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The Worst Episodes of American Playhouse

Every episode of American Playhouse ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of American Playhouse!

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American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 1 - The Shady Hill Kidnapping
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - The Shady Hill Kidnapping

    S1:E1

    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

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  2. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 2 - King of America
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #2 - King of America

    S1:E2

    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

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  3. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 3 - Seguin
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Seguin

    S1:E3

    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

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  4. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 4 - Who Am I This Time?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Who Am I This Time?

    S1:E4

    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

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  5. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 6 - Come Along with Me
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Come Along with Me

    S1:E6

    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
    Writers:Neal Miller, June Finfer, Joanne Woodward

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  6. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 7 - For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

    S1:E7

    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

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    The 20 BEST Episodes of American Playhouse

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  7. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 8 - Echoes and Silences
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Echoes and Silences

    S1:E8

    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

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  8. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 10 - The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters

    S1:E10

    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

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  9. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 11 - Pilgrim, Farewell
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Pilgrim, Farewell

    S1:E11

    A woman suffering from terminal cancer determines to resolve several relationships in her life, especially with her daughter.

    Director:Michael Roemer
    Writer:Michael Roemer

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  10. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 12 - Northern Lights
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Northern Lights

    S1:E12

    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.

    Directors:Rob Nilsson, John Hanson
    Writers:Rob Nilsson, John Hanson

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  11. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 13 - Medal of Honor Rag
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - Medal of Honor Rag

    S1:E13

    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

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  12. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 14 - Working
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Working

    S1:E14

    A musical following American workers from diverse backgrounds, from gravediggers to studio heads, exploring their feelings, frustrations, and search for meaning in their jobs.

    Directors:Kirk Browning, Stephen Schwartz
    Writers:Stephen Schwartz, Nina Faso

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  13. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 16 - Private Contentment
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - Private Contentment

    S1:E16

    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

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  14. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 17 - My Palikari
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #14 - My Palikari

    S1:E17

    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
    Writers:George Kirgo, Leon Capetanos

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  15. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 18 - Oppenheimer (1)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #15 - Oppenheimer (1)

    S1:E18

    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

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  16. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 19 - Oppenheimer (2)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #16 - Oppenheimer (2)

    S1:E19

    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

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  17. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 20 - Oppenheimer (3)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #17 - Oppenheimer (3)

    S1:E20

    Oppenheimer's extramarital relationship with the neurotic Jean Tatlock comes to a tragic end.

    Director:Barry Davis
    Writer:Peter Prince

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  18. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 21 - Oppenheimer (4)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #18 - Oppenheimer (4)

    S1:E21

    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

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  19. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 22 - Oppenheimer (5)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #19 - Oppenheimer (5)

    S1:E22

    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

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  20. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 23 - Oppenheimer (6)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #20 - Oppenheimer (6)

    S1:E23

    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

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  21. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 24 - Oppenheimer (7)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #21 - Oppenheimer (7)

    S1:E24

    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

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  22. American Playhouse Season 1 Episode 25 - The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #22 - The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

    S1:E25

    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
    Writers:Robert M. Young, Victor Villaseñor

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  23. American Playhouse Season 2 Episode 3 - Family Business
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #23 - Family Business

    S2:E3

    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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  24. American Playhouse Season 2 Episode 4 - Keeping On
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Keeping On

    S2:E4

    A low-key drama exploring the struggles of an impoverished sharecropping family in the rural South with themes of Southern identity, morality, and family.

    Director:Barbara Kopple
    Writer:Horton Foote

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  25. American Playhouse Season 2 Episode 5 - The File on Jill Hatch (1)
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #25 - The File on Jill Hatch (1)

    S2:E5

    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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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Shady Hill Kidnapping" is the worst rated episode of "American Playhouse". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Paul Bogart and written by John Cheever, it aired on 1/12/1982. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "King of America".