The Best Episodes of American Playhouse

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
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   10.0/10(1 votes)

   #1 - Weekend

   S1:E154/20/1982

   A drifting, affluent couple spend a weekend at their country home, where the husband cheats on his complacent wife as they host guests for their son's first birthday.

   Director:Paul Bogart

   Writer:Ann Beattie

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   Director:Paul Bogart

   Writer:Ann Beattie
2. 

   9.6/10(17 votes)

   #2 - A Mistaken Charity

   S6:E52/16/1987

   Two elderly, impoverished women are forced from the family farm by well-meaning neighbors. Ensconced and miserable at a Home for Elderly Ladies, the duo begin their journey back home.

   Director:Chuck Portz

   Writers:Chuck Portz, Lawrence DuKore

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   Director:Chuck Portz

   Writers:Chuck Portz, Lawrence DuKore
3. 

   9.3/10(25 votes)

   #3 - Hughie

   S3:E135/1/1984

   In the lobby of a small hotel in midtown New York, small-time hustler Erie Smith talks to the hotel's new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting how Smith's luck has worsened since the death of Hughie, Hughes' predecessor.

   Directors:Terry Hughes, José Quintero

   Writer:Eugene O'Neill

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   Directors:Terry Hughes, José Quintero

   Writer:Eugene O'Neill
4. 

   9.3/10(28 votes)

   #4 - Eleanor: In Her Own Words

   S6:E73/9/1987

   A one-woman show featuring Lee Remick as former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who gives forth with her views — many controversial at the time and which infuriated the right wing of both parties, as they still do today — on integration, women's rights, communism, and other important subjects of the day.

   Director:Mark Cullingham

   Writer:Russell Vandenbroucke

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   Director:Mark Cullingham

   Writer:Russell Vandenbroucke
5. 

   9.3/10(109 votes)

   #5 - Tales of the City

   S12:E11/10/1994

   Mary Ann Singleton, a naïve young secretary from the mid-west, tumbles head first into the colorful world of San Francisco, where carefree chaos revolves around the funky old apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane.

   Director:Alastair Reid

   Writer:Richard Kramer

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   Director:Alastair Reid

   Writer:Richard Kramer
6. 

   9.0/10(70 votes)

   #6 - Three Sovereigns for Sarah (3)

   S4:E206/10/1985

   In 1703 Salem, accused witch Sarah Cloyce, seeking justice for her sisters, recounts the events leading up to the trials, focusing on feuding neighbors and the girls' accusations, including those by Abigail Williams.

   Director:Philip Leacock

   Writer:Victor Pisano

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   Director:Philip Leacock

   Writer:Victor Pisano
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7. 

   9.0/10(13 votes)

   #7 - Painting Churches

   S5:E155/19/1986

   Gardner and Fanny Church prepare to move out of their Beacon Hill home to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Once a famous poet, the now-retired Gardner slips in and out of senility as his wife valiantly tries to keep them both afloat. They've asked their daughter, Mags, to come home and help them move. Mags agrees, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait. She is now on the verge of artistic celebrity herself and hopes, by painting her parents, to reconcile.

   Director:Jack O'Brien

   Writer:Tina Howe

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   Director:Jack O'Brien

   Writer:Tina Howe
8. 

   8.9/10(18 votes)

   #8 - Story of a Marriage: Courtship

   S6:E94/13/1987

   In the early 1900s, a young couple in love struggle with their deeply divided families. Elizabeth Vaughn hails from a wealthy, strict Methodist household. Horace Robedaux is viewed by her family as having poor prospects, as he has been largely on his own since age 12, works humble jobs, and is an Episcopalian who enjoys dancing.

   Director:Howard Cummings

   Writer:Horton Foote

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   Director:Howard Cummings

   Writer:Horton Foote
9. 

   8.8/10(15 votes)

   #9 - The Wide Net

   S6:E32/2/1987

   William Wallace searches for his pregnant wife, Hazel, who has withdrawn from him, using a net in the Pearl River during the vernal equinox, a ritualistic search that delves into the mysteries of relationships and the feminine.

   Director:Anthony Herrera

   Writer:Anthony Herrera

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   Director:Anthony Herrera

   Writer:Anthony Herrera
10. 

    8.8/10(55 votes)

    #10 - Ask Me Again

    S8:E22/8/1989

    Rebellious young literary editor Elizabeth Leopold clashes with her wealthy, snobbish mother over her life choices, including her job and a leftist boyfriend, as her mother tries to arrange a more 'suitable' marriage for her.

    Director:Deborah Reinisch

    Writer:Richard Greenberg

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    Director:Deborah Reinisch

    Writer:Richard Greenberg
11. 

    8.8/10(31 votes)

    #11 - A Great Wall

    S8:E104/15/1989

    When computer programmer Leo Fang is passed up for promotion, he feels it is because he is Chinese, and quits. He takes his Chinese-American family to Mainland China to visit his relatives, the Chao's, for a vacation. The clash of cultures, between the men, wives, and teenagers, leads to some confusion, and misunderstanding.

    Director:Peter Wang

    Writers:Shirley Sun, Peter Wang

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    Director:Peter Wang

    Writers:Shirley Sun, Peter Wang
12. 

    8.8/10(37 votes)

    #12 - O Pioneers!

    S10:E75/15/1991

    A young woman inherits her father's farm after he dies. Over the years, she overcomes challenges and turns it into a success, all the while yearning for her childhood love to return.

