American Playhouse Season 4 Episodes

Episode 1

Testament

Mon, Nov 26, 1984

Episode 2

A Matter of Principle

Mon, Dec 3, 198460 mins

Flag Purdy, a "man of many principles" must learn the hard lesson of compromisation in order to keep his wife and children. The "final straw" comes when Flag's wife and children bring a Christmas tree into his house. Flag's principles will not allow such extravagances, and he destroys the tree. The next morning Flag's wife, Ada, and the children are gone. Flag learns his lesson in time for Christmas, and as Ada says, "A man with as many principles as Flag, some of them are bound to be wrong.".

Episode 3

Solomon Northup's Odyssey

Mon, Dec 10, 1984115 mins

This is based on a true story. Solomon Northrop is a black man in the mid 19th century before slavery was abolished. He's a born freeman who works as a carpenter and is also a part time musician. One day he is approached by some men who want him to play for them. However, that is not their intention; they have kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. Now he has to endure the hardships that he has been spared because of his status as a freeman. And his family who don't know what happened to him is searching for him but where do they go? And Solomon also wishes to let them know where he is so that they could get him but unfortunately no one believes his story or is willing to help him.

Episode 4

Tomorrow

Mon, Dec 17, 1984

A broadcast of the 1982 film "Tomorrow" based on the William Faulkner novel and adapted by Horton Foote. Robert Duvall stars as a poor Southern sharecropper whose despair is lifted when he adopts the infant son of a sick woman.

Episode 5

Go Tell It on the Mountain

Mon, Jan 14, 198596 mins

Working as a day laborer to make ends meet, an angry black preacher (Paul Winfield) vents his wrath upon his family (Rosalind Cash, James Bond III).

Episode 6

Noon Wine

Mon, Jan 21, 198581 mins

On a hot day in Texas in the the 1890s, a stranger shows up at the small dairy farm of Royal and Ellie Thompson. He asks for work and is hired. He's a taciturn, English-speaking Swede from North Dakota; he's competent, strong, and good at farming and dairying. The years pass, the farm flourishes. Then one day a second stranger, also from North Dakota, Homer Hatch, arrives and lives are changed in ways no-one could have imagined.

Episode 7

The Joy That Kills

Mon, Jan 28, 198556 mins

Louise dreams of traveling the world, but her weak heart and husband Brently's overbearing concern keep her from doing so. However, news of a train accident changes everything.

Episode 9

The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski

Mon, Feb 11, 198556 mins

The story of young Jean Shepherd ("A Christmas Story")'s life and obsession with a beautiful Polish girl he dreamed of dating.

Episode 10

Some Men Need Help

Mon, Feb 18, 198577 mins

John Ford Noonan's play about two suburban men whose lives are headed in opposite directions.

Episode 11

Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom

Mon, Feb 25, 1985113 mins

Drama based on the true story of Charlotte Forten, a young black woman who became an integral part of President Lincoln's "great experiment." During the Civil War, Southern troops were forced off the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia, which left 8,000 slaves as free. Miss Forten's mission was to journey south to Sea Island and lead those slaves in the transition from slavery to freedom, where she sought to give newly freed black children a decent education and chance for a better life

Episode 12

Breakfast with Les and Bess

Mon, Mar 11, 198590 mins

Dick Van Dyke and Cloris Leachman play an eccentric couple who broadcast their morning radio talk show from their New York apartment in the 1960s.

Episode 13

Nightsongs

Mon, Apr 15, 1985116 mins

A Chinese refugee from Vietnam emigrates to America, where she prepares to meet several of her relatives for the first time.

Episode 14

Under the Biltmore Clock

Wed, Feb 15, 198479 mins

In 1915 Chicago, 21-year-old Myra Harper sets her sights on the wealthy and reserved Knowleton Whitney to get him to marry her. All goes well, but later when Myra gets to meet his wacky parents, it turns out to be much harder for Myra than simply landing the man of her dreams.

Episode 15

Displaced Person

Mon, May 6, 198560 mins

Episode 16

The Europeans

Wed, May 15, 1985

An adaptation of the novel about the Countess Eugenia and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, she hopes to make an advantageous marriage with one of their wealthy cousins. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.

Episode 17

El Norte

Mon, May 20, 1985

Episode 18

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I

Mon, May 27, 1985171 mins

Episode 19

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part II

Mon, Jun 3, 1985

Episode 20

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part III

Mon, Jun 10, 1985

Episode 21

Paper Angels

Sat, Jun 15, 1985

Drama of Chinese immigrants detained on Angel Island in 1915 during Chinese Exclusion era. The new arrivals express their hopes and anxieties as they try to reconcile their Chinese heritage with their new lives in California.

Episode 22

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Mon, Jun 24, 1985