All Episodes of American Playhouse
Browse all episodes of American Playhouse
American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.
Season 1
10.0/101 votesWeekend
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 4/20/1982
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
- 9.0/101 votes
Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/9/1982
The arrival in a small town of a stranger who calls himself 'Charles Dickens' makes a magical and lasting change in the lives of an imaginative 12-year-old boy and a loving young woman.
Director: Ralph Rosenblum
Writer: Mary Trimble
- 4.8/104 votes
Fifth of July
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 3/9/1982
Ken Talley is 32, strong, goodlooking and a Vietnam vet with both legs shot off seven years earlier. His lover Jed is bigger and stronger, a gardner, a good listener. On Independence Day 1977, Ken's home in Lebanon Missouri is visted by his army buddies. Much of their past relationships, pre- and post-Vietnam, must be pulled up and examined before any of them can decide their future.
Director: Kirk Browning, Marshall W. Mason
Writer: Lanford Wilson
- N/A/100 votes
The Shady Hill Kidnapping
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/12/1982
John Cheever's comedy of a supposedly kidnapped five-year-old boy. At first, the police aren't interested until a ransom note is discovered. Then the town goes into action to support the finding of Toby.
Director: Paul Bogart
Writer: John Cheever
- N/A/100 votes
King of America
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/19/1982
Hot-tempered Greek immigrant Andreas arrives in 1915 America, and finds work on a railroad. However, after giving his corrupt foreman Mekakis a savage beating, Andreas flees and makes his way west.
Director: Dezsö Magyar
Writer: B. J. Merholz
- N/A/100 votes
Seguin
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 1/26/1982
In 19th-century Texas, soldier Juan Nepomuceno Seguin fought at the Alamo and became a highly respected politician to insure better living conditions for his people. Frustration arose when American ranchers move into the flatlands bringing prejudice and bigotry against the Mexican populations.
Director: Jesús Salvador Treviño
Writer: Jesús Salvador Treviño
- N/A/100 votes
Who Am I This Time?
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/2/1982
Shy hardware store employee Harry Nash decides to step out of his comfort zone, and takes part in a local amateur theatre troupe, where he becomes the character he plays—literally. Helene Shaw is new in town, a lonely itinerant telephonist. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella in the troupe's production of A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Harry's Stanley. Before anyone realizes the growing affection between the two, Helene falls in love with the charming brute, unaware of the man Harry really is.
Director: Jonathan Demme
Writer: Neal Miller
- N/A/100 votes
Come Along with Me
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 2/16/1982
Recently widowed Mabel Lederer sells all her belongings and leaves home to start a new life. Mabel believes she has powers to see into the future and to conduct seances. She changes her name to 'Angela Motorman' and moves into a boarding house where she interacts with the strange residents.
Director: Joanne Woodward
Writer: Neal Miller, June Finfer, Joanne Woodward
- N/A/100 votes
For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 2/23/1982
Nameless women identified by color (e.g., Lady in Red, Lady in Blue) share their experiences with racism, sexism, abuse, and abandonment, ultimately finding strength and sisterhood.
Director: Oz Scott
Writer: Ntozake Shange
- N/A/100 votes
Echoes and Silences
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 3/2/1982
In search of Carl Sandburg, actor John Cullum travels to the poet's native home, Galesburg, IL, speaking with close friends and family. Through a remarkable recently discovered trove of period photographs of Galesburg, the small-town America of Sandburg's childhood – the horse carriages, the ice-man delivering ice, a Fourth of July celebration – is revived in vivid detail.
Director: Perry Miller Adato
Writer: Paul Shyre
- N/A/100 votes
The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 3/16/1982
Teenage Ralph recounts the Fourth of July and similar chaoses with his family and friends. Based on the writings of Jean Shepherd.
Director: Richard Bartlett
Writer: Jean Shepherd
- N/A/100 votes
Pilgrim, Farewell
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 3/23/1982
A woman suffering from terminal cancer determines to resolve several relationships in her life, especially with her daughter.
Director: Michael Roemer
Writer: Michael Roemer
- N/A/100 votes
Northern Lights
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 3/30/1982
On a North Dakota wheat farm at the turn of the 20th century, Ray Sorenson builds his world around childhood sweetheart Inga. Then Ray sees his plans come apart when the bank forecloses on his family's farm.
Director: Rob Nilsson, John Hanson
Writer: Rob Nilsson, John Hanson
- N/A/100 votes
Medal of Honor Rag
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 4/6/1982
A Medal of Honor-winning Vietnam vet has difficulty readjusting to civilian life, and turns to a psychiatrist for help when he finds himself descending to robbery.
Director: Lloyd Richards
Writer: Tom Cole
- N/A/100 votes
Working
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 4/13/1982
A musical following American workers from diverse backgrounds, from gravediggers to studio heads, exploring their feelings, frustrations, and search for meaning in their jobs.
Director: Kirk Browning, Stephen Schwartz
Writer: Stephen Schwartz, Nina Faso
- N/A/100 votes
Private Contentment
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 4/27/1982
A young soldier attends his mother's funeral just before he's shipped out to serve in World War II.
Director: Vivian Matalon
Writer: Reynolds Price
- N/A/100 votes
My Palikari
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 5/4/1982
A middle-aged Greek immigrant visits his native village, with his American-born son in tow. The elder finds that the place he remembered as paradise on Earth now seems like a desolate wasteland, while the son, who has mede this journey reluctantly, falls in love with his ancestral homeland.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: George Kirgo, Leon Capetanos
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (1)
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 5/11/1982
Robert Oppenheimer meets and decides to marry the hard-drinking, much-divorced Kitty, although his friends and relatives dislike her.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (2)
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 5/18/1982
Oppenheimer is now in charge of the top-secret Manhattan Project, but his left-wing politics mean that he is constantly watched by the FBI and others.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (3)
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 5/25/1982
Oppenheimer's extramarital relationship with the neurotic Jean Tatlock comes to a tragic end.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (4)
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 6/1/1982
With the death of President Roosevelt, the future of the Manhattan Project seems doubtful. Oppenheimer finds himself more and more at loggerheads with Teller.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (5)
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 6/8/1982
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bring the war to an end, but Oppenheimer's new status as a national hero is short-lived.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (6)
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 6/15/1982
A few years after the war, Oppenheimer finds himself regarded as a security risk, and must face a committee.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
Oppenheimer (7)
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 6/22/1982
Oppenheimer's examination by the committee proves disastrous and his career with the AEC is finished, whilst that of his rival Teller flourishes.
Director: Barry Davis
Writer: Peter Prince
- N/A/100 votes
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 6/29/1982
In 1901, Mexican American farmer Gregorio Cortez is forced on the run from Texas Rangers, evading a massive manhunt on horseback for days following a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman.
Director: Robert M. Young
Writer: Robert M. Young, Victor Villaseñor