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Playhouse 90
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COLLECTION · Series · 1956

Playhouse 90

Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were usually hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays. Playhouse 90 began as a pitch by Frank Stanton—the formidable, forward-thinking right-hand man to CBS chairman William S. Paley—during a brainstorming session for program ideas. The project was ultimately developed by Hubbell Robinson, a CBS vice president who received no screen credit on Playhouse 90 but is often described as its creator.

Source: TMDB
* 7.6 (8)Drama
Soundtrack
Google
Creators
Hubbell Robinson · Frank Stanton
Studios
CBS
Runtime
90 min/ep
Release
04/10/1956
Score
7.6 / 10 (8)

Awards and nominations

  • 1957 Best TV Show – Playhouse 90
  • 1958 Best Dramatic Anthology Series – Playhouse 90
  • 1957 Best New Program Series – Playhouse 90
  • 1957 Best Art Direction - One Hour or More – Albert Heschong for " Requiem for a Heavyweight "
  • 1957 Best Single Performance by an Actor – Jack Palance in "Requiem for a Heavyweight"
  • 1957 Best Single Program of the Year – "Requiem for a Heavyweight"
  • 1957 Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or More – Rod Serling for "Requiem for a Heavyweight"
  • 1957 Best Director - One Hour or More – Ralph Nelson for "Requiem for a Heavyweight"
  • 1958 Best Single Performance by an Actress – Polly Bergen in " The Helen Morgan Story "
  • 1958 Best Single Program of the Year – " The Comedian "
  • 1958 Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or More – Rod Serling for "The Comedian"
  • 1959 Best Dramatic Series - One Hour or Longer – Playhouse 90
Where to watch
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Seasons and episodes
Season 1
39 episodes · 1956
Episode 1. Forbidden Area
1956-10-04 · 90 min

Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will anyone believe him?

Episode 2. Requiem for a Heavyweight
1956-10-11 · 90 min

An over-the-hill heavyweight boxing champion who suffers from the ravages of years of head trauma is exploited by his manager, despite the efforts of a compassionate young woman who tries to help him recover his self-respect.

Episode 3. Sizeman and Son
1956-10-18 · 90 min

The happy atmosphere in Mr. Sizeman's factory is disrupted by an argumentative newcomer - his son.

Episode 4. Rendezvous in Black
1956-10-25 · 90 min

A woman is inexplicably killed on a street-corner. What has this to do with other deaths around the city?

Episode 5. The Country Husband
1956-11-01 · 90 min

After a near-death experience, a businessman starts to re-think his life, and wonders about leaving his wife.

Episode 6. The Big Slide
1956-11-08 · 90 min

A vaudeville comic becomes a silent film star.

Episode 7. Heritage of Anger
1956-11-15 · 90 min

A wealthy industrialist has trouble with his sons.

Episode 8. Eloise
1956-11-22 · 90 min

It's not so much that Eloise is a mischievous child, but the darnedest things do happen when she's around.

Episode 9. Confession
1956-11-29 · 90 min

When a much-admired community leader dies, a journalist starts to investigate his life - and finds he was not the man he seemed.

Episode 10. Made in Heaven
1956-12-06 · 90 min

When Zachary and Elsa separate, each seems tempted to start a new love affair.

Episode 11. Sincerely, Willis Wade
1956-12-13 · 90 min

A wealthy mill owner finances the education of a clever, but poor, young man.

Episode 12. The Family Nobody Wanted
1956-12-20 · 90 min

A true story, it follows a pastor and his wife through forties beginning with one biological child, Donny. But the upheaval of the war years results in a number of mixed raced children that the Doss family adopt until they have 12 children.

Episode 13. Massacre at Sand Creek
1956-12-27 · 90 min

An investigation into a massacre of Native Americans.

Episode 14. Snowshoes: A Comedy of People and Horses
1957-01-03 · 90 min

Some racetrack Johnnies are talking between races when one wonders if you can hypnotize a horse into thinking it's a champion. The idea sets in motion a series of hilarious events.

Episode 15. The Ninth Day
1957-01-10 · 90 min

Events in the aftermath of World War Three.

Episode 16. So Soon to Die
1957-01-17 · 90 min

Down on his luck, war hero Lionel Amblin contemplates committing a murder.

Episode 17. The Star Wagon
1957-01-24 · 90 min

An inventor, pondering on how he might differently have arranged his life, invents a time machine and decides to make a few changes.

Episode 18. The Greer Case
1957-01-31 · 90 min

When a rich woman dies without signing her new will, all kinds of problems ensue.

