TV Reader's Digest
Family-oriented stories from the pages of "Reader's Digest" were dramatized on film.
- 1955-1956
- 2 seasons
- ABC
- Drama
Family-oriented stories from the pages of "Reader's Digest" were dramatized on film.
Season 2 Episode Guide
39 Episodes 1955 - 1956
Episode 1
Child Pioneer
Mon, Oct 17, 1955
When his parents die on a wagon trek to Oregon, a 13 year old boy completes the journey leading the rest of his family.
Episode 2
Old Master Detective
Mon, Oct 24, 1955
An insurance investigator makes a special trip to Europe to look into an insurance claim on a so-called masterpiece of art. The insured man making the claim is a Hollywood producer who is short on funds.
Episode 3
The Archer-Shee Case
Mon, Oct 31, 1955 30 mins
A young cadet at Royal Navel College is accused of theft and dismissed.
Episode 4
The Brainwashing of John Hayes
Mon, Nov 7, 1955
Vincent Price is a Christian Missionary jailed by Chinese Communists.
Episode 5
The Making of a Submarine
Mon, Nov 14, 1955
The story of four recruits who sign up for submarine service. Only one of the four proves that he can meet the rigid training and discipline
Episode 6
The Voyage of Captain Tom Jones, Pirate
Mon, Nov 21, 1955 30 mins
An ex-buccaneer is released from an English jail for a strange assignment. He is to sail a boatload of pilgrims to the New World on the "Mayflower."
Episode 7
If I Were Rich
Mon, Nov 28, 1955
Longing to move up in the world and escape their ordinary lives, the Johnson family pin all their hopes on a sweepstakes ticket. When their ticket becomes one of twenty finalists, temptation to sell it before the prize is selected wears on them, but they win it. Afterward, what looked like a life of ease turns into problems and heartache.
Episode 8
The Sad Death of a Hero
Mon, Dec 5, 1955 30 mins
This is the story of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" at Dayton, Tenn., July 1925. Defending the young teacher of Darwinism is avowed agnostic Clarence Darrow. Prosecuting him is fundamentalist statesman William Jennings Bryan. The show centers on Darrow's hard-fought verbal duel with the 65 year-old Bryan.
Episode 9
Emergency Case
Mon, Dec 12, 1955
Story of a young intern on duty as an ambulance attendant.
Episode 10
When the Wise Men Appeared
Mon, Dec 19, 1955
By walking down the street dressed as one of the wise men, a young boy inadvertently changes the meaning of Christmas for several people.
Episode 11
Ordeal at Yuba Gap
Mon, Dec 26, 1955 30 mins
One of the worst blizzards of the century traps more than 200 terror-stricken train passengers at Donner Pass in January 1952.
Episode 12
In the Eye of the Hurricane
Mon, Jan 2, 1956
The captain of a small freighter with a disgruntled crew is caught in a hurricane off the Florida coast.
Episode 13
Why the Choir Was Late
Mon, Jan 9, 1956
Each member of a small-town church choir was delayed en route to the weekly choir practice. If they been on time, they would have been in the church when it was blown to pieces.
Episode 14
The Man Who Beat Death
Mon, Jan 16, 1956
Tennis player William Talbert reenacts his own fight against diabetes.
Episode 15
A Bell for Okinawa
Mon, Jan 23, 1956
A doctor in a leper colony decides his patients need a church bell.
Episode 16
Cochise, Greatest of the Apaches
Mon, Jan 30, 1956 30 mins
Tom Jeffords hopes to bring peace to the Arizona Territory by convincing Cochise, the Apache Indian Chief, and General Howard to meet for peace talks.
Episode 17
The Mystery of Minnie
Mon, Feb 6, 1956
Though Minnie Garrett has been dead many years, her unique bequest makes it possible for an author to complete a novel and effect an adoption.
Episode 18
Texas in New York
Mon, Feb 13, 1956
A Texas schoolteacher comes to work in a tough New York neighborhood and tries to drill some good sense, as well as good citizenship, into her class of hoodlums.
Episode 19
Return from Oblivion
Mon, Feb 20, 1956 30 mins
A businessman develops a persecution complex.
