Watch The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) Online!
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.
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Episode 1 - High Tor
Release Date: 1950-09-10Van 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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Episode 2 - The Long Run
Release Date: 1950-09-17 -
Episode 3 - Dear Guest and Ghost
Release Date: 1950-09-24A mother receives help with her troublesome kids from a friendly ghost.
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Episode 4 - The Touch of a Stranger
Release Date: 1950-10-01A 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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Episode 5 - The Vine That Grew on Fiftieth Street
Release Date: 1950-10-08Seeds 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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Episode 6 - A Husband for Mama
Release Date: 1950-10-15The 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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Episode 7 - Portrait in Smoke
Release Date: 1950-10-22A debt collector searches for the woman who saved him from an armed holdup; he wants her to have a $1000 reward. As he talks with those who knew her, he learns that she was a siren with a couple of murders to her credit.
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Episode 8 - The Gambler
Release Date: 1950-10-29A scathing denunciation of gambling and feudal aristocrats of the 19th Century, this story relates how Philip, a young medical student, bargains away his career for the unsure success of high gambling stakes. His caution turns to uncontrollable greed when he learns that money can buy women and quick fame. His destiny is bound to Theresa's, a beautiful young woman who has been mortgaged in marriage for her stepfather's debt, and to her wealthy grandmother's, who chooses to gamble away her fortune so there will be no inheritors.
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Episode 9 - The Power Devil
Release Date: 1950-11-05A young attorney involves himself in many shady deals as he pursues political ambitions. His wife speaks up and demands he clean up his act. The threat of disbarment also