The BEST episodes of Frontline season 1987

#1 - The Earthquake is Coming

Season 1987 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/3/1987

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.

#2 - The Real Stuff

Season 1987 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/27/1987

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.

#3 - Stopping Drugs (1)

Season 1987 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/10/1987

#4 - Stopping Drugs (2)

Season 1987 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/17/1987

A two-part special examining efforts to stamp out drugs. Part 2 journeys into America's schools to find out if drugs are really a major problem and if anti-drug efforts are working.

#5 - The Nazi Connection

Season 1987 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/24/1987

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.

#6 - The Secret File

Season 1987 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/14/1987

#7 - War on Nicaragua

Season 1987 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/21/1987

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.

#8 - The Bombing of West Philly

Season 1987 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/5/1987

'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.

#9 - Israel: The Price of Victory

Season 1987 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/2/1987

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.

#10 - Keeping the Faith

Season 1987 - Episode 14 - Aired 6/16/1987

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?

#11 - The Politics of Greed

Season 1987 - Episode 15 - Aired 6/23/1987

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.

#12 - Apartheid Part I: 1652-1948

Season 1987 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/14/1987

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.

#13 - Apartheid Part 2: 1948-1963

Season 1987 - Episode 17 - Aired 12/14/1987

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.

#14 - Apartheid Part 4: 1978-1986

Season 1987 - Episode 19 - Aired 12/15/1987

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.

#15 - Apartheid Part 5: 1987

Season 1987 - Episode 20 - Aired 12/16/1987

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.