TV Show

The Philco Television Playhouse

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.

TV Show Stats +8%

8 seasons

267 episodes total

Status

Ended

First Aired

1948

Rating

TV Show

6.3/10

7 votes • HD

Season 1

45 episodes
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Dinner at Eight
Episode 1

Dinner at Eight

Episode 1 • Oct 03, 1948

Social-climbing Mrs. Oliver Jordan, whose husband's firm is in financial trouble, feels obligated to reciprocate hospitality for a visiting British aristocratic couple by arranging a small dinner party. The guests are chosen both to impress--a faded stage star, a well-known if over-the-hill alcoholic actor--and to meet certain social obligations. This means the necessary inclusion of a philandering doctor and his wife, and a gauche, nouveau-riche couple who are loathed but powerful.

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60m
Rebecca
Episode 2

Rebecca

Episode 2 • Oct 10, 1948

Brooding and moody Maxim deWinter returns from an extended trip to the continent with a young bride, less than a year after the tragic death of hi first wife, Rebecca. The staff of Manderley, his country home, including Mrs Danvers the housekeeper who rules over the house, are still devoted to their former mistress, the socialite Rebecca and they find it difficult to accept the new, shy Mrs deWinter who is inexperienced running a large home.

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60m
Counsellor-at-Law
Episode 3

Counsellor-at-Law

Episode 3 • Oct 17, 1948

An upscale Manhattan attorney torn between his greedy practices of insider trading and embezzlement and his desire to help the working-class Jews from his old neighborhood.

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60m
Angel in the Wings
Episode 4

Angel in the Wings

Episode 4 • Oct 24, 1948

An understudy for a stage show's star takes over when an accident circumvents the stars performance. The understudy takes over and brings down the house.

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60m
Street Scene
Episode 5

Street Scene

Episode 5 • Oct 31, 1948

Abraham Kaplan lives with his family in a row house populated by a kaleidoscope of characters looking to break out of poverty. Kaplan's revolutionary, socialist views grate against some of his neighbors.

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60m
This Thing Called Love
Episode 6

This Thing Called Love

Episode 6 • Nov 07, 1948

A professional couple marry and the wife insists on celibacy for three months to see if they really are compatible or not. The husband tries to lure her with all kinds of excuses and tricks to the marital bed.

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60m
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Season 2

45 episodes
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What Every Woman Knows
Episode 1

What Every Woman Knows

Episode 1 • Sep 04, 1949

A Victorian Scotswoman of far-reaching ambition. Using her supposedly frail feminine wiles, she maneuvers her fatuous husband into a successful political career. He rises to a parliamentary seat, never quite realizing that he hasn't done it alone.

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60m
Pride's Castle
Episode 2

Pride's Castle

Episode 2 • Sep 11, 1949

Pride Dawson was one of those "Robber Barons", who started out his life in rags and turned his life to riches and women. His contempt for human decency or moral restraint left him ruthless and corrupt. He falls for Sharon O'Neill who is a woman filled with so much goodness in her soul, as much as he has evil in his.

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60m
The Little Sister
Episode 3

The Little Sister

Episode 3 • Sep 18, 1949

A woman from Kansas comes to Marlowe to help find her missing brother.

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60m
The Lonely
Episode 4

The Lonely

Episode 4 • Sep 25, 1949

An engaged Air Force lieutenant goes on a ten-day furlough to Scotland with a female friend. Their understanding is that the trip will be purely platonic; instead, they fall madly in love. At his first opportunity, the lieutenant flies back to America to break the news to his fiancé and family.

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60m
The Queen Bee
Episode 5

The Queen Bee

Episode 5 • Oct 02, 1949

A conniving and devious Southern socialite who manipulates the lives of those around her with tragic results.

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60m
Something's Got to Give
Episode 6

Something's Got to Give

Episode 6 • Oct 09, 1949

A couple of New England housewives disrupt their marriages by becoming an early morning radio team.

