The Philco Television Playhouse — Season 3
About this season
The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.
Episodes (56)
1. High Tor
Aired 10 September 1950 • 60 min
Van Dorn is getting the hard sell from businessmen wanting to buy his mountain, High Tor, for commercial use. When the group becomes trapped by a landslide, Van Dorn goes for help and encounters a Dutchwoman who's been haunting the mountain for two centuries.
2. The Long Run
Aired 17 September 1950 • 60 min
3. Dear Guest and Ghost
Aired 24 September 1950 • 60 min
A mother receives help with her troublesome kids from a friendly ghost.
4. The Touch of a Stranger
Aired 1 October 1950 • 60 min
A scientist's life has been destroyed by another man's greed and takes out his anger on three innocent strangers, implicating them in his own death.
5. The Vine That Grew on Fiftieth Street
Aired 8 October 1950 • 60 min
Seeds planted in a New York City backyard grow into a magical plant that brings happiness to those living near it. Formerly unpleasant neighbors turn into caring, warm-hearted individuals.
6. A Husband for Mama
Aired 15 October 1950 • 60 min
The three children of a widowed woman scheme to get their mother a new husband, setting their sites on a middle-aged doctor.
7. Portrait in Smoke
Aired 22 October 1950 • 60 min
A debt collector searches for the woman who saved him from an armed holdup; he wants her to have a $1000 reward. As he talks with those who knew her, he learns that she was a siren with a couple of murders to her credit.
8. The Gambler
Aired 29 October 1950 • 60 min
A scathing denunciation of gambling and feudal aristocrats of the 19th Century, this story relates how Philip, a young medical student, bargains away his career for the unsure success of high gambling stakes. His caution turns to uncontrollable greed when he learns that money can buy women and quick fame. His destiny is bound to Theresa's, a beautiful young woman who has been mortgaged in marriage for her stepfather's debt, and to her wealthy grandmother's, who chooses to gamble away her fortune so there will be no inheritors.
9. The Power Devil
Aired 5 November 1950 • 60 min
A young attorney involves himself in many shady deals as he pursues political ambitions. His wife speaks up and demands he clean up his act. The threat of disbarment also contributes to his final decision.
10. The Man Who Got Away With It
Aired 12 November 1950 • 60 min
11. I'm Still Alive
Aired 19 November 1950 • 60 min
A mousy teacher at a small school had written a swashbuckling story filled with international spies and adventure. Unbeknownst to him, the story is sold to a newspaper as a true account of his life. Suddenly, femme fatales and real gangsters are paying him visits.
12. Torch for a Dark Journey
Aired 26 November 1950 • 60 min
A Czech scientist escapes from Prague with the aid of an American industrialist, who wants to hire him for his personal benefit. The scientist is followed by a former student, now a fanatic Communist, who insists that the scientist must return to his own country to work for the People's Republic. The scientist must decide whether to return or abandon his countrymen and accept personal freedom in America.
13. Wacky, the Small Boy
Aired 3 December 1950 • 60 min
14. Bonanza
Aired 10 December 1950 • 60 min
The residents of a Western ghost town won't admit that their gold rush "boom town" days ended long ago.
15. Decoy
Aired 17 December 1950 • 60 min
16. The Pupil
Aired 24 December 1950 • 60 min
A tutor hired to instruct an uncontrollable 10-year-old soon recognizes the child's problem: it's his parents. The boy has had never received any affection from his negligent mother and father.
17. Leaf out of a Book
6.0Aired 31 December 1950 • 60 min
18. The Symbol: Jefferson Davis
Aired 7 January 1951 • 60 min
Three decades in the life of the Confederate president are covered by three women: each of his two wives, and his daughter.
19. The Lost Diplomat
Aired 14 January 1951 • 60 min
20. Confession
Aired 21 January 1951 • 60 min
The final confession of the highest degree. A compelling story, told by the eyes of the beholder.
21. The Great Escape
Aired 28 January 1951 • 60 min
The story of the biggest POW-camp escape of World War II.
22. A Matter of Life and Death
Aired 4 February 1951 • 60 min
23. Kitty Doone
Aired 11 February 1951 • 60 min
A faded movie star schemes to keep her career at all costs.
24. Let Them Be Sea Captains
Aired 18 February 1951 • 60 min
Horace Greeley, volatile editor of The New York tribune, and Margaret Fuller, the mid-19th century feminist and first woman employed on the newspaper's staff.
25. The Man Who Bought a Town
Aired 25 February 1951 • 60 min
A butcher purchases the town he calls home to preserve its quiet lifestyle.
26. No Medals on Pop
Aired 11 March 1951 • 60 min
A young boy believes his father deserves a medal for being in the war and is heartbroken when he finds out the truth and how his father disgraced the family.
27. The Dark Corridor
Aired 18 March 1951 • 60 min
The story of the Marr family which is made up of a dominant mother who bates everyone, the vacillating son, his wife, and the blind son. Then a new maid arrives, a maid who has served a term in prison as an accessory to a murder.