Episode 19. The Miracle Worker
1957-02-07 · 90 min

The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.

Episode 20. The Comedian
1957-02-14 · 90 min

Sammy Hogarth, a vaudeville comedian who now has his own TV show, is a ruthless egomaniac who demands instant obedience from his staff and heaps abuse on those in lesser positions than his. His most vituperative behavior, however, is…

Episode 21. One Coat of White
1957-02-21 · 90 min

A newly-widowed woman goes on a trip to Europe and meets a French artist.

Episode 22. The Blackwell Story
1957-02-28 · 90 min

In the 19th century, Elizabeth Blackwell determines to become a doctor.

Episode 23. Invitation to a Gunfighter
1957-03-07 · 90 min

A gunfighter is terrorizing a small western town. The townspeople finally pool their money to a hire another gunfighter to drive him out of town. The townsfolk thought they had it bad until they handed the reigns over to the new terror.…

Episode 24. The Last Tycoon
1957-03-14 · 90 min

A movie producer is slowly working himself to death.

Episode 25. The Hostess with the Mostes'
1957-03-21 · 90 min

The story of Perle Mesta, who became, first, a renowned society hostess, and then an ambassadress.

Episode 26. Where's Charley?
1957-03-28 · 90 min

Lord Fancourt Babberley is forced to disguise himself as a woman - his aunt from Brazil, "where the nuts come from".

Episode 27. Clipper Ship
1957-04-04 · 90 min

A romance on the high seas revolving around the comely widow of a shipping magnate, and her growing love for a handsome young political prisoner who was scheduled to be put to death when the vessel reached its destination. Though…

Episode 28. If You Knew Elizabeth
1957-04-11 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 29. Three Men on a Horse
1957-04-18 · 90 min

A meek salesman with an uncanny ability to pick horses is virtually kidnapped by a trio of gamblers.

Episode 30. Four Women in Black
1957-04-25 · 90 min

Four nuns, led by Sister Teresa, begin a treacherous journey across the Arizona desert in 1870. Their faith enables them to deal with the challenges of nature and the hostility of their fellow mankind.

Episode 31. Child of Trouble
1957-05-02 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 32. Homeward Borne
1957-05-09 · 90 min

Just after World War Two ends, an American woman takes in a Polish war orphan boy, a concentration camp survivor. But conflict arises when her husband, a returning Air Force bomber pilot, hates the boy and his psychological baggage.

Episode 33. The Helen Morgan Story
1957-05-16 · 90 min

Broadway legend Helen Morgan 's life as told by her mother, from her early start in second rate speakeasies to star of top rated shows and owning her own club. Also seen is her poor choices, such as her affair with a married man, her…

Episode 34. Winter Dreams
1957-05-23 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 35. Circle of the Day
1957-05-30 · 90 min

On her tenth wedding anniversary (which is also her daughter's birthday), a wife begins to suspect her husband of unfaithfulness.

Episode 36. Without Incident
1957-06-06 · 90 min

Captain Russell Bidlack, commander of a U.S. Cavalry unit in 1870, determines to complete a rescue mission through dangerous Indian territory. In the course of the mission, he rescues the wives of two slain traders and captures the Indian…

Episode 37. Clash by Night
1957-06-13 · 90 min

Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.

Episode 38. Ain't No Time for Glory
1957-06-20 · 90 min

American soldiers must use stealth to take over a German command post in Normandy.

Episode 39. The Fabulous Irishman
1957-06-27 · 90 min

Romanticized life story of Robert Briscoe, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin.

Season 2
40 episodes · 1957
Episode 1. The Death of Manolete
1957-09-12 · 90 min

The last hours in the life of Spain's most celebrated matador.

Episode 2. The Dark Side of the Earth
1957-09-19 · 90 min

A drama set in 1956, during the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising against the Russians

Episode 3. Topaze
1957-09-26 · 90 min

A mild-mannered schoolteacher gradually abandons all his principles - and finds the success which has always hitherto eluded him.

Episode 4. A Sound of Different Drummers
1957-10-03 · 90 min

In a dystopian society, reading is forbidden.

Episode 5. The Playroom
1957-10-10 · 90 min

When a mother wins an award, she finds out a few things about her three grown-up children.

