About this season
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.
Episodes (39)
1. Forbidden Area
2.0Aired 4 October 1956 • 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?
2. Requiem for a Heavyweight
Aired 11 October 1956 • 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.
3. Sizeman and Son
Aired 18 October 1956 • 90 min
The happy atmosphere in Mr. Sizeman's factory is disrupted by an argumentative newcomer - his son.
4. Rendezvous in Black
Aired 25 October 1956 • 90 min
A woman is inexplicably killed on a street-corner. What has this to do with other deaths around the city?
5. The Country Husband
Aired 1 November 1956 • 90 min
After a near-death experience, a businessman starts to re-think his life, and wonders about leaving his wife.
6. The Big Slide
Aired 8 November 1956 • 90 min
A vaudeville comic becomes a silent film star.
7. Heritage of Anger
Aired 15 November 1956 • 90 min
A wealthy industrialist has trouble with his sons.
8. Eloise
Aired 22 November 1956 • 90 min
It's not so much that Eloise is a mischievous child, but the darnedest things do happen when she's around.
9. Confession
Aired 29 November 1956 • 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.
10. Made in Heaven
Aired 6 December 1956 • 90 min
When Zachary and Elsa separate, each seems tempted to start a new love affair.
11. Sincerely, Willis Wade
Aired 13 December 1956 • 90 min
A wealthy mill owner finances the education of a clever, but poor, young man.
12. The Family Nobody Wanted
Aired 20 December 1956 • 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.
13. Massacre at Sand Creek
Aired 27 December 1956 • 90 min
An investigation into a massacre of Native Americans.
14. Snowshoes: A Comedy of People and Horses
Aired 3 January 1957 • 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.
15. The Ninth Day
Aired 10 January 1957 • 90 min
Events in the aftermath of World War Three.
16. So Soon to Die
Aired 17 January 1957 • 90 min
Down on his luck, war hero Lionel Amblin contemplates committing a murder.
17. The Star Wagon
Aired 24 January 1957 • 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.
18. The Greer Case
Aired 31 January 1957 • 90 min
When a rich woman dies without signing her new will, all kinds of problems ensue.
19. The Miracle Worker
Aired 7 February 1957 • 90 min
The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.
20. The Comedian
7.5Aired 14 February 1957 • 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 reserved for his weak-willed brother, Lester, whom Sammy has hired as his assistant but whom he really uses as his whipping boy.
21. One Coat of White
Aired 21 February 1957 • 90 min
A newly-widowed woman goes on a trip to Europe and meets a French artist.
22. The Blackwell Story
Aired 28 February 1957 • 90 min
In the 19th century, Elizabeth Blackwell determines to become a doctor.
23. Invitation to a Gunfighter
Aired 7 March 1957 • 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. Pooling their money again, this time to hire Jeffers to get rid of Dancer.
24. The Last Tycoon
Aired 14 March 1957 • 90 min
A movie producer is slowly working himself to death.
25. The Hostess with the Mostes'
Aired 21 March 1957 • 90 min
The story of Perle Mesta, who became, first, a renowned society hostess, and then an ambassadress.
26. Where's Charley?
Aired 28 March 1957 • 90 min
Lord Fancourt Babberley is forced to disguise himself as a woman - his aunt from Brazil, "where the nuts come from".
27. Clipper Ship
Aired 4 April 1957 • 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 unyielding at first, the ship's stern captain eventually helped the woman to make a clean getaway, with the condemned man in tow.
28. If You Knew Elizabeth
Aired 11 April 1957 • 90 min
29. Three Men on a Horse
Aired 18 April 1957 • 90 min
A meek salesman with an uncanny ability to pick horses is virtually kidnapped by a trio of gamblers.
30. Four Women in Black
Aired 25 April 1957 • 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.
31. Child of Trouble
Aired 2 May 1957 • 90 min
32. Homeward Borne
Aired 9 May 1957 • 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.
33. The Helen Morgan Story
Aired 16 May 1957 • 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 short marriage to a much younger man, a court fight over an adopted baby and her fatal descent into booze addiction.
34. Winter Dreams
Aired 23 May 1957 • 90 min
35. Circle of the Day
Aired 30 May 1957 • 90 min
On her tenth wedding anniversary (which is also her daughter's birthday), a wife begins to suspect her husband of unfaithfulness.
36. Without Incident
Aired 6 June 1957 • 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 chief accused of the murders. When he returns to the fort, he's faced with a revolt among his own men.
37. Clash by Night
Aired 13 June 1957 • 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.
38. Ain't No Time for Glory
Aired 20 June 1957 • 90 min
American soldiers must use stealth to take over a German command post in Normandy.
39. The Fabulous Irishman
Aired 27 June 1957 • 90 min
Romanticized life story of Robert Briscoe, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin.