
About this season
Letter to Loretta is an American anthology drama series telecast on NBC from September 1953 to June 1961 for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show was hosted by Loretta Young who also played the lead in various episodes. Letter to Loretta was sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960. The final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's Listerine.
Episodes (35)
1. Guest in the Night
Aired 29 August 1954
Duke and Rita visit a remote mountain cabin for a romantic getaway. During a fierce snowstorm, a young boy with pneumonia shows up at their door. Duke won't call for help because he is wanted for robbery, but Rita uses a ham radio to ask for medical help.
2. Dr. Juliet
Aired 5 September 1954
A doctor unravels the mysterious circumstances and suspects surrounding the near-death of a young heiress.
3. Double Trouble
Aired 12 September 1954
Granite jawed Hugh O'Brien, clearly enjoying a change of pace from his usual rugged roles, plays a shy cartoonist whose heroism is awakened by a fraud scandal involving a woman and a his exact double.
4. The Lamp
Aired 19 September 1954
What seems to be Aladdin's Lamp also seems to be fulfilling the fondest wishes of a young couple.
5. You're Driving Me Crazy
Aired 26 September 1954
A couple finds themselves terrorized by a disturbed man who rear ends their car. There is some genuine suspense in this episode and warrants attention in that it comes years before Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other such anthologies.
6. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Aired 3 October 1954
This familiar plot of a lone holdout juror benefits from extreme unusual close-ups, montages and double-exposures to "open up" the drama beyond the single room setting.
7. For Father Darling
Aired 10 October 1954
Clever "amateur sleuth" tale with a sharp Catholic priest who helps a family escape from a smooth con man. Very "Columbo"-like.
8. On Your Honor, Your Honor
Aired 17 October 1954
An idealistic widow, whose last name is that same to that of a candidate, allows two slick politicians to add her name to a small town mayoral ballot.
9. The Girl Scout Story
Aired 31 October 1954
A girl scout is left alone with an escaped convict.
10. No Help Wanted
Aired 7 November 1954
Former stuntman and TV's "Range Rider" and "Yancy Derringer," Jock Mahoney, returns to this series, this time playing the owner of a small diner who is taken with a lost soul seemingly left alone in the rain.
11. It's a Man's Game
Aired 14 November 1954
Pushy history teacher nags her math teacher-coach boyfriend to have more ambition and winds up coaching the football team in his place.
12. Something About Love
Aired 21 November 1954
A dancer's resolution to go on with her life as a singer inspires an architect who had become embittered after his hands were injured in the Korean war. Sally Field's mother Margaret (wife of Loretta Young show favorite Jock Mahoney) co-stars as Gene Barry's fiancée.
13. Our Sacred Honor
Aired 28 November 1954
Like Spielberg's "Lincoln," which celebrated the little-known people who made a difference as well as high-profile leaders, this episode focuses on one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hart.
14. Big Jim
Aired 5 December 1954
A young man attempts to reform his delinquent mother when she stops in town to see him.
15. Evil for Evil
Aired 12 December 1954
An embittered man takes revenge on a beloved doctor who lost his wife on the operating table, leading to vigilantism. Among the cast is Oscar-winner Jane Darwell ("The Grapes of Wrath," "Mary Poppins"). The theme of friendly neighbors transformed into a hideous mob would be echoed in Twilight Zone episodes "The Shelter" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
16. Time and Yuletide
Aired 19 December 1954
At a hospital and nursing home, everyone wants to stage Christmas parties for the sick children, but the event coordinator connives to get a party for the elderly residents.
17. Three Minutes Too Late
Aired 26 December 1954
A financially strapped New York cab driver becomes desperate for cash when his wife goes into labor.
18. The Girl Who Knew
Aired 2 January 1955
Familiar TV faces abound in this fanciful dramedy about a woman's ability to know the time without a watch challenged by a watch company's efforts to use a conceited employee's charms to discredit her.
19. The Flood
Aired 9 January 1955
A man whose experience as a prisoner of war has caused him to be alcoholic and homeless stumbles into a situation in which he must use his army medical training and receives advice and support from a nurse and a doctor to change his life.
20. Decision
Aired 16 January 1955
The wife of a pilot runs the gamut of emotions and memories while awaiting the return of her husband, whose plane has lost an engine in a storm.
21. The Refinement of Ab
Aired 23 January 1955
Hugh Beaumont plays the dad in one of two suburban families that allow the childish teasing between their sons escalate into a serious social and business conflicts.
22. 600 Seconds
Aired 30 January 1955
A successful Art Director lets her imagination run away with her when a young female business associate of her husband's wants to talk to her about something "personal."
23. The Case of Mrs. Bannister
Aired 6 February 1955
A little girl's stories about her seemingly imaginary friend, "Mrs. Bannister," begin to foreshadow real events and imminent danger.
24. Dickie
Aired 13 February 1955
True story of a Depression-era mother's efforts to redirect her talented little boy's creative projects to more practical pursuits -- and who this boy turns out to be is the twist, as Ms. Young introduces the real-life man and his mom at the end of the episode.
25. Option on a Wife
Aired 20 February 1955
The Hollywood success of a New York writer takes up so much of his time and attention that it threatens his marriage.
26. Tale of a Cayuse
Aired 27 February 1955
A western drifter retrieves a beloved horse to court a maiden settler.
27. Case Book
Aired 6 March 1955
Only a few years after "Spellbound," but before "Vertigo" and "The Three Faces of Eve," this episode uses extended two-actor scenes in its thoughtful exploration of claustrophobia and the benefits of therapy - as well as forgiveness of others and oneself.
28. Dateline - Korea
Aired 13 March 1955
The plight of poverty-stricken war orphans forces a hard-nosed war correspondent to face the flesh-and-blood effects of her cynical editorials.
29. Inga II
Aired 20 March 1955
Dennis Hopper was only nineteen when he appeared in this episode as a privileged young man who is sent to work on a farm to build his character.
30. Mink Coat
Aired 27 March 1955
Series favorites Jock Mahoney, Ann Doran and Casey Adams (Max Showalter) reunite with Ms. Young in an amusing "Fisherman and His Wife/If You Give a Mouse A Cookie"-like fable about the effects an unexpected mink coat has on a two suburban couples.
31. Let Columbus Discover You
Aired 3 April 1955
Craig Stevens plays the head of a modeling agency who likes to discover his clients in ordinary walks of life, prompting an earnest hopeful to pose as an auto mechanic to catch his attention.
32. He Always Comes Home
Aired 10 April 1955
An aging man is unfaithful to his wife and negligent to his daughter.
33. Feeling No Pain
Aired 17 April 1955
In a memorable episode that showcases Ms. Young's comic timing and dancing talent, she plays a passive secretary who cuts loose after a visit to the dentist and the lingering effects of laughing gas. In the scene in which she makes a grand entrance, bellowing "Anita, DAH-ling!" it strongly resembles the first appearance of Cruella DeVil in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians."
34. The Little Teacher
Aired 24 April 1955
A man is plagued by guilt and worry when his daughter breaks a finger after he spanks her in anger.
35. I Remember the Rani
Aired 1 May 1955
A British writer recalls the captivating Maharani with whom he fell in love while on assignment in India.