Episode 6. Around the World in 90 Minutes
1957-10-17 · 90 min

October 17, 1957, the CBS Television Network diverted from its typical format of live dramatic presentations for "Playhouse 90" to cover Michael Todd's gigantic party commemorating the one-year anniversary of the release of his film…

Episode 7. The Mystery of Thirteen
1957-10-24 · 90 min

The story of William Palmer, one of the most notorious poisoners in Victorian England - or was he?

Episode 8. The Edge of Innocence
1957-10-31 · 90 min

A lawyer's new brother-in-law disapproves of his specialty of defending murderers. But when he finds himself accused of murder, he asks for his help.

Episode 9. The Clouded Image
1957-11-07 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 10. The Jet-Propelled Couch
1957-11-14 · 90 min

Based on a case history in psychologist Dr. Robert Linder's book "The 50-Minute Hour." Unbeknownst to his friends and colleagues, the outwardly sane and secure atomic physicist Dr. Kirk Allen has for many years been embarking upon…

Episode 11. The Troublemakers
1957-11-21 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 12. Panic Button
1957-11-28 · 90 min

A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation determines that the reason a plane crashed, killing all aboard except one of the pilots, is that either the dead pilot or the survivor became panic-stricken and pushed the wrong button, but the…

Episode 13. Galvanized Yankee
1957-12-05 · 90 min

In a Northern prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War, a crippled Yankee commander has a rebellious Rebel executed. The dead man's brother, also a prisoner, vows vengeance. He volunteers to accompany the commander on a mission, planning…

Episode 14. The Thundering Wave
1957-12-12 · 90 min

Middle-aged actress Victoria Maxwell comes to terms with her destructive lifestyle as she struggles with the lead role in a Broadway-bound play. Matters are complicated by the fact that she is co-starring opposite her estranged husband,…

Episode 15. For I Have Loved Strangers
1957-12-19 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 16. The Lone Woman
1957-12-26 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 17. Reunion
1958-01-02 · 90 min

A reunion party for old army buddies turns inexorably into something darker and more sinister.

Episode 18. The Last Man
1958-01-09 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 19. The 80 Yard Run
1958-01-16 · 90 min

Long ago, Christian made a run of 80 yards to make the winning touchdown in a football game. It was the greatest moment of his life. Or was it the beginning of his decline?

Episode 20. Before I Die
1958-01-23 · 90 min

An innocent man, doomed to die for the murder of a cop that he didn't commit, is rushed from prison to the county hospital for an emergency operation. The surgeon becomes convinced of the man's innocence when he mumbles a girl's name…

Episode 21. The Gentleman from Seventh Avenue
1958-01-30 · 90 min

Mr. Golden wonders if he has wasted his life; but the news that he is to become a grandfather cheers him.

Episode 22. The Violent Heart
1958-02-06 · 90 min

Photographer Paul is invited to a French estate to take pictures but a romance develops with the lady of the house. A sudden death creates a suspicion of murder.

Episode 23. No Time at All
1958-02-13 · 90 min

An airliner flying nonstop at night from Miami to New York fails to check in, then disappears from radar. We see how its disappearance affects people on the ground. The Episode was directed by David Swift, who also collaborated with…

Episode 24. Point of No Return
1958-02-20 · 90 min

Waiting to find out if he's obtained a valuable promotion, a banker returns to the small town he grew up in.

Episode 25. Portrait of a Murderer
1958-02-27 · 90 min

Based on a true story, Donald Bashor robs and bludgeons two women to their deaths. While committing the crimes he maintains a normal existence with his girlfriend Florry.

Episode 26. The Last Clear Chance
1958-03-06 · 90 min

A veteran lawyer must defend his own son when the latter is threatened with disbarment.

Episode 27. The Male Animal
1958-03-13 · 90 min

The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a…

Episode 28. The Right Hand Man
1958-03-20 · 90 min

The story of a struggle for control of a Hollywood talent agency.

Episode 29. Turn Left at Mount Everest
1958-04-03 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 30. The Dungeon
1958-04-17 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 31. Verdict of Three
1958-04-24 · 90 min

A murder trial is followed through different jurors and their reactions.

Episode 32. Rumors of Evening
1958-05-01 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 33. Not the Glory
1958-05-08 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 34. Nightmare at Ground Zero
1958-05-15 · 90 min

After the first atom bomb test, scientists realize the bomb was more powerful than they expected - which may have terrible results.

Episode 35. Bomber's Moon
1958-05-22 · 90 min

A hard-hearted Colonel loses many men in his group's bombing missions over World War II Germany, but keeps on going and won't tolerate a young lieutenant losing his nerve under the strain, who refuses to continue.

