American Playhouse Season 1 Episodes

Episode 1

The Shady Hill Kidnapping

Tue, Jan 12, 198259 mins

John Cheever's comedy of a supposedly kidnapped 5-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.

Episode 2

King of America

Tue, Jan 19, 198274 mins

Hot-tempered Greek immigrant Andreas arrives in America in 1915. He finds work on a railroad, but soon gives his corrupt foreman Mekakis a savage beating. Making his way west across the country, Andreas eventually comes upon another railroad looking for workers. It turns out Mekakis has gone westward, too. He offers Andreas the only job suitable for him, a "moutain mover" on the suicide squad: He must grapple down the face of a cliff, position sticks of dynamite and then climb back up again before the lit fuses reach the explosive.

Episode 3

Seguin

Tue, Jan 26, 198290 mins

Based on the memoirs of Juan Nepomuceno Seguin, a soldier and politician born in San Antonio in the 19th century. He fought for the independence of Texas 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 Texas flatlands bringing prejudice and bigotry against the Mexican populations.

Episode 4

Who Am I This Time?

Tue, Feb 2, 198253 mins

From a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Christopher Walken is a shy hardware store employee. But whenever he takes a part in a local amateur theater production, he becomes the part completely--while on stage. Susan Sarandon is new in town, a lonely itinerant telephone company employee. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella to Walken's Stanley when the theater group does A Streetcar Named Desire. Before anyone realizes the growing affection between Helene and Stanley, she falls deeply in love with the sexy brute, not knowing what the real man is like.

Episode 5

Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine

Tue, Feb 9, 198252 mins

The arrival in a small town of a stranger who calls himself 'Charles Dickens' makes a magical and lasting change in the lives of an imaginative 12-year-old boy and a loving young woman.

Episode 6

Come Along with Me

Tue, Feb 16, 198254 mins

Mabel Lederer is a recently widowed woman who sells all her belongings and leaves her 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.

Episode 7

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf

Tue, Feb 23, 198278 mins

A unique award-winning tale of the African-American woman's journey in America.

Episode 8

Carl Sandburg: Echoes and Silences

Tue, Mar 2, 1982119 mins

"Perry Miller Adato's first attempt to combine documentary techniques with dramatic re-enactment. The film uses actor John Cullum both as himself and to play the young Sandburg in short dramatic sequences. In search of Sandburg, Cullum travels to the poet's native home, Galesburg, Illinois speaking with close friends and family of the writer. 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." (Perry Miller Adato website)

Episode 9

Fifth of July

Tue, Mar 9, 1982130 mins

Ken Talley is 32, strong, goodlooking and a Vietnam vet with both legs shot off seven years earlier. He is somewhat cynical. His lover Jed is bigger and stronger, a gardner, a good listener. On Independence Day 1977 Ken's home in Lebanon Missouri is visted by the others. Much of their past relationships, pre- and post-Vietnam, must be pulled up and examined before any of them can decide their future.

Episode 10

The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters

Tue, Mar 16, 198256 mins

Matt Dillon plays a young Jean Shepherd (author and narrator of A Christmas Story). Through Matt, Shep tells several humorous stories about his teen years in an Indiana steel town.

Episode 11

Pilgrim, Farewell

Tue, Mar 23, 1982102 mins

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

Episode 12

Northern Lights

Tue, Mar 30, 198289 mins

On a North Dakota wheat farm at the turn of the 20th century, Ray Sorenson builds his world around childhood sweetheart Inga. But then Ray sees his plans come apart when the bank forecloses on his family's farm.

Episode 13

Medal of Honor Rag

Tue, Apr 6, 198290 mins

A Medal of Honor-winning Vietnam veteran has difficulty readjusting to civilian life, and turns to a psychiatrist for help when he finds himself descending to robbery.

Episode 14

Working

Tue, Apr 13, 198290 mins

A musical adaptation of Studs Terkel's book celebrating the lives of everyday working-class people.

Episode 15

Weekend

Tue, Apr 20, 198260 mins

Episode 16

Private Contentment

Tue, Apr 27, 198290 mins

A young soldier goes home to attend his mother's funeral just before being shipped out to serve in World War II.

Episode 17

My Palikari

Tue, May 4, 198290 mins

A middle-aged Greek immigrant visits his native village, with his American-born son in tow. The older 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.

Episode 18

Oppenheimer: Part I

Tue, May 11, 1982

Episode 19

Oppenheimer: Part II

Tue, May 18, 1982

Episode 20

Oppenheimer: Part III

Tue, May 25, 1982

Episode 21

Oppenheimer: Part IV

Tue, Jun 1, 1982

Episode 22

Oppenheimer: Part V

Tue, Jun 8, 1982

Episode 23

Oppenheimer: Part VI

Tue, Jun 15, 1982

Episode 24

Oppenheimer: Part VII

Tue, Jun 22, 1982

Episode 25

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

Tue, Jun 29, 1982105 mins

The entire cause of the problem evolves from the use of a deputy to translate. His command of Spanish is inadequate and he mistranslates what a witness tells the sheriff as to whether the real perpetrator of the crime is riding a mare (yegua) or a male horse (caballo). This error results in destroying a family and the death of an innocent man.