American Playhouse

1. The Shady Hill Kidnapping

Air Date: 1982-01-12

2. King of America

Air Date: 1982-01-19

3. Seguin

Air Date: 1982-01-26

4. Who Am I This Time?

Air Date: 1982-02-02

From a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Christopher Walken is a shy hardware store employee. But whenever he takes a part in a local amateur theater production, he becomes the part completely--while on screen. Susan Sarandon is new in town, a lonely itenerant telephone company employee. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella to Walken's Stanley when the theater group does A Streetcar Named Desire. Before anyone realizes the problem, she falls deeply in love with the sexy brute, not knowing what the real man is like.

5. Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine

Air Date: 1982-02-09

6. Come Along With Me

Air Date: 1982-02-16

7. For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf

Air Date: 1982-02-23

8. Echoes and Silences

Air Date: 1982-03-02

9. Fifth of July

Air Date: 1982-03-09

10. The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters

Air Date: 1982-03-16

The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters is a 1982 comedy drama TV movie written by Jean Shepherd and directed by Richard Bartlett.

11. Pilgrim Farewell

Air Date: 1982-03-23

12. Northern lights

Air Date: 1982-03-30

13. Medal of Honor Rag

Air Date: 1982-04-06

14. Working

Air Date: 1982-04-13

15. Weekend

Air Date: 1982-04-20

Weekend is a TV episode of American Playhouse directed by Paul Bogart.

16. Private Contentment

Air Date: 1982-04-27

17. My Palikari

Air Date: 1982-05-04

18. Oppenheimer (1)

Air Date: 1982-05-11

19. Oppenheimer (2)

Air Date: 1982-05-18

20. Oppenheimer (3)

Air Date: 1982-05-25

21. Oppenheimer (4)

Air Date: 1982-06-01

22. Oppenheimer (5)

Air Date: 1982-06-08

23. Oppenheimer (6)

Air Date: 1982-06-15

24. Oppenheimer (7)

Air Date: 1982-06-22

25. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

Air Date: 1982-06-29

1. The Skin of Our Teeth

Air Date: 1983-01-18

The Skin of Our Teeth is the 1983 biographical drama TV episode of American Playhouse TV Series.

2. Miss Lonelyhearts

Air Date: 1983-01-25

A young Depression-era reporter is assigned to write his newspaper's advice column on the insistence of his mocking editor. Unhappy in the demeaning assignment, he begins to take an interest in one of the readers sending letters.

3. Family Business

Air Date: 1983-02-01

4. Keeping On

Air Date: 1983-02-08

5. The File on Jill Hatch (1)

Air Date: 1983-02-15

6. The File on Jill Hatch (2)

Air Date: 1983-02-22

7. The File on Jill Hatch (3)

Air Date: 1983-03-01

8. For Us, the Living

Air Date: 1983-03-22

9. Verse Person Singular

Air Date: 1983-03-29

10. Until She Talks

Air Date: 1983-04-05

11. Wings

Air Date: 1983-04-26

12. The Rothko Conspiracy

Air Date: 1983-05-03

1. The Ghostwriter

Air Date: 1984-01-17

2. Pudd'nhead Wilson

Air Date: 1984-01-24

3. True West

Air Date: 1984-01-31

A videotaped stage performance of Sam Shepard's play

4. Nothing But a Man

Air Date: 1984-02-07

5. Popular Neurotics

Air Date: 1984-02-14

Two young urban professionals, each with their own neuroses, make the fatal mistake one day of meeting by chance at an automatic bank teller machine and making a date for the movies.

6. The Cafeteria

Air Date: 1984-02-21

7. Refuge

Air Date: 1984-02-28

8. The Gin Game

Air Date: 1984-03-06

9. Haunted

Air Date: 1984-03-20

10. The Killing Floor

Air Date: 1984-04-10

11. Heartland

Air Date: 1984-04-17

12. City News

Air Date: 1984-04-24

City News is an independent, American comedy film, written and directed by David Fishelson and Zoe Zinman in New York City in 1983, which was nationally broadcast on PBS in 1984, exhibited theatrically in the U.S. and Canada in 1983, and selected for 12 international film festivals in 1983-4.

13. Hughie

Air Date: 1984-05-01

14. Concealed Enemies (1)

Air Date: 1984-05-07

15. Concealed Enemies (2)

Air Date: 1984-05-08

16. Concealed Enemies (3)

Air Date: 1984-05-09

17. Concealed Enemies (4)

Air Date: 1984-05-09

1. Testament

Air Date: 1984-11-26

2. A Matter of Principle

Air Date: 1984-12-03

3. Solomon Northup's Odyssey

Air Date: 1984-12-10

Solomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984 and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free.