Episode 36. Natchez
1958-05-29 · 90 min

A Civil War veteran returns home to find his father has become a social pariah.

Episode 37. The Innocent Sleep
1958-06-05 · 90 min

When a rich man marries a much younger wife and his ailing health gets rather worse, the housekeeper suspects a murder attempt is looming.

Episode 38. A Town Has Turned to Dust
1958-06-19 · 90 min

A weakling sheriff is unable to prevent a lynching. Can he redeem himself by preventing a second one?

Episode 39. The Great Gatsby
1958-06-26 · 90 min

A Midwesterner becomes fascinated with his wealthy neighbor, who obsesses over his lost love.

Episode 40. Bitter Heritage
1958-08-07 · 90 min

The James boys, being framed for a bank heist, are saved by the banker's daughter.

Season 3
38 episodes · 1958
Episode 1. The Plot to Kill Stalin
1958-09-25 · 90 min

In late 1952, an aging and increasingly paranoid Stalin puts in motion a purge against his doctors, with anti-Semitic overtones. His lackeys, including Khrushchev, Molotov and Beria, fear it will spread to the Politburo, and plan to…

Episode 2. Days of Wine and Roses
1958-10-02 · 90 min

An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his "passion" together.

Episode 3. The Time of Your Life
1958-10-09 · 90 min

William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of the bar and each other's lives, giving voice to Saroyan's…

Episode 4. The Long March
1958-10-16 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 5. Shadows Tremble
1958-10-23 · 90 min

An elderly immigrant tries to buy an old house in New England and is opposed by snobbish locals.

Episode 6. Word from a Sealed-Off Box
1958-10-30 · 90 min

A courier for the Dutch Resistance is captured by the Nazis.

Episode 7. Heart of Darkness
1958-11-06 · 90 min

A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.

Episode 8. Old Man
1958-11-20 · 90 min

To fight a Mississippi flood in 1927, a prison farm releases some convicts.

Episode 9. The Return of Ansel Gibbs
1958-11-27 · 90 min

After years in retirement, Ansel Gibbs is asked to return to government service.

Episode 10. Free Weekend
1958-12-04 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 11. Seven Against the Wall
1958-12-11 · 90 min

The story of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.

Episode 12. The Nutcracker
1958-12-25 · 90 min

This telecast of George Balanchine's famous production was broadcast only four years after it was premiered by the New York City Ballet. This was the only episode of the series televised in color.

Episode 13. Face of a Hero
1959-01-01 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 14. The Wings of the Dove
1959-01-08 · 90 min

An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she…

Episode 15. The Blue Men
1959-01-15 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 16. The Velvet Alley
1959-01-22 · 90 min

Ernie Pandish has tried to be a writer for years and has never made much money out of it. But now he seems likely to hit the big-time.

Episode 17. A Quiet Game of Cards
1959-01-29 · 90 min

A few friends meet each weekend for a quiet game of cards. But they're bored with poker and, in trying to find another diversion, gradually find themselves plotting a hypothetical murder. It is hypothetical, isn't it?

Episode 18. Child of Our Time
1959-02-05 · 90 min

War deprives Tanguy of his childhood. When his mother returns to Spain to oppose the Franco regime, he is left in Nazi-occupied Marseilles, France.

Episode 19. The Second Man
1959-02-12 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 20. The Raider
1959-02-19 · 90 min

A corporate raider plans a hostile takeover. To stall him, pressure is put on a scientist to rush through a new type of engine before all necessary tests have been completed.

Episode 21. The Ding-A-Ling Girl
1959-02-26 · 90 min

A housewife is offered a Hollywood contract. She'd rather stay home, but her husband has ambitions for her.

Episode 22. Made in Japan
1959-03-05 · 90 min

A young soldier in occupied Japan after World War II falls in love with a lovely Japanese girl, but is horrified about what his prejudiced family in Philadelphia will think if he takes her home with him.

Episode 23. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 1
1959-03-12 · 90 min

During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.

Episode 24. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 2
1959-03-19 · 90 min

The completion of the mission has tragic consequences.

Episode 25. A Trip to Paradise
1959-03-26 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 26. In Lonely Expectation
1959-04-02 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 27. The Day Before Atlanta
1959-04-09 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 28. Judgment at Nuremberg
1959-04-16 · 90 min

In the later stages of the Nuremberg Trials, four German judges are accused of perverting the course of justice.

Episode 29. A Corner of the Garden
1959-04-23 · 90 min

No synopsis

Episode 30. Dark December
1959-04-30 · 90 min

During World War II, an army doctor struggles to convert a Franciscan monastery into a field hospital.

