About this season
Series of 54 original televised plays and classic dramas produced by public television station KCET in Los Angeles, featuring all-star talent, was broadcast nationally on the National Educational Television (NET) network and its successor PBS between 1970 and 1978.
Episodes (17)
1. The Typists
Aired 7 October 1971 • 60 min
Two pathetically ordinary people waste their lives in the office of a company offering typing services.
2. The Police
Aired 14 October 1971 • 60 min
A black comedy about a country where all criminals have been rehabilitated.
3. Lemonade
Aired 21 October 1971 • 60 min
Edith Northrup and Mabel Lamston pass the time drinking up the profits in glass after glass of their spiked lemonades. They talk about their children, their husbands, and their fantastic dreams, mixing the fabrications and truths of their lives.
4. Birdbath
Aired 28 October 1971 • 60 min
Story about a struggling young writer working in a New York restaurant as a counterman and a co-worker in the same place who is a waitress.
5. Beginning to End
Aired 4 November 1971 • 60 min
Irish theatre actor Jack MacGowran's celebrated readings from Samuel Beckett. Included are "Waiting for Godot", "Embers" and "Krapp's Last Tape".
6. Enemies
Aired 11 November 1971 • 60 min
The play deals with the interrelationship between two elderly Jewish men.
7. Neighbors
Aired 18 November 1971 • 60 min
Arkady Leokum's study of the nature of prejudice centers around the encounter between a white couple, in an affluent neighborhood and the black couple to whom they are selling their house.
8. The Standwells: About Love
Aired 25 November 1971 • 60 min
A theatrical family of puppets celebrate the subject of love in song, monologue, and drama. The Standwells are brother and sister hand puppeteers who perform with three other puppets in a repertory troupe based in New York.
9. The Bread and Puppet Theatre
Aired 2 December 1971
An exceptional experimental company consisting of both puppets (from 2 to 8 feet tall) and live actors. Program includes, "The Great Warrior", about a champion who turns against those he's called in to save. "The Dead Man Rises", in which a maiden finds a drowned man and brings him back to life. And "A Man Says Goodbye to His Mother", in which a doomed soldier leaves for war in a far-off land.
10. Young Marrieds at Play
Aired 9 December 1971 • 60 min
Two couples meet for an evening of Monopoly -- and wrecked social amenities by truth telling.
11. The Picture
Aired 16 December 1971
An unhappy rich old man tries to buy beauty by purchasing a painting from a young artist.
12. The Plot to Overthrow Christmas
Aired 23 December 1971
The golden age of radio drama lives again in this re-creation of a studio broadcast about the Devil's plan to kill off Santa Claus.
13. Day of Absence
Aired 30 December 1971
Satire about a slice of white society that crumbles when the black work force mysteriously disappears. With one exception (the reporter), the actors are blacks in white-face, members of the Negro Ensemble Company. Playwright Douglas Turner Ward appears as the mayor.
14. Chekhov Live from Hollywood
Aired 3 January 1972
(1) A Marriage Proposal: The hot tempers of two Russian landowners almost ruin a love match. (2) The Bear (originally The Boor): A widow clashes with a soldier over a debt.
15. The Scarecrow
Aired 10 January 1972
In 17th-century Massachusetts, a vengeful witch turns a scarecrow into a gentleman. His mission: Win the heart of a rival's fiancee.
16. Awake and Sing
Aired 6 March 1972
A celebration of the human spirit, examining the frustrations and hopes of a Jewish family struggling to survive the Depression in the Bronx -- and even live a little in the bargain.
17. Invitation to March
Aired 30 May 1972
A socialite bride-to-be is aroused from her slumber of boredom by a beach-combing free spirit.