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The Best Episodes of Frontline Season 3

Every episode of Frontline Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Frontline Season 3!

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to...
Genres:DocumentaryNewsTalk
Network:PBS

Season 3 Ratings Summary

"Vietnam Under Communism" is the best rated episode of "Frontline" season 3. It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 1/15/1985. This episode is rated NaN points higher than the second-best, "Shootout on Imperial Highway (1)".

  • Vietnam Under Communism
    NaN/100 votes

    #1 - Vietnam Under Communism

    Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 1/15/1985

    Frontline takes a rare look inside the new Vietnam, 10 years after the fall of Saigon and the US pullout. While the Vietnamese celebrate their victory, the countryside remains scarred and war-torn. Frontline examines the legacies of the longest and most unpopular war in American history on the country where it was fought.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Shootout on Imperial Highway (1)
    NaN/100 votes

    #2 - Shootout on Imperial Highway (1)

    Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 1/22/1985

    Seventy-two year-old James Hawkins,Sr. has turned his home and business into an armed camp. Living in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Hawkins is fighting gang members who live across Imperial Highway. It's a war being fought on the streets and in the courtroom between gang members and the Hawkins family.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Shootout on Imperial Highway (2)
    NaN/100 votes

    #3 - Shootout on Imperial Highway (2)

    Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 1/29/1985

    The trial of gang members accused of conspiracy concludes this special two-part report. Through interviews in prison and inside the housing project where they live in the Watts section of Los Angeles, gang members talk about gangs and why they form, and the threat they pose to ordinary citizens.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Lifer and the Lady
    NaN/100 votes

    #4 - The Lifer and the Lady

    Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 2/5/1985

    He was a convicted murderer. She was a prison volunteer. They fell in love. Frontline follows the story of Ron Cooney, who tries to work his way through the prison system to parole from a life sentence, and Lesley Earl, the woman who wants to help him go straight.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Child Savers
    NaN/100 votes

    #5 - The Child Savers

    Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 2/12/1985

    Over a million cases of child abuse were reported in 1984-and the figure is growing. Frontline follows a dedicated group of case workers from the Emergency Children's Service of New York into homes where they confront violent parents and battered children.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Down for the Count
    NaN/100 votes

    #6 - Down for the Count

    Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 2/19/1985

    Professional boxing is one of the most popular and profitable sports in America. It can also be fatal. Frontline goes inside the world of fighters, promoters, and fans who love the sport-and critics who say it should be banned.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Retreat from Beirut
    NaN/100 votes

    #7 - Retreat from Beirut

    Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 2/26/1985

    They went to keep the peace. But 241 died-caught in a military and political cross fire.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Buying the Bomb
    NaN/100 votes

    #8 - Buying the Bomb

    Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 3/5/1985

    Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh presents his first television investigation for Frontline. After six months of work, Hersh uncovers the story of a Pakistani businessman who tried to ship electrical devices which can be used as nuclear bomb triggers out of the US to Pakistan.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • A Class Divided
    8.5/10197 votes

    #9 - A Class Divided

    Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 3/26/1985

    One day in 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power 30 years later.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Potomac Fever
    NaN/100 votes

    #10 - Potomac Fever

    Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 4/2/1985

    Every two years, a desire to represent their home districts in Washington brings a group of first-time freshmen congressmen to the nation's capital on the shores of the Potomac river. Frontline follows two newly elected representatives from their homes to Washington where they experience the rewards-and the frustrations-of making the transition from citizen to congressman.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Crisis in Central America 1: Yankee Years
    NaN/100 votes

    #11 - Crisis in Central America 1: Yankee Years

    Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 4/9/1985

    From the Spanish-American War in 1898 until the 1950's, US preeminence in Central America and the Caribbean was never successfully challenged. Part 1 looks at these turbulent years that set the stage for today's crises-from the glory days of building the Panama Canal, through the early US Marine occupation of Nicaragua, to the Cold War crisis in Guatemala in 1954, which resulted in the CIA's first 'covert' war in the region.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Crisis in Central America 2: Castro's Challenge
    NaN/100 votes

    #12 - Crisis in Central America 2: Castro's Challenge

    Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 4/10/1985

    The Cuban revolution of the 1950's was the first successful challenge to US preeminence in the Western hemisphere. Part 2 looks at the roots of the revolution, Fidel Castro's rise to power, the establishment of the first Communist state in the Americas, the support for his revolution abroad, and Cuba's troubled history with the United States.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Crisis in Central America 3: Revolution in Nicaragua
    NaN/100 votes

    #13 - Crisis in Central America 3: Revolution in Nicaragua

    Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 4/11/1985

    In 1979, the Sandinistas led a revolution that overthrew the Somoza dynasty which had ruled Nicaragua for almost 50 years. It was a revolution the US first tried to prevent, then tried to court, and later tried to undermine. Part 3 traces the evolution of US involvement in Nicaragua and the struggle for control of the revolution.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Crisis in Central America 4: Battle for El Salvador
    NaN/100 votes

    #14 - Crisis in Central America 4: Battle for El Salvador

    Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 4/12/1985

    Many Americans had never heard of El Salvador until a few years ago. It is now the focus of American policy in Central America. Part 4 traces the evolution of El Salvador's civil war and the US policy toward El Salvador.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Men Who Molest
    NaN/100 votes

    #15 - Men Who Molest

    Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 4/16/1985

    Experts estimate there are at least four million child sexual abusers in the US, and they do not fit our stereotypes. Almost half of those guilty of incest also molest children outside the family. Many also commit adult rape-and they come from every social background. Should they be treated, punished, or both? Frontline examines a controversial Seattle, Washington, program aimed at treating child sexual abusers.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred?
    NaN/100 votes

    #16 - Catholics in America: Is Nothing Sacred?

    Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 4/23/1985

    One in four American citizens is Catholic, yet few seem to agree with-or follow-every doctrine and practice of their church. Frontline examines the conflicts within the American Catholic Church and its ongoing struggle with the Vatican.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The American Way of War
    NaN/100 votes

    #17 - The American Way of War

    Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 4/30/1985

    Frontline examines the complex relationship between the US Army, its fighting doctrine, the American people, and the government in an effort to understand the army's role in fighting modern wars.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Memory of the Camps
    8.5/10292 votes

    #18 - Memory of the Camps

    Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 5/7/1985

    Forty years ago, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world's conscience. Frontline presents the world broadcast of a 1945 film made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. The film was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and is broadcast for the first time in its entirety on Frontline.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Colin Wills

  • You Are in the Computer
    NaN/100 votes

    #19 - You Are in the Computer

    Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 5/14/1985

    You go to rent an apartment and are turned down without any obvious reason. Then you find out your name is in a computer file of undesirable tenants and every other landlord in the city has access to the information. Correspondent Robert Krulwich investigates computerized information systems and the issues of privacy they raise.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • What About Mom and Dad?
    NaN/100 votes

    #20 - What About Mom and Dad?

    Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 5/21/1985

    No description available

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Breaking the Bank
    7.9/1010 votes

    #21 - Breaking the Bank

    Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 5/28/1985

    In 1984, there were more bank failures in the US than at any time since the Great Depression. Correspondent Judy Woodruff investigates one of the largest banks that failed, Penn Square in Oklahoma City, and another which nearly failed, Continental Illinois in Chicago, to examine the implications on the nation's banking system.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A