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The Worst Episodes of CBS Playhouse

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

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,...
Genre:Drama
Network:CBS

Worst Episodes Summary

"Dear Friends" is the worst rated episode of "CBS Playhouse". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Paul Bogart, George Schaefer and written by N/A, it aired on 12/6/1967. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "My Father and My Mother".

  • Dear Friends
    NaN/100 votes
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    #1 - Dear Friends

    Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 12/6/1967

    Ned, a New York magazine editor, tries to escape the responsibilities of his rocky marriage, the neediness of his two teen daughters and especially the agony of putting his autistic son into an institution by thinking back on his boyhood in Massachusetts. As he returns to that life as an adult—walking into scenes of the 1940s with his parents as an adult—he realizes that life always was a challenging proposition. The boomeranging back and forth in time presented Schaefer and Gene Hackman, in his most outstanding TV performance, with enormous demands.

    Director: Paul Bogart, George Schaefer

    Writer: N/A

  • My Father and My Mother
    NaN/100 votes
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    #2 - My Father and My Mother

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 2/13/1968

    After 21 years, Doris Gray learns that her husband holds a secret. She knows Bryan has nothing to hide, but fear and circumstance urge her to panicky speculations that wedge them apart. (90 mins)

    Director: Paul Bogart, George Schaefer

    Writer: N/A

  • Secrets
    NaN/100 votes
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    #3 - Secrets

    Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 5/15/1968

    No description available

    Director: Paul Bogart

    Writer: N/A

  • Saturday Adoption
    NaN/100 votes
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    #4 - Saturday Adoption

    Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 12/4/1968

    This contemporary drama about idealism and indifferent reality puts the accent on youth; the leading players are young unknowns, and the playwright, 23-year-old Ron Cowen, is the youngest writer to be commissioned by CBS. Rich Meridan is white, well-to-do and wondering. He's about to enter law school so he can make a lot of money. Rich isn't sure if that's what he wants from life--but that's what his parents want. As he puts it, 'I never got a chance to choose. I had everything before I could hope to have it.' Macy Stander is black, a cut above poverty and in the seventh grade. He's young enough to dream, but his outlook is too bleak for him to risk the disappointment: 'The things you think about aren't gonna come true.' Both youths are stifled--Rich by having too much, Macy by having too little. They meet when Rich, clumsily but earnestly seeking to make a worthwhile contribution, offers to work as an unpaid tutor to ghetto youths. His pupil is Macy, caught between the distant glitter

    Director: Delbert Mann

    Writer: N/A

  • The Experiment
    NaN/100 votes
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    #5 - The Experiment

    Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 2/25/1969

    Douglas got his first big break when he was cast in the pivotal role of the free-spirited scientist who compromises his liberal views to accept a lucrative job with a high-tech chemical corporation.

    Director: Paul Bogart

    Writer: N/A

  • Shadow Game
    NaN/100 votes
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    #6 - Shadow Game

    Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 5/7/1969

    The power failure that blacked out the Northeast in 1965 provides a key dramatic element in this play, set in the 50th-floor offices of Cohalen and Associates. The business day is ending when the power failure occurs, stopping elevators and office machines, and trapping some of the workers in semidarkness. Candles are found, liquor and ice are gathered from the executive suites, and a quiet party begins. As the evening progresses and inhibitions are swept away, the stranded workers begin to reveal themselves in unexpected ways. The drama focuses on--Saul Novick, embittered because his clients are being stolen by Peter Hoyt, an aggressive colleague who claims that the firm's owner approves of interoffice piracy. Art Richardson, a cautious junior partner enjoying a brief liaison with one of the secretaries. Jerry Arnot, slipping in stature and making pathetic efforts to regain lost ground. And Novick's girl friend Jess, unsure of herself and their relationship.

    Director: Paul Bogart

    Writer: N/A

  • The Day Before Sunday
    NaN/100 votes
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    #7 - The Day Before Sunday

    Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 2/10/1970

    Robert Crean's perceptive script focuses on Annamae Whiteley, a brash and fortyish department-store executive from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The unmarried lady is flying East to her niece's prep school graduation and a reunion with her family. On the plane, she meets Jesse Rothenberg, a divorced gentleman she finds vastly attractive. Jesse is also going to the graduation, but any developments in their relationship must be deferred: Annamae faces family problems that only she can cope with.

    Director: Paul Bogart

    Writer: N/A

  • The People Next Door
    7.2/1011 votes
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    #8 - The People Next Door

    Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 10/15/1968

    Story about a typical, white, middle-class suburban family, the Masons, and the problems that arise from the drug use of their daughter Maxie.

    Director: David Greene

    Writer: J.P. Miller

  • The Final War of Olly Winter
    7.5/1014 votes
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    #9 - The Final War of Olly Winter

    Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 1/29/1967

    When carpenter Peter Schermann needed a home, he built it with his own hands. And the house, like Peter, was strong; solid as a tree. But now he's old, too old. His children have no room for him. Peter winds up in a rest home--where he angrily rebels. He resents being treated as if he were senile or crippled. And he is offended by the empty atmosphere of waiting for death. Loring Mandel's compassionate drama follows Peter's lonely, courageous struggle to find a life in a world that has shut him out.

    Director: Paul Bogart, George Schaefer

    Writer: N/A

  • Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
    7.8/1010 votes
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    #10 - Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

    Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/17/1967

    After 15 years of marriage, Michael and Lois Graves have decided to pack it in. No bitterness or tears; just a divorce. Their friends think it's childish. They invite the couple to dinner, where blind to their personal motives, they hope to talk Mike and Lois out of splitting up. What they ultimately do to themselves is quite another story.

    Director: Paul Bogart, George Schaefer

    Writer: Reginald Rose

  • Appalacian Autumn
    8.3/109 votes
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    #11 - Appalacian Autumn

    Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 10/7/1969

    The specter of rural American poverty forms the backdrop for the third-season premiere of CBS Playhouse. The play is set in the Appalachian town of Harper's Gap, West Virginia. The mines are closed; the community is on welfare. But not Rome Harper and his 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

    Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.

  • The Glass Menagerie
    8.9/1023 votes
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    #12 - The Glass Menagerie

    Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 12/8/1966

    Story about an African American soldier in Vietnam. It focuses on the past and present of a war-weary GI who, after 20 years of professional soldiering, begins a quest for life. Master Sergeant Olly Winter, winding up a long career, is serving as an advisor in Vietnam. When his platoon is ambushed by the Viet Cong, Olly, the only survivor, sets out on the long trek back to safety. Along the way he picks up company, a young Vietnamese girl, her dog, and an orphaned baby. The girl doesn't understand English, but Olly talks to her--and himself about the wars he's seen, his family, and the life he plans to lead 'If I get out of here alive.'

    Director: Paul Bogart

    Writer: N/A

  • Sadbird
    8.9/1023 votes
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    #13 - Sadbird

    Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 12/1/1969

    An engrossing drama by TV veteran George Bellak pictures the coming of age of Alex Miller, a man perilously close to 30, and the kind of square respectability he's always shunned. Because an underground-art scheme fizzled, Alex is in debt to a loan shark to the tune of 4000 dollars. 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.

    Director: William A. Graham

    Writer: George Bellak