4. Tomorrow

Air Date: 1984-12-17

5. Go Tell It On the Mountain

Air Date: 1985-01-14

6. Noon Wine

Air Date: 1985-01-21

7. The Joy That Kills

Air Date: 1985-01-28

The Joy that Kills is a 1984 television film adaptation of Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour." It was directed by Tina Rathborne and co-written by Rathbone and Nancy Dyer. It was released in 1984 as a part of the PBS series American Playhouse.

8. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

Air Date: 1985-02-04

9. The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski

Air Date: 1985-02-11

10. Some Men Need Help

Air Date: 1985-02-18

11. Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom

Air Date: 1985-02-25

12. Breakfast with Les and Bess

Air Date: 1985-03-11

13. Nightsongs

Air Date: 1985-04-15

14. Under the Biltmore Clock

Air Date: 1985-04-25

F. Scott Fitzgerald's comedy of a stylish young flapper (Sean Young) who chooses a husband (Lenny Von Dohlen), but finds she can't compete with his family.

15. Displaced Person

Air Date: 1985-05-06

16. The Europeans

Air Date: 1985-05-15

17. El Norte

Air Date: 1985-05-20

18. Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I

Air Date: 1985-05-27

19. Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part II

Air Date: 1985-06-03

20. Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part III

Air Date: 1985-06-10

21. Paper Angels

Air Date: 1985-06-15

22. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Air Date: 1985-06-24

1. The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket

Air Date: 1986-01-20

2. The Roommate

Air Date: 1986-01-27

3. Valentine's Revenge

Air Date: 1986-02-03

4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part I

Air Date: 1986-02-10

5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part II

Air Date: 1986-02-17

6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part III

Air Date: 1986-02-24

7. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part IV

Air Date: 1986-03-03

8. Tell Me a Riddle

Air Date: 1986-03-17

9. The Little Sister

Air Date: 1986-04-07

10. The House of Ramon Iglesia

Air Date: 1986-04-14

11. A Flash of Green

Air Date: 1986-04-21

12. Damien

Air Date: 1986-04-28

13. Rocket to the Moon

Air Date: 1986-05-05

In 1938 New York, a dentist finds his business failing and his marriage on the rocks. He is a hen-pecked husband with little drive left for success. That is, until he starts getting involved with his lively assistant, a free spirit with a penchant for tall tales and a hidden loneliness.

14. A Case of Libel

Air Date: 1986-05-12

15. Painting Churches

Air Date: 1986-05-19

16. Roanoak (1)

Air Date: 1986-05-26

17. Roanoak (2)

Air Date: 1986-06-02

18. Roanoak (3)

Air Date: 1986-06-09

19. Sunday in the Park with George

Air Date: 1986-06-16

1. All My Sons

Air Date: 1987-01-19

2. The Lawrenceville Stories 1: The Prodigious Hickey

Air Date: 1987-01-26

3. The Wide Net

Air Date: 1987-02-02

4. Smooth Talk

Air Date: 1987-02-09

5. A Mistaken Charity

Air Date: 1987-02-16

6. Eleanor: In Her Own Words

Air Date: 1987-03-09

7. The Innocents Abroad

Air Date: 1987-03-23

8. Story of a Marriage (1)

Air Date: 1987-04-06

9. Story of a Marriage (2)

Air Date: 1987-04-13

10. Story of a Marriage (3)

Air Date: 1987-04-13

11. A Case of Libel

Air Date: 1987-05-04

12. Charley's Aunt

Air Date: 1987-05-11

Charley Wyckham and Jack Chesney pressure fellow student Fancourt Babberly to pose as Charley's Brazilian Aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag, becomes the love object of old Spettigue and Sir Francis Chesney. - Written by Ed

14. The House of Blue Leaves

Air Date: 1987-05-25

Zoo attendant Artie Shaughnessy dreams of being a successful songwriter. What his mistress, Bunny Flingus, who lives downstairs from his Queens apartment won't tell him -- and what his insane wife, Bananas, tries to get through to him -- is that Artie's songs stink. On Oct. 4, 1965, the day Pope Paul visits New York City, Bunny convinces Artie to call his old school buddy Billy Einhorn, a famous film director from Los Angeles, to finagle a job writing music for Billy's movies. (After all, Bunny feels that with the Pope here, there must be "miracles in the air.") But ...

