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The Best Episodes of CBS Playhouse

Every episode of CBS Playhouse ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of CBS Playhouse!

Binge this in 19h 28m•Peaking at 9.0/10

CBS Playhouse is an American anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1970. Airing twelve plays over the course of its run, the series was nominated for a number of awards and

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    CBS Playhouse Season 2 Episode 4 - Shadow Game
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Shadow Game

    S2:E4

    The employees in a high-powered New York business office are stranded on the 50th floor when the power fails during the 1965 East Coast blackout. A small party is begun, and truths about the career and personal ambitions of the workers begin to emerge.

    Director:Paul Bogart
    Writer:Loring Mandel

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  2. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 1 - The Glass Menagerie
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #2 - The Glass Menagerie

    S1:E1

    An aging Southern Belle complicates life for her ambitious son and crippled daughter because of her own warped views of what life should be.

    Director:Michael Elliott
    Writer:Tennessee Williams

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  3. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 2 - The Final War of Olly Winter
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - The Final War of Olly Winter

    S1:E2

    Olly Winter, an African-American Master Sergeant in the Vietnam War, is walking back to allied-controlled land following a battle with the Viet Cong. Along the way, he meets a Vietnamese girl, an orphaned infant, and a dog.

    Director:Paul Bogart
    Writer:Ronald Ribman

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  4. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 3 - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #4 - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

    S1:E3

    Follows a carpenter who has built his own home, but is now too old and infirm to live on his own, and is sent to live in an old age home against his desires.

    Director:George Schaefer
    Writer:Loring Mandel

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  5. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 4 - Dear Friends
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #5 - Dear Friends

    S1:E4

    After 15 years together, Michael and Lois Graves contemplate divorce. Their friends—three other couples—try to repair their relationship, and ultimately observe the connections that they themselves have.

    Director:Paul Bogart
    Writer:Reginald Rose

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  6. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 5 - My Father and My Mother
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - My Father and My Mother

    S1:E5

    Ned, a New York editor struggling as a husband and parent, looks back and learns about the difficulties his own parents faced in life.

    Director:George Schaefer
    Writer:Robert J. Crean

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of CBS Playhouse

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  7. CBS Playhouse Season 1 Episode 6 - Secrets
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #7 - Secrets

    S1:E6

    Following a chance encounter that brings him face to face with his past, conservative businessman Bryan Gray goes in search of Janet Ferguson, an actress with whom he had a relationship many years before. His unwillingness to share private aspects arouses the suspicion of wife Doris, who is determined to know all of his secrets and the motivations behind them.

    Director:Paul Bogart
    Writer:Tad Mosel

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  8. CBS Playhouse Season 2 Episode 1 - The People Next Door
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - The People Next Door

    S2:E1

    Comfortable New York suburbanites Arthur and Gerrie Mason discover one night that their seemingly perfect 16-year-old daughter Maxie has been using LSD. Arthur immediately suspects his 17-year-old son Artie of supplying the drug to his sister, and kicks him out. Whereupon a confused Gerrie seeks advice from high school principal David Hoffman, whose family has their own problems. Very sensibly, he advises love and understanding on part of the parents, which all but goes out the window when Maxie confesses that not only has she been tripping for some time now, but is also sexually active and on the pill.

    Director:David Greene
    Writer:J.P. Miller

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  9. CBS Playhouse Season 2 Episode 2 - Saturday Adoption
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Saturday Adoption

    S2:E2

    Rich Meridan is white, well-to-do and off to law school so he can make more money. Macy Stander is Black, a cut above poverty and young enough to dream and hope for a better life. Both youths are stifled: one has too much, the other too little.

    Director:Delbert Mann
    Writer:Ron Cowen

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  10. CBS Playhouse Season 2 Episode 3 - The Experiment
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - The Experiment

    S2:E3

    Wilson Evans is a free-spirited young scientist who compromises his liberal views to accept a lucrative job with a high-tech chemical corporation.

    Director:Robert Butler
    Writer:Ellen M. Violett

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  11. CBS Playhouse Season 3 Episode 1 - Appalacian Autumn
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - Appalacian Autumn

    S3:E1

    In the Appalachian town of Harper's Gap, West Virginia, the mines are closed, the community on welfare, but not for the Harper family. Rome steals coal from the closed, dangerous mines rather than take charity. Into this dying town comes Joe Borden, a VISTA worker who sees hope in Rome's son Hugh, a potter. From Hugh's talent, Joe envisions a way to bring industry back to Harper's Gap.

    Director:William A. Graham
    Writers:Earl Hamner, Jr.

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  12. CBS Playhouse Season 3 Episode 2 - Sadbird
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - Sadbird

    S3:E2

    Alex Miller, perilously close to 30, has the kind of square respectability he's always shunned. Due to the fizzure of an underground-art scheme, Alex is in debt to a loan shark to the tune of $4,000. To pay it off, he is forced to enter the 9 to 5 world, taking a job at the Ajax Toy Company. Alex means to quit when the debt is paid, but finds he can't; his particular genius is well suited to the toy game, a fact that the firm's owner is quick to acknowledge with handsome rewards. Then, too, there's Carol Brandt, a unique creature totally unlike the girls Alex usually gets involved with.

    Directors:Paul Bogart, William A. Graham
    Writer:George Bellak

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  13. CBS Playhouse Season 3 Episode 3 - The Day Before Sunday
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - The Day Before Sunday

    S3:E3

    Annamae Whiteley is a brash and fortyish department-store executive from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She's flying East to her niece's prep school graduation and a reunion with her family. On the plane, she meets Jesse Rothenberg, an attractive divorcée also attending the graduation. However, any developments in their relationship must be deferred, as Annamae faces family problems only she can cope with.

    Director:Paul Bogart
    Writer:Robert J. Crean

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Best Episodes Summary

"Shadow Game" is the best rated episode of "CBS Playhouse". It scored 9/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Paul Bogart and written by Loring Mandel, it aired on 5/7/1969. This episode scored 9.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Glass Menagerie".