    Directors:Kirk Browning, Kevin Kuske

    Writer:Darrah Cloud

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    Directors:Kirk Browning, Kevin Kuske

    Writer:Darrah Cloud
13. 

    8.7/10(15 votes)

    #13 - The File on Jill Hatch (1)

    S2:E52/15/1983

    A decade-spanning look at marriage of a Black American soldier and a white British woman.

    Director:Alastair Reid

    Writer:Kenneth Cavander

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    Director:Alastair Reid

    Writer:Kenneth Cavander
14. 

    8.7/10(3216 votes)

    #14 - Into the Woods

    S10:E13/15/1991

    In a woods filled with magic and fairy tale characters, a baker and his wife set out to end the curse put on them by their neighbor, a spiteful witch.

    Director:James Lapine

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:James Lapine

    Writer:Unknown
15. 

    8.6/10(10 votes)

    #15 - Popular Neurotics

    S3:E52/14/1984

    Two young urban professionals, Lynne and Murray, meet by happenstance and begin an on-again, off-again relationship in which they struggle to transcend modern-day neuroses concerning courtship.

    Director:Sheldon Larry

    Writer:Aubrey Wertheim

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    Director:Sheldon Larry

    Writer:Aubrey Wertheim
16. 

    8.5/10(17 votes)

    #16 - Family Business

    S2:E32/1/1983

    Isaiah Stern is a wealthy, but dying, toy manufacturer. Once more, Stern has gathered his grown sons to revise his will. Three of the four are used to these idiosyncratic changes, and have come to accept them: however, the fourth, a married psychologist, is heavily in debt and doesn't like his thin share, which sparks a confrontation. The remaining sons are a bachelor who runs the family store, an indecisive sort who still lives at home, and Daddy's favorite, a closet homosexual.

    Director:John Stix

    Writer:Dick Goldberg

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    Director:John Stix

    Writer:Dick Goldberg
17. 

    8.5/10(479 votes)

    #17 - True West

    S3:E31/31/1984

    Estranged brothers, screenwriter Austin and drifter Lee, clash while staying at their mother's house in suburban Southern California, leading to a chaotic role reversal that explores themes of identity, family, and the American Dream.

    Directors:Gary Sinise, Allan A. Goldstein

    Writer:Sam Shepard

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    Directors:Gary Sinise, Allan A. Goldstein

    Writer:Sam Shepard
18. 

    8.4/10(22 votes)

    #18 - The Cafeteria

    S3:E62/21/1984

    Esther Mirkin, a traumatized Holocaust survivor, frequents a Manhattan cafeteria where she meets Aaron, a Jewish writer, who tries to uncover the ghosts of her past.

    Director:Amram Nowak

    Writer:Ernest Kinoy

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    Director:Amram Nowak

    Writer:Ernest Kinoy
19. 

    8.3/10(57 votes)

    #19 - Concealed Enemies, Part I: Suspicion

    S3:E145/7/1984

    A dramatized account of the actual events that led to the 1950 conviction of former U. S. State Department official Alger Hiss of perjury before a federal grand jury and his resulting imprisonment.

    Director:Jeff Bleckner

    Writer:Hugh Whitemore

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    Director:Jeff Bleckner

    Writer:Hugh Whitemore
20. 

    8.3/10(1048 votes)

    #20 - Sunday in the Park with George

    S5:E196/16/1986

    The days leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat is struggling to make meaningful art and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Dot. Amid the scorn of the artistic community, Seurat's artistic ability thrives while his love diminishes. A century later, Seurat's descendant – named George and also an artist – finds himself burnt out and in search of what artistic path to follow, but he finds the answer to his future in the past.

    Director:Terry Hughes

    Writers:Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine

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    Director:Terry Hughes

    Writers:Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine
21. 

    8.3/10(56 votes)

    #21 - Strange Interlude, Part I

    S7:E11/13/1988

    Spanning decades, Nina Leeds, deeply traumatized by the death of her fiancé during World War I, is unable to move past the unconsummated relationship, she embarks on a turbulent journey across different roles in her life (daughter, wife, mistress, and mother).

    Director:Herbert Wise

    Writer:Robert Enders

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    Director:Herbert Wise

    Writer:Robert Enders
22. 

    8.3/10(21 votes)

    #22 - Life Under Water

    S8:E94/12/1989

    Feeling alienated from the world and his mother, Kip enters a complicated relationship with two girls he meets on the beach.

    Director:Jay Holman

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Jay Holman

    Writer:Unknown
23. 

    8.2/10(97 votes)

    #23 - The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski

    S4:E92/11/1985

    Ralph Parker navigates his first serious romance with his new Polish neighbor, Josephine Cosnowski, during a Thanksgiving setting.

    Director:Fred Barzyk

    Writer:Jean Shepherd

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    Director:Fred Barzyk

    Writer:Jean Shepherd
24. 

    8.2/10(15 votes)

    #24 - Breakfast with Les and Bess

    S4:E123/11/1985

    An eccentric couple broadcast their morning radio talk show from their New York apartment in the 1960s.

    Director:Perry Rosemond

    Writer:Lee Kalcheim

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    Director:Perry Rosemond

    Writer:Lee Kalcheim
25. 

    8.2/10(141 votes)

    #25 - The Innocents Abroad

    S6:E83/23/1987

    Reporter Mark Twain tours Europe and the Holy Land for a San Francisco newspaper in 1867.

    Director:Peter H. Hunt

    Writer:Mark Twain

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    Director:Peter H. Hunt

    Writer:Mark Twain