15. Blue Window

Air Date: 1987-06-01

In an affluent area of downtown New York City, a Sunday evening dinner party is taking place. Hosted by Libby, an insecure thirty-something widow who lost her husband in an unfortunate accident, her guest of honor is downstairs neighbor Alice, a successful novelist, and Alice's lesbian lover, Boo, a family therapist. The other guests are Griever, Libby's best friend from group therapy; Norbert, Libby's gentle skydiving instructor; Tom, an old high-school boyfriend of Libby's now working as a jazz musician and composer, and Emily, Tom's current live-in girlfriend.

16. Dottie

Air Date: 1987-06-08

17. Waiting for the Moon

Air Date: 1987-06-15

Fictionalized portrait of one of history's great literary couples: Stein & Toklas. Summer 1930s France, Alice tends to ailing Gertrude; they visit Fernande Olivier, Guillaume Apollinaire, others; and Hemingway pops in.

13. Gal Young 'Un

Air Date: 1987-05-18

1. Strange Interlude: Part 1

Air Date: 1988-01-13

2. Strange Interlude: Part 2

Air Date: 1988-01-19

3. Strange Interlude: Part 3

Air Date: 1988-01-20

4. The Lawrenceville Stories 2: The Return of Hickey

Air Date: 1988-02-03

5. Lemon Sky

Air Date: 1988-02-10

6. The Revolt of Mother

Air Date: 1988-02-17

7. Pigeon Feathers

Air Date: 1988-02-17

8. Billy Galvin

Air Date: 1988-02-24

9. A Flash of Green

Air Date: 1988-03-23

10. Journey Into Genius

Air Date: 1988-04-06

11. Suspicion

Air Date: 1988-04-13

12. The Trial of Bernhard Goetz

Air Date: 1988-05-11

13. The Land of Little Rain

Air Date: 1988-06-01

14. I Never Sang for My Father

Air Date: 1988-06-15

15. Native Son

Air Date: 1988-06-29

16. The Big Knife

Air Date: 1988-07-27

1. A Raisin in the Sun

Air Date: 1989-02-01

2. Ask Me Again

Air Date: 1989-02-08

3. Stacking

Air Date: 1989-02-15

4. My American Cousin

Air Date: 1989-02-22

5. Love and Other Sorrows

Air Date: 1989-03-01

6. Stand and Deliver

Air Date: 1989-03-15

7. The Silence at Bethany

Air Date: 1989-03-22

8. The Lawrenceville Stories 3: The Beginning of the Firm

Air Date: 1989-04-05

9. Life Under Water

Air Date: 1989-04-12

10. The Diaries of Adam and Eve

Air Date: 1989-04-26

11. The Meeting

Air Date: 1989-05-03

12. A Walk in the Woods

Air Date: 1989-05-10

13. Big Time

Air Date: 1989-05-17

14. The Thin Blue Line

Air Date: 1989-05-24

15. Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss

Air Date: 1989-05-31

16. Imagining America

Air Date: 1989-06-07

1. Sensibility and Sense

Air Date: 1990-01-24

2. Women & Wallace

Air Date: 1990-01-31

3. Zora Is My Name!

Air Date: 1990-02-14

4. Andre's Mother

Air Date: 1990-03-07

5. Bloodhounds of Broadway

Air Date: 1990-05-23

6. Hyde in Hollywood

Air Date: 1990-07-06

1. Into the Woods

Air Date: 1991-03-15

2. The Grapes of Wrath

Air Date: 1991-03-22

3. Three Hotels

Air Date: 1991-03-29

4. The Sunset Gang

Air Date: 1991-04-05

5. Hot Summer Winds

Air Date: 1991-05-22

6. The Hollow Boy

Air Date: 1991-06-12

1. Fool's Fire

Air Date: 1992-03-25

2. Tales from Hollywood

Air Date: 1992-10-19

3. Tru

Air Date: 1992-11-23

4. Tru

Air Date: 1993-01-17

5. Fires in the Mirror

Air Date: 1993-04-28

6. In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway

Air Date: 1993-06-11

7. La Carpa

Air Date: 1993-06-16

8. Porgy and Bess

Air Date: 1993-10-06

9. Tales of the City

Air Date: 1993-11-15

10. Hallelujah

Air Date: 1993-12-22

1. Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City

Air Date: 1994-01-10

2. The Sunset Gang

Air Date: 1994-03-21

3. Long Shadow

Air Date: 1994-08-26

4. Break of Dawn

Air Date: 1994-09-09

5. La Carpa

Air Date: 1994-09-23

1. The Making of Angels and Insects

Air Date: 1995-01-02

2. Fires in the Mirror

Air Date: 1995-02-03

3. Blown Sideways Through Life

Air Date: 1995-07-19

4. Drawn from Memory

Air Date: 1995-10-30

5. The Beans of Egypt, Maine

Air Date: 1996-08-11

6. Passion

Air Date: 1996-09-29