Episode 31. Diary of a Nurse
1959-05-07 · 90 min

The daily emergencies and stresses of a major city's hospital ward as seen through the eyes of nurse Gail Lucas.

Episode 32. A Marriage of Strangers
1959-05-14 · 90 min

Marry in haste, repent at leisure? Well, maybe.

Episode 33. Out of Dust
1959-05-21 · 90 min

On a cattle drive across the prairie, the sons of a wealthy cattle baron plot his death.

Episode 34. The Rank and File
1959-05-28 · 90 min

A powerful union leader is interrogated by a Senate committee. Testifying before a Senate, William Kilcoyne tells the story of his career. He began as a factory worker and his shrewdness and ambition carried him up through the ranks to…

Episode 35. The Killers of Mussolini
1959-06-04 · 90 min

As the Salo Republic crumbles around him, Mussolini, along with his mistress and several of his ministers flee with retreating Nazi soldiers, but are caught at the town of Dongo by red partisans. All are brutally executed without trial.

Episode 36. Project Immortality
1959-06-11 · 90 min

Key defense scientist Doner has cancer. Schramm is assigned to code Doner's thinking into a computer. He gets to know him as a friend, a husband and father. The project is successful, but he now knows identity is not programmable.

Episode 37. Dark as the Night
1959-06-18 · 90 min

A British politician finds himself open to blackmail because of the indiscretion of his American wife.

Episode 38. The Second Happiest Day
1959-06-25 · 90 min

A man about to be married recalls the day his life changed permanently.

Season 4
Season 4
17 episodes · 1959
Episode 1. Target for Three
1959-10-01 · 90 min

Three conspirators plan the death of a South American head of state.

Episode 2. The Sounds of Eden
1959-10-15 · 90 min

Three different viewpoints of the same story - a kidnapping and its aftermath.

Episode 3. Misalliance
1959-10-29 · 90 min

A group of people gathered at a wealthy man's country home on a summer weekend engage in an exploration of their varied romantic entanglements.

Episode 4. The Hidden Image
1959-11-12 · 90 min

A journalist out to expose political corruption finds his family is in danger.

Episode 5. The Grey Nurse Said Nothing
1959-11-26 · 90 min

In Australia, a landowner is arrested for murder - but where's the body?

Episode 6. The Tunnel
1959-12-10 · 90 min

In the Civil War, a tunnel is dug under Confederate lines, and filled with explosives.

Episode 7. The Silver Whistle
1959-12-24 · 90 min

The old people's home is a pretty miserable place - until the arrival of the mysterious Mr. Erwenter.

Episode 8. John Brown's Raid
1960-01-14 · 90 min

The story of abolitionist John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

Episode 9. A Dream of Treason
1960-01-21 · 90 min

A State Department official is required to leak a confidential document - which may have terrible repercussions.

Episode 10. To the Sound of Trumpets
1960-02-10 · 90 min

In Paris, a former soldier is alarmed when the girl he has fallen in love with demonstrates a rather naïve and romanticized attitude to war.

Episode 11. The Cruel Day
1960-02-24 · 90 min

Violence and brutality greet a French Army captain when he arrives in Algeria to assume command of a remote outpost. He is appalled by the savage massacre of an Algerian family by the Rebels. When the French take a prisoner who knows the…

Episode 12. Tomorrow
1960-03-07 · 90 min

Slow witted, and tired, Fentry leads a lonely life of grinding poverty in his sharecropper's shack until a sick, pregnant woman escaping her abusive husband comes there. He takes her in and cares for her, eventually falling in love with…

Episode 13. The Hiding Place
1960-03-22 · 90 min

In the last days of World War II, two English airmen are captured by an ordinary German citizen, who, instead of handing them over to the authorities, keeps them prisoner in his cellar, neglecting to tell them when the war ends.

Episode 14. Alas, Babylon
1960-04-03 · 90 min

Americans try to cope with the aftermath of a nuclear catastrophe.

Episode 15. Journey to the Day
1960-04-22 · 90 min

Patients at a mental hospital meet for a group therapy session.

Episode 16. The Shape of the River
1960-05-02 · 90 min

Determined to pay off his debts, Mark Twain sets off on a lecture tour.

Episode 17. In the Presence of Mine Enemies
1960-05-16 · 90 min

In the Warsaw ghetto, a Jewish man seeks revenge for the rape of his sister by a German soldier.

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