Episode 20
The Case of the Uncertain Hand
Mon, Feb 27, 1956
Attorney Nancy Drake (Marguerite Chapman) must use her handwriting expertise along with gum shoe detective work to exonerate Ben Williams (Aaron Spelling) and Anne Williams (Helene Santley) from a bank heist charge.
Episode 21
Lost, Strayed, and Lonely
Mon, Mar 5, 1956 30 mins
Feeling unloved and unwanted when his juvenile projects bring only annoyance from his father, a 10 year-old runs away from home.
Episode 22
Night Court
Mon, Mar 12, 1956
A judge, noted for his compassion toward the poor who appear before him, has little to show financially for his years on the bench. He is highly tempted by a lucrative offer from the head of a powerful law firm.
Episode 23
No Horse, No Wife, No Mustache
Mon, Mar 19, 1956
A lovesick West Point cadet breaks a standing rule: he has grown a mustache.
Episode 24
The Trigger Finger Clue
Mon, Mar 26, 1956 30 mins
Four criminals rob a bank, commit murder and take two clerks with them as hostages.
Episode 25
The Secret Weapon of Joe Smith
Mon, Apr 2, 1956 30 mins
A reporter shares his apartment with a belligerent USSR delegate to the UN. He intends to "kill him with kindness."
Episode 26
Courage
Mon, Apr 9, 1956
When a young man's courage is questioned due to an incident that occurred at collage, his father relates a story that happened to him when he was young, via the lessons he learned from his own father about standing up for what is right.
Episode 27
The Woman Who Changed Her Mind
Mon, Apr 16, 1956
A movie producer's marriage to a dumb show girl (Marilyn Erskine) is jeopardized when she decides to get an education.
Episode 28
Uncle Sam's C Men
Mon, Apr 23, 1956
Agents from the U.S. Commerce Department get a tip that a manufacturer is illegally shipping aircraft parts to Communist East Europe.
Episode 29
Miss Victoria
Mon, Apr 30, 1956
The true account of the heroism of a British woman on a cargo ship in the Atlantic during World War 2.
Episode 30
The Old, Old Story
Mon, May 7, 1956
An Army recruit and his girl are determined to marry, despite parental objections on both sides.
Episode 31
Britain's Most Baffling Murder Case
Mon, May 14, 1956 25 mins
When the wife of a mild-mannered insurance salesman is murdered, the police immediately suspect the husband, William Herbert Wallace.
Episode 32
Down on the Tennessee
Mon, May 21, 1956 30 mins
A young Northerner gets a job as first mate on a Tennessee River cargo boat, but discovers that the pilot is deaf, the fireman is a drunk and the cook is up to something shady.
Episode 33
The Man Who Dreamt Winners
Mon, May 28, 1956
A Harvard graduate student discovers that his dreams reveal winning horses for future races.
Episode 34
The General's Escape
Mon, Jun 4, 1956
General Henri Giraud must escape from a Nazi prison and return to the French Resistance, avoiding the Gestapo along the way.
Episode 35
The Gigantic Bank Note Swindle
Mon, Jun 11, 1956
A Portuguese con man buys a bank with counterfeit funds. Based upon actual events.
Episode 36
Go Fight City Hall
Mon, Jun 18, 1956 30 mins
An angry taxpayer in a suburban New York town finally gets fed up with the crooked and incompetent politicians running the local government and sets out to do something about it. However, the political machine doesn't scare so easily and they begin to make life miserable for the man and his family.
Episode 37
Family Reunion USA
Mon, Jun 25, 1956
An office pools it's resources to bring the family of janitor Spyros Patros to the U.S. from Greece. Spyros has not seen his family in 10 years.
Episode 38
The Only Way Out
Mon, Jul 2, 1956
The true story of a German painter whose zealous efforts to escape from a Communist prison encouraged his guard to flee with him.
Episode 39
The Smuggler
Mon, Jul 9, 1956
A young Norwegian sailor on a ship bound for San Francisco runs afoul of a gang smuggling opium from Asia, which threatens to kill him if he doesn't smuggle drugs into the country for them when he lands in San Francisco.