994

Microscopic bugs inspired the novel "Frankenstein" which aided the birth of Socialism.

Watch Now:Amazon
High Time
star
7.00
29 votes

#23 - High Time

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/31/1994

Unwrap a sandwich and you're on a path to World War II radar and Neo-Impressionist painters.

Watch Now:Amazon
Photo Finish
star
7.00
29 votes

#24 - Photo Finish

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/31/1994

The Le Mans 24-hour race is the backdrop for linking photography and bullets, relativity and blimps.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Echoes of the Past
star
7.00
58 votes

#25 - Echoes of the Past

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/31/1994

On his way to finding the secret of the universe, Burke takes us to the Buddhist tea ceremony, ties it to international spies and Lincoln's assassination.

Watch Now:Amazon