28. Bulletin 120
Aired 25 March 1951 • 60 min
In Mississippi in 1915, Dr. Joseph Goldberger works with a test group of convicts and discovers that pellagra is caused by a dietary deficiency and not infection.
29. Parnassus on Wheels
Aired 1 April 1951 • 60 min
In 1900's New England, Helen McGuill buys a horse-drawn, traveling bookstore, "Parnassus," from its owner, Roger McGuill. Roger travels with Helen in the beginning of her book-selling odyssey, and out of that comes adventure and romance.
30. Routine Assignment
Aired 8 April 1951 • 60 min
A reporter gets a confession of robbery from a man only to have the man then deny his guilt in a complex twist of events.
31. Hour of Destiny
Aired 15 April 1951 • 60 min
32. The Birth of the Movies
Aired 22 April 1951 • 60 min
Drama on the career of D.W. Griffith. Producer Fred Coe briefly talks with Lillian Gish before and following the drama.
33. Mr. Arcularis
Aired 29 April 1951 • 60 min
After undergoing important surgery, Mr. Arcularis goes on a long ocean voyage - where increasingly strange things occur.
34. A Secret Island
Aired 6 May 1951 • 60 min
A vicious woman is determined to see her niece wed for money and social position instead of for love.
35. The Visitors
Aired 13 May 1951 • 60 min
A young boy's disappearance when his mother remarries leads to a mystery when he is found and has forgotten who he is.
36. Justice and Mr. Pleznik
Aired 20 May 1951 • 60 min
The story of a naturalized immigrant's first experience with jury duty.
37. Rescue
Aired 27 May 1951 • 60 min
38. The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
Aired 3 June 1951 • 60 min
A mild-mannered proof-reader goes on a world tour, and demonstrates several esoteric skills whilst undergoing exciting adventures.
39. The Fast Dollar
Aired 10 June 1951 • 60 min
A humorous tale of life in a small town and its impact on a would-be confidence man.
40. Operation: Airlift
Aired 17 June 1951 • 60 min
The story of the Berlin airlift, when the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. The success of the airlift humiliated the Soviets claiming that such a thing would never work.
41. Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal
Aired 24 June 1951 • 60 min
Widower Dr. Hudson lives with his daughter and housekeeper and keeps his medical practice success by using the Good book as guidance.
42. The Plot
Aired 1 July 1951 • 60 min
Widower Dr. Hudson lives with his daughter and housekeeper and keeps his medical practice success by using the Good book as guidance.
43. Case History
Aired 8 July 1951 • 60 min
A sleuthing psychiatrist probes a murder in his fiancee's home and stirs up a hornet's nest with his future in-laws.
44. I Want to March
Aired 15 July 1951 • 60 min
The year is 1915 and the suffragettes cause a stir in the home of a zoology professor as his wife takes up the banner of "women's rights".
45. Pretend I Am A Stranger
Aired 22 July 1951 • 60 min
The story of a British soldier and his buddy's widow as the two grow closer in their grief.
46. Television Story
Aired 29 July 1951 • 60 min
A covetous young actress' career means more to her than marriage to a middle-aged actor who turns to TV after a successful career in other facets of show business only to find that his wife influences his work there.
47. The Return
Aired 5 August 1951 • 60 min
An amnesia victim is told by his alleged stepfather that he is heir to a fortune. When his so-called family greet him with reserve, however he gets busy to iron out the unreal problem.
48. Ephraim Tutt's Clean Hands
Aired 12 August 1951 • 60 min
Lawyer Tutt refuses to cross the street for a $5 million account, but goes clear to Pottsville to draw up a will for Jim Lawton, staying there until he successfully contests a claim to a woman's farm.
49. Come Alive
Aired 19 August 1951 • 60 min
An arrogant woman whose self-centered tactics cause endless grief for her secretary, husband, sister and anyone who comes into contact with her.
50. Night at the Vulcan
Aired 26 August 1951 • 60 min
When an actor is murdered backstage, the cast of the production become the suspects, seems the actor had plenty of enemies.
51. This Time Next Year
Aired 2 September 1951 • 60 min
The ghost of Ulysses S. Grant materializes every year at the same time, at his tomb, Grant's Tomb.
52. Women of Intrigue
Aired 9 September 1951 • 60 min
In this tale of Communist intrigue set in England, a man who works for the foreign office disappears.
53. The Wayward Season
Aired 16 September 1951 • 60 min
A composer's reaction to his daughter's marriage to a middle-aged man brings changes in his own life.
54. The Spur
Aired 23 September 1951 • 60 min
After the assassination of President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth leaped to the stage below, his spur became entangled in the American flag draping the balcony causing Booth to break his leg.
55. By-Line for Murder
Aired 30 September 1951 • 60 min
A bitter assistant foreign editor of a London newspaper commits murder in the newspaper office after being passed over yet again for a promotion.
56. Requiem for a Model A
Aired 7 October 1951 • 60 min
After buying a very used car, a writer uncovers some very unusual items under one of the seat cushions. The story of the vehicle's former owners is told via flashbacks.