Every season of Letter to Loretta ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Letter to Loretta!

The first episode of the series, explaining the letter anthology format. A shop girl is courted by a man whose family looks down upon her, so she feigns crassness to teach them a lesson. One of a few episodes with a laugh track.

Trial Run

A spoiled and selfish woman goes without her husband to a vacation home and is tormented by a woman escaped from a mental institution which makes her confront her own mental challenges.

The Mirror

A young man is accused of murder in a small Western town, but the sheriff's wife believes him innocent, while the townspeople form a mob to storm the jail.

Prisoner at One O'Clock

A teacher publicly opposes a candidate, only to be romanced by him, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend.

Girl on a Flagpole

A shipboard con artist falls for his mark.

Turn of the Card

A man using an iron lung who has lost hope regains his will through the efforts of his wife to keep him breathing when an earthquake causes a power failure.

Earthquake

The glowing, tiresome reminisces of a wife and mother about her now-famous former beau and his devotion to her comes to a head.

The One That Got Away

Two widowed parents fall in love but feel their relationship might be hampered by their lively young children.

Kid Stuff

Charlotte Bronte struggles to cope with her controlling and oppressive father even as it interferes with her courtship with and marriage to Arthur Nicholls.

The Bronte Story

The kidnapping of a boy by young toughs takes an unexpected turn when one of the hoodlums befriends the boy.

Thanksgiving in Beaver Run

An aspiring actress falls in love with a clown and marries him, but then she's ashamed to be publicly associated with him.

Love Story

Glass-jawed Walter Stone attempts to rescue Kay Coughlin from a purse snatcher, but he gets hurt instead. Kay nurses him back to health and asks Walter to help her get her boyfriend jealous to goad him into proposing.

Laughing Boy

A little girl in a Mexican village falls desperately ill and places her faith in God through her patron saint, regardless of whether she survives or not.

The Faith of Chata

Charming holiday story about a small boy who frequents a postal station, chatting incessantly with a disillusioned laborer.

The Night My Father Came Home

Corporate hotel snoop Sally Webster creates unpleasant situations in a hotel to test its operation while becoming impressed with the character and ambition of hotel clerk Newton Ralston.

Hotel Irritant

Indomitable Inga Helborg convinces a bank president to conditionally reverse the foreclosure of the family farm and takes labor from the prison farm by which both actions she successfully demonstrates her resolute and trusting nature.

Inga

A mystery writer discovers she is marked for death.

Lady Killer

A spirited wife challenges the stodgy attitudes of researcher husband by refusing to respond to one of his survey questions: "If you had it to do all over again, would you marry the same person?"

Secret Answer

Beverly Washburn plays a lonely schoolgirl whose decision to start a rumor about her mother turns into classroom blackmail. Jeannette Nolan portrays her stern Aunt.

Big Little Lie

Madge Mason based on her prowess as a local actress in a small Iowa town goes to Hollywood and meets with only modest success but when it appears she is on verge of major success she has second thoughts about the price of fame.

The Hollywood Story

The son of an affluent couple, whose father has little time for him, joins the Cub Scouts.

A Family Out of Us

Eddie Albert plays a mild-mannered soul whose happy marriage to an earthy woman seems to be coming to an end.

Act of Faith

A glamorous mother and wife who dallies with other men's attention takes her own husband and son for granted. Clever opening schoolroom sequence in which the moms comment in theirs heads about each other. The climax in which the woman's mind races with impending terror about her son's lateness might seem melodramatic, but it's all too real for many of us who worry about loved ones. Mabel Albertson of "Bewitched" and so many other series plays the PTA spokesperson.

The New York Story

Fictionalized story of a Chicago juvenile delinquent who meets Jack Robbins, founder of the BBR, a boy's club that still exists today. A familiar face in one scene is the ubiquitous Argentina Brunetti, to whom Dean Martin sang "That's Amore" in "The Caddy." At the end of the story, Young introduces actor Chick Chandler and the real-life Jack Robbins.

Nobody's Boy

Tiger Tipton retired from a successful boxing career at his wife's insistence. Now broke from her expensive medical care, he arranges one last fight with the champ, but he can't let his wife find out.

The Count of Ten

The great composer and his concert pianist wife, whose seemingly idyllic marriage descends into mental breakdown.

The Clara Schumann Story

Flashbacks tell the story of a charming but irresponsible ex-husband who re-enters the lives of his wife and son. The father/son relationship is similar to that of Gloria's son and her first husband on the series, "Modern Family." In this episode, Young's character's name is "Ginger," a decade before her co-star, Alan Hale Jr., addressed Tina Louise by the name on "Gilligan's Island."

Son, This is Your Father

Offbeat comic tale of a sheltered young woman whose house is turned upside down by an eccentric lady, her cowboy son -- and his horse. Jock Mahoney makes the first of his many appearances in the series, playing nephew "Andy" to Frances Bavier, who would ironically play Aunt Bee to Andy Griffith less than a decade later.

The First Man to Ask Her

Profile of a teenager who wants to be treated as an adult.

