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.
Showing Season 3 of 4
Season 3
1958
No overview available.
01. The Plot to Kill Stalin
1958-09-25
In late 1952, an aging and increasingly paranoid Stalin puts in motion a purge against his doctors, with anti-Semitic overtones. His lackeys, including Khrushchev, Molotov and Beria, fear it will spread to the Politburo, and plan to strike first.
02. Days of Wine and Roses
1958-10-02
An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his "passion" together.
03. The Time of Your Life
1958-10-09
William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of the bar and each other's lives, giving voice to Saroyan's philosophies as they randomly comment about the impending world war, the beauty of art, and traditional notions of good and evil.
04. The Long March
1958-10-16
No overview available.
05. Shadows Tremble
1958-10-23
An elderly immigrant tries to buy an old house in New England and is opposed by snobbish locals.
06. Word from a Sealed-Off Box
1958-10-30
A courier for the Dutch Resistance is captured by the Nazis.
07. Heart of Darkness
1958-11-06
A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.
08. Old Man
1958-11-20
To fight a Mississippi flood in 1927, a prison farm releases some convicts.
09. The Return of Ansel Gibbs
1958-11-27
After years in retirement, Ansel Gibbs is asked to return to government service.
10. Free Weekend
1958-12-04
No overview available.
11. Seven Against the Wall
1958-12-11
The story of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.
12. The Nutcracker
1958-12-25
This telecast of George Balanchine's famous production was broadcast only four years after it was premiered by the New York City Ballet. This was the only episode of the series televised in color.
13. Face of a Hero
1959-01-01
No overview available.
14. The Wings of the Dove
1959-01-08
An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she sees a chance to have both the privileged life she cannot give up and the lover she cannot live without.
15. The Blue Men
1959-01-15
No overview available.
16. The Velvet Alley
1959-01-22
Ernie Pandish has tried to be a writer for years and has never made much money out of it. But now he seems likely to hit the big-time.
17. A Quiet Game of Cards
1959-01-29
A few friends meet each weekend for a quiet game of cards. But they're bored with poker and, in trying to find another diversion, gradually find themselves plotting a hypothetical murder. It is hypothetical, isn't it?
18. Child of Our Time
1959-02-05
War deprives Tanguy of his childhood. When his mother returns to Spain to oppose the Franco regime, he is left in Nazi-occupied Marseilles, France.
19. The Second Man
1959-02-12
No overview available.
20. The Raider
1959-02-19
A corporate raider plans a hostile takeover. To stall him, pressure is put on a scientist to rush through a new type of engine before all necessary tests have been completed.
21. The Ding-A-Ling Girl
1959-02-26
A housewife is offered a Hollywood contract. She'd rather stay home, but her husband has ambitions for her.
22. Made in Japan
1959-03-05
A young soldier in occupied Japan after World War II falls in love with a lovely Japanese girl, but is horrified about what his prejudiced family in Philadelphia will think if he takes her home with him.
23. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 1
1959-03-12
During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.
24. For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 2
1959-03-19
The completion of the mission has tragic consequences.
25. A Trip to Paradise
1959-03-26
No overview available.
26. In Lonely Expectation
1959-04-02
No overview available.
27. The Day Before Atlanta
1959-04-09
No overview available.
28. Judgment at Nuremberg
1959-04-16
In the later stages of the Nuremberg Trials, four German judges are accused of perverting the course of justice.
29. A Corner of the Garden
1959-04-23
No overview available.
30. Dark December
1959-04-30
During World War II, an army doctor struggles to convert a Franciscan monastery into a field hospital.
31. Diary of a Nurse
1959-05-07
The daily emergencies and stresses of a major city's hospital ward as seen through the eyes of nurse Gail Lucas.
32. A Marriage of Strangers
1959-05-14
Marry in haste, repent at leisure? Well, maybe.
33. Out of Dust
1959-05-21
On a cattle drive across the prairie, the sons of a wealthy cattle baron plot his death.
34. The Rank and File
1959-05-28
A powerful union leader is interrogated by a Senate committee. Testifying before a Senate, William Kilcoyne tells the story of his career. He began as a factory worker and his shrewdness and ambition carried him up through the ranks to his present position as head of a large union.
35. The Killers of Mussolini
1959-06-04
As the Salo Republic crumbles around him, Mussolini, along with his mistress and several of his ministers flee with retreating Nazi soldiers, but are caught at the town of Dongo by red partisans. All are brutally executed without trial.
36. Project Immortality
1959-06-11
Key defense scientist Doner has cancer. Schramm is assigned to code Doner's thinking into a computer. He gets to know him as a friend, a husband and father. The project is successful, but he now knows identity is not programmable.
37. Dark as the Night
1959-06-18
A British politician finds himself open to blackmail because of the indiscretion of his American wife.
38. The Second Happiest Day
1959-06-25
A man about to be married recalls the day his life changed permanently.