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60m
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Season 3

56 episodes
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High Tor
Episode 1

High Tor

Episode 1 • Sep 10, 1950

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.

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60m
The Long Run
Episode 2

The Long Run

Episode 2 • Sep 17, 1950

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60m
Dear Guest and Ghost
Episode 3

Dear Guest and Ghost

Episode 3 • Sep 24, 1950

A mother receives help with her troublesome kids from a friendly ghost.

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60m
The Touch of a Stranger
Episode 4

The Touch of a Stranger

Episode 4 • Oct 01, 1950

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.

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60m
The Vine That Grew on Fiftieth Street
Episode 5

The Vine That Grew on Fiftieth Street

Episode 5 • Oct 08, 1950

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.

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60m
A Husband for Mama
Episode 6

A Husband for Mama

Episode 6 • Oct 15, 1950

The three children of a widowed woman scheme to get their mother a new husband, setting their sites on a middle-aged doctor.

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60m
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Season 4

25 episodes
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Marcia Akers
Episode 1

Marcia Akers

Episode 1 • Oct 21, 1951

A young woman has an unhealthy desire to get ahead, climbing the social ladder and stepping on people along the way. She's set to marry a wealthy man--just what's always wanted--when she finds herself in love with a "regular guy".

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60m
The Education of a Fullback
Episode 2

The Education of a Fullback

Episode 2 • Nov 04, 1951

A comedy on the foibles of campus activities about a professor who can't understand why a football hero shouldn't be given an unsatisfactory grade especially when he slept thru the classes.

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60m
A Little Night Music
Episode 3

A Little Night Music

Episode 3 • Nov 18, 1951

Elizabeth Chapin is the belle of the town who is now approaching 40 as a spinster music teacher.

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60m
Incident at Golden's Creek
Episode 4

Incident at Golden's Creek

Episode 4 • Dec 02, 1951

An Iron Curtain delegation is marooned in a small mid-western town.

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60m
Perspective
Episode 5

Perspective

Episode 5 • Dec 16, 1951

The play suggested by the career of Hans VanMergeren called the master art forger.

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60m
The Sisters
Episode 6

The Sisters

Episode 6 • Dec 30, 1951

The lives of two sisters are disrupted by a psychopath who appears claiming to be their godson.

6.0
60m
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Season 5

33 episodes
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The Thin Air
Episode 1

The Thin Air

Episode 1 • Sep 21, 1952

A young girl's disappearance on the night of her engagement party leads investigators and her fiancee on a long perplexing case that ends in a London pub 24 years later.

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60m
The Black Sheep
Episode 2

The Black Sheep

Episode 2 • Oct 05, 1952

A reformed playboy has quite a time explaining his escapades to the mother of the girl he decides to marry.

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60m
Uncertain Heritage
Episode 3

Uncertain Heritage

Episode 3 • Oct 19, 1952

The story of a young man struggling against his father's domination after his father has been dead for several years.

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60m
The Winter of the Dog
Episode 4

The Winter of the Dog

Episode 4 • Nov 02, 1952

This plot revolves around American troops stationed in China after WWII.

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60m
Parole Chief
Episode 5

Parole Chief

Episode 5 • Nov 16, 1952

The case histories of several parolees and events that shaped the career of the parole director is told.

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60m
The Gift
Episode 6

The Gift

Episode 6 • Nov 30, 1952

A child has been given an exceptional gift by her fairy godmother, the gift of finding lost articles

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60m
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Season 6

26 episodes
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0 for 37
Episode 1

0 for 37

Episode 1 • Sep 27, 1953

A young ballplayer appreciates the value of home and family after a shaky start in professional baseball.

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60m
The Bachelor Party
Episode 2

The Bachelor Party

Episode 2 • Oct 11, 1953

Five office friends meet up for a night on the town to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them. As the night wears on and the drink starts to tell, they become more confidential in expressing their concerns and hopes.