Man's Estate

A forest ranger's wife unknowing allows into her house an escaped convict who seeks revenge on her husband.

Forest Ranger

A near-sighted, reclusive teacher is romanced by the father of her shyest pupil and discovers what she's been missing.

The Enchanted Schoolteacher

A woman is plagued by guilt when her politician husband killed a pedestrian in a car accident. Instead of taking responsibility, he was elated to see someone else arrested and blamed for it.

The Judgment

Nora is hired as a secretary under the condition that she disguise herself to be old and unattractive, so as not to distract her boss. When her boss has need to drop in to Nora's home, he is taken with the young lady he finds there, who claims to be Nora's sister.

Oh, My Aching Heart

Midge is an unmarried social worker with an overactive imagination, including having a curmudgeonly fairy to guide her. Her fairy gets her into sticky situations, and she is afraid of making a poor impression on her attractive neighbor.

Dear Midge

A young widow's beau won't marry her until he establishes some financial capital, so she deceives him into believing he won a $5000 raffle.

Something Always Happens

A new teacher in a remote Native American community struggles to get children out of work and into school, and she ends up instigating a strike against the local farmer who employs most of the natives.

Lady in Wet Paint

Duke and Rita visit a remote mountain cabin for a romantic getaway. During a fierce snowstorm, a young boy with pneumonia shows up at their door. Duke won't call for help because he is wanted for robbery, but Rita uses a ham radio to ask for medical help.

Guest in the Night

A doctor unravels the mysterious circumstances and suspects surrounding the near-death of a young heiress.

Dr. Juliet

Granite jawed Hugh O'Brien, clearly enjoying a change of pace from his usual rugged roles, plays a shy cartoonist whose heroism is awakened by a fraud scandal involving a woman and a his exact double.

Double Trouble

What seems to be Aladdin's Lamp also seems to be fulfilling the fondest wishes of a young couple.

The Lamp

A couple finds themselves terrorized by a disturbed man who rear ends their car. There is some genuine suspense in this episode and warrants attention in that it comes years before Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other such anthologies.

You're Driving Me Crazy

This familiar plot of a lone holdout juror benefits from extreme unusual close-ups, montages and double-exposures to "open up" the drama beyond the single room setting.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Clever "amateur sleuth" tale with a sharp Catholic priest who helps a family escape from a smooth con man. Very "Columbo"-like.

For Father Darling

An idealistic widow, whose last name is that same to that of a candidate, allows two slick politicians to add her name to a small town mayoral ballot.

On Your Honor, Your Honor

A girl scout is left alone with an escaped convict.

The Girl Scout Story

Former stuntman and TV's "Range Rider" and "Yancy Derringer," Jock Mahoney, returns to this series, this time playing the owner of a small diner who is taken with a lost soul seemingly left alone in the rain.

No Help Wanted

Pushy history teacher nags her math teacher-coach boyfriend to have more ambition and winds up coaching the football team in his place.

It's a Man's Game

A dancer's resolution to go on with her life as a singer inspires an architect who had become embittered after his hands were injured in the Korean war. Sally Field's mother Margaret (wife of Loretta Young show favorite Jock Mahoney) co-stars as Gene Barry's fiancée.

Something About Love

Like Spielberg's "Lincoln," which celebrated the little-known people who made a difference as well as high-profile leaders, this episode focuses on one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hart.

Our Sacred Honor

A young man attempts to reform his delinquent mother when she stops in town to see him.

Big Jim

An embittered man takes revenge on a beloved doctor who lost his wife on the operating table, leading to vigilantism. Among the cast is Oscar-winner Jane Darwell ("The Grapes of Wrath," "Mary Poppins"). The theme of friendly neighbors transformed into a hideous mob would be echoed in Twilight Zone episodes "The Shelter" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

Evil for Evil

At a hospital and nursing home, everyone wants to stage Christmas parties for the sick children, but the event coordinator connives to get a party for the elderly residents.

Time and Yuletide

A financially strapped New York cab driver becomes desperate for cash when his wife goes into labor.

Three Minutes Too Late

Familiar TV faces abound in this fanciful dramedy about a woman's ability to know the time without a watch challenged by a watch company's efforts to use a conceited employee's charms to discredit her.

The Girl Who Knew

A man whose experience as a prisoner of war has caused him to be alcoholic and homeless stumbles into a situation in which he must use his army medical training and receives advice and support from a nurse and a doctor to change his life.

The Flood

The wife of a pilot runs the gamut of emotions and memories while awaiting the return of her husband, whose plane has lost an engine in a storm.

Decision

Hugh Beaumont plays the dad in one of two suburban families that allow the childish teasing between their sons escalate into a serious social and business conflicts.

The Refinement of Ab

A successful Art Director lets her imagination run away with her when a young female business associate of her husband's wants to talk to her about something "personal."

600 Seconds

A little girl's stories about her seemingly imaginary friend, "Mrs. Bannister," begin to foreshadow real events and imminent danger.

