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.
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Episode 1
Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will anyone believe him?
Episode 2
An over-the-hill heavyweight boxing champion who suffers from the ravages of years of head trauma is exploited by his manager, despite the efforts of a compassionate young woman who tries to help him recover his self-respect.
Episode 3
The happy atmosphere in Mr. Sizeman's factory is disrupted by an argumentative newcomer - his son.
Episode 4
A woman is inexplicably killed on a street-corner. What has this to do with other deaths around the city?
Episode 5
After a near-death experience, a businessman starts to re-think his life, and wonders about leaving his wife.
Episode 6
A vaudeville comic becomes a silent film star.
Episode 7
A wealthy industrialist has trouble with his sons.
Episode 8
It's not so much that Eloise is a mischievous child, but the darnedest things do happen when she's around.
Episode 9
When a much-admired community leader dies, a journalist starts to investigate his life - and finds he was not the man he seemed.
Episode 10
When Zachary and Elsa separate, each seems tempted to start a new love affair.
Episode 11
A wealthy mill owner finances the education of a clever, but poor, young man.
Episode 12
A true story, it follows a pastor and his wife through forties beginning with one biological child, Donny. But the upheaval of the war years results in a number of mixed raced children that the Doss family adopt until they have 12 children.
Episode 13
An investigation into a massacre of Native Americans.
Episode 14
Some racetrack Johnnies are talking between races when one wonders if you can hypnotize a horse into thinking it's a champion. The idea sets in motion a series of hilarious events.
Episode 15
Events in the aftermath of World War Three.
Episode 16
Down on his luck, war hero Lionel Amblin contemplates committing a murder.
Episode 17
An inventor, pondering on how he might differently have arranged his life, invents a time machine and decides to make a few changes.
Episode 18
When a rich woman dies without signing her new will, all kinds of problems ensue.
Episode 19
The story of Anne Sullivan's struggle to teach the blind and deaf Helen Keller how to communicate.
Episode 20
Sammy Hogarth, a vaudeville comedian who now has his own TV show, is a ruthless egomaniac who demands instant obedience from his staff and heaps abuse on those in lesser positions than his. His most vituperative behavior, however, is reserved for his weak-willed brother, Lester, whom Sammy has hired as his assistant but whom he really uses as his whipping boy.
Episode 21
A newly-widowed woman goes on a trip to Europe and meets a French artist.
Episode 22
In the 19th century, Elizabeth Blackwell determines to become a doctor.
Episode 23
A gunfighter is terrorizing a small western town. The townspeople finally pool their money to a hire another gunfighter to drive him out of town. The townsfolk thought they had it bad until they handed the reigns over to the new terror. Pooling their money again, this time to hire Jeffers to get rid of Dancer.
Episode 24
A movie producer is slowly working himself to death.
Episode 25
The story of Perle Mesta, who became, first, a renowned society hostess, and then an ambassadress.
Episode 26
Lord Fancourt Babberley is forced to disguise himself as a woman - his aunt from Brazil, "where the nuts come from".
Episode 27
A romance on the high seas revolving around the comely widow of a shipping magnate, and her growing love for a handsome young political prisoner who was scheduled to be put to death when the vessel reached its destination. Though unyielding at first, the ship's stern captain eventually helped the woman to make a clean getaway, with the condemned man in tow.
Episode 28
No overview available.
Episode 29
A meek salesman with an uncanny ability to pick horses is virtually kidnapped by a trio of gamblers.
Episode 30
Four nuns, led by Sister Teresa, begin a treacherous journey across the Arizona desert in 1870. Their faith enables them to deal with the challenges of nature and the hostility of their fellow mankind.
Episode 31
No overview available.
Episode 32
Just after World War Two ends, an American woman takes in a Polish war orphan boy, a concentration camp survivor. But conflict arises when her husband, a returning Air Force bomber pilot, hates the boy and his psychological baggage.
Episode 33
Broadway legend Helen Morgan 's life as told by her mother, from her early start in second rate speakeasies to star of top rated shows and owning her own club. Also seen is her poor choices, such as her affair with a married man, her short marriage to a much younger man, a court fight over an adopted baby and her fatal descent into booze addiction.
Episode 34
No overview available.
Episode 35
On her tenth wedding anniversary (which is also her daughter's birthday), a wife begins to suspect her husband of unfaithfulness.
Episode 36
Captain Russell Bidlack, commander of a U.S. Cavalry unit in 1870, determines to complete a rescue mission through dangerous Indian territory. In the course of the mission, he rescues the wives of two slain traders and captures the Indian chief accused of the murders. When he returns to the fort, he's faced with a revolt among his own men.
Episode 37
Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.
Episode 38
American soldiers must use stealth to take over a German command post in Normandy.
Episode 39
Romanticized life story of Robert Briscoe, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin.
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