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60m
The Girl With the Stopwatch
Episode 3

The Girl With the Stopwatch

Episode 3 • Oct 25, 1953

A woman of 30 is preoccupied with her work as a television script writer.

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60m
The Train to Trouble
Episode 4

The Train to Trouble

Episode 4 • Nov 08, 1953

A man must decide whether or not to expose the past of a candidate for the sheriff's office.

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60m
Up Above the World So High
Episode 5

Up Above the World So High

Episode 5 • Nov 22, 1953

A middle-aged woman seemingly has the gift of second sight.

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60m
The Sixth Year
Episode 6

The Sixth Year

Episode 6 • Nov 29, 1953

A wife becomes exasperated with her husband who seems to have lost the will to work. She takes their child and leaves. He finds a menial job and asks her to come home. She seeks advice on the situation from her mother and father

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60m
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Season 7

25 episodes
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Middle of the Night
Episode 1

Middle of the Night

Episode 1 • Sep 19, 1954

A widowed businessman becomes obsessed with one of his employees, the divorcée Betty Preisser.

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60m
Time Bomb
Episode 2

Time Bomb

Episode 2 • Oct 03, 1954

A couple deeply in love find things changing when a third woman enters the picture and then it becomes a case of attempted murder.

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60m
Man on the Mountaintop
Episode 3

Man on the Mountaintop

Episode 3 • Oct 17, 1954

Horace Mann Borden is an adult former child prodigy who has been exploited by his father to advance his own theories about education. Horace feels that people view him as a freak and expect things out of him. Horace shuts out the world. Greta Blake is the woman who has fallen in love with Horace and shows him that the world is not out to get him.

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60m
Time of Delivery
Episode 4

Time of Delivery

Episode 4 • Oct 31, 1954

A 24-hour delay in mail delivery violently changes three lives. A postman collapses on his daily route and the delivery of his sack of mail is delayed for a day. In three dramatic situations which develop,

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60m
Crime Without Motive
Episode 5

Crime Without Motive

Episode 5 • Nov 14, 1954

The story of teenage violence and vandalism and the family problems that lead the culprits into their vicious acts.

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60m
Beg, Borrow or Steal
Episode 6

Beg, Borrow or Steal

Episode 6 • Nov 28, 1954

The story of a man who embezzles $18,000 from an estate in order to live up to the standards he likes and of the trap he finds himself in when another lawyer takes over the estate.

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60m
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Season 8

12 episodes
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The Miss America Story
Episode 1

The Miss America Story

Episode 1 • Sep 04, 1955

The Philco Corporation and ABC network televised the first live Miss America broadcast on Saturday September 11, 1954. Twenty seven million viewers from coast to coast shared the thrills of the Boardwalk Hall audience as they watched from their own homes as California's Lee Meriwether captured the title for 1955. Bob Russell was the emcee. For the first time, the pageant also featured it's first "Illuminated Night Parade" down the Boardwalk.

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60m
The Outsiders
Episode 2

The Outsiders

Episode 2 • Sep 18, 1955

The work of US engineers in a South American country is disrupted by angry local people.

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60m
A Man is Ten Feet Tall
Episode 3

A Man is Ten Feet Tall

Episode 3 • Oct 02, 1955

Axel, secretly AWOL from the army, joins a black waterfront worker in his fight against bigotry.

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60m
A Business Proposition
Episode 4

A Business Proposition

Episode 4 • Oct 23, 1955

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60m
The Mechanical Heart
Episode 5

The Mechanical Heart

Episode 5 • Nov 06, 1955

A businessman commits an unpardonable breach of ethics in order to keep his business alive.

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60m
One Mummy Too Many
Episode 6

One Mummy Too Many

Episode 6 • Nov 20, 1955

Three crates, one contains a mummy, one a dead body and one an air-conditioning unit that gets shunted around with utter confusion.

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60m
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