The Case of Mrs. Bannister

True story of a Depression-era mother's efforts to redirect her talented little boy's creative projects to more practical pursuits -- and who this boy turns out to be is the twist, as Ms. Young introduces the real-life man and his mom at the end of the episode.

Dickie

The Hollywood success of a New York writer takes up so much of his time and attention that it threatens his marriage.

Option on a Wife

A western drifter retrieves a beloved horse to court a maiden settler.

Tale of a Cayuse

Only a few years after "Spellbound," but before "Vertigo" and "The Three Faces of Eve," this episode uses extended two-actor scenes in its thoughtful exploration of claustrophobia and the benefits of therapy - as well as forgiveness of others and oneself.

Case Book

The plight of poverty-stricken war orphans forces a hard-nosed war correspondent to face the flesh-and-blood effects of her cynical editorials.

Dateline - Korea

Dennis Hopper was only nineteen when he appeared in this episode as a privileged young man who is sent to work on a farm to build his character.

Inga II

Series favorites Jock Mahoney, Ann Doran and Casey Adams (Max Showalter) reunite with Ms. Young in an amusing "Fisherman and His Wife/If You Give a Mouse A Cookie"-like fable about the effects an unexpected mink coat has on a two suburban couples.

Mink Coat

Craig Stevens plays the head of a modeling agency who likes to discover his clients in ordinary walks of life, prompting an earnest hopeful to pose as an auto mechanic to catch his attention.

Let Columbus Discover You

An aging man is unfaithful to his wife and negligent to his daughter.

He Always Comes Home

In a memorable episode that showcases Ms. Young's comic timing and dancing talent, she plays a passive secretary who cuts loose after a visit to the dentist and the lingering effects of laughing gas. In the scene in which she makes a grand entrance, bellowing "Anita, DAH-ling!" it strongly resembles the first appearance of Cruella DeVil in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians."

Feeling No Pain

A man is plagued by guilt and worry when his daughter breaks a finger after he spanks her in anger.

The Little Teacher

A British writer recalls the captivating Maharani with whom he fell in love while on assignment in India.

I Remember the Rani

At a desolate weather station, a woman (Phyllis Thaxter) encounters an escaped mental patient.

Fear Me Not

A mother suspects her daughter has become a juvenile delinquent.

Weekend in Winnetka

Reunion

A schoolmarm in the 1920's is imported into an all-Irish community for the sole purpose of marriage to one of the O'Moore boys. When her intended decides she is too frail for ranch life and sets about looking for another prospect, the teacher must prove he is wrong.

My Uncle O'Moore

A family is engaged in a battle they may not win: their home is in the way of a proposed freeway.

Gino

Moment of Decision

The Waiting Game

The Last Spring

Katy

A wife in a small town is having her portrait painted by a promising young artist. Rumor has it that her interest in him is more than that of a patron.

Slander

A girl seeks out a former sweetheart on a tropical island and unexpectedly also becomes involved with a writer.

Tropical Secretary

A woman whose husband was killed in an airplane crash refuses to believe that he was running off with another woman when the crash occurred.

The Bracelet

A newspaperwoman and her fiance find themselves involved in a Central American revolution. To further complicate things, her former sweetheart shows up in town.

Across the Plaza

A Pattern of Deceit

Man in the Ring

A Shadow Between

This Christmas day tale of a small town waitress, lonely serviceman and the child of separated parents marks Loretta Young's first appearance on the series after many months of guest star presenters who filled in while she recovered from illness.

Christmas Stopover

A Ticket for May

One of Inga's prison workers is distraught over his wife's ill health, and Inga takes steps so that he can care for his wife. Seeing the strength of their marriage, Inga contemplates marriage for herself.

Inga III

A young couple faces a serious test when the husband is denied an important promotion.

The Challenge

In Rome, an 18-year-old girl finally meets the man who has been her "second father" through a foster-parents program. Thrilled with her voice and with the girl herself, the older man plans an extensive singing career for her in New York.

Song of Rome

John Newland becomes another series fixture as the practical, detached father of a disabled mute boy, both whom are brought out of their shells by a children's book author.

The Secret

A middle-aged Japanese fisherman finds a pearl in an oyster and conceals it from his wife.

The Pearl

Tightwad Millionaire

A famous New York stage actress finds herself allergic to her leading man.

Gesundheit

The drab life of a spinster is brightened by her interest in amateur painting and the encouragement of a kindly priest.

Father Hoppe

An otherwise responsible husband and father has a periodic urge to leave his family and wander.

His Inheritance

The Wise One

A mother, suffering sustained grief of losing one of her two sons, has distanced herself from her other son and husband. She becomes attached to a melancholy neighborhood boy.

But for God's Grace

Letter to Loretta is an American anthology drama series telecast on NBC from September 1953 to June 1961 for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show was hosted by Loretta Young who also played the lead in various episodes.

Letter to Loretta was sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960. The final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's Listerine.

The Best Seasons of Letter to Loretta

The Best Seasons of Letter to Loretta

Season 5

Season 2

Season 3

Season 1

Season 4

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8