3 same buttons & 3 different frames, but each frame must have it's own actionscript?

Question

Here is my issue. I have 3 frames and 3 buttons. Each button takes you to their respected frame. However, I noticed that I cannot have 1 key frame of actionsript read the same on those 3 frames. Why? because if I jump from frame 1 to frame 2 or 3, then I cannot jump back. Instead, each frame has to have it's own actionscript. The only thing that would change is the method name. I find it tedious. Is that how  it is? This almost felt seem like it would be less tedious but even for 3 frames, I have to change each method name as I build more frames to navigate to. Check my example below:
Old Actionscript (1 keyframe for 3 frames did not work to jump back any frame)
frame1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame1);
frame2_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame2);
frame3_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame3);
function handlerFrame1(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame1");
function handlerFrame2(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame2");
function handlerFrame3(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame3");
New Actionscript (3 keyframes and this works):
Frame 1
frame1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame1);
frame2_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame2);
frame3_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame3);
function handlerFrame1(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame1");
function handlerFrame2(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame2");
function handlerFrame3(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame3");
Frame 2
frame1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame4);
frame2_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame5);
frame3_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame6);
function handlerFrame4(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame1");
function handlerFrame5(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame2");
function handlerFrame6(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame3");
Frame 3
frame1_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame7);
frame2_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame8);
frame3_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handlerFrame9);
function handlerFrame7(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame1");
function handlerFrame8(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame2");
function handlerFrame9(event:MouseEvent):void {
gotoAndStop("frame3");

Answer 1

You should not need to have code in all three frames.  The first bit of code you show should suffice under normal circumstances.  If you have the code on a layer that has only one keyframe and the buttons on a layer that only has one keyframe, then the buttons will remain working.  It is only when you create new instances (keyframes) of the buttons that you need to assign new event listeners for them, but even then the same event handler functions can be shared for all of them as long as that actions layer extends the length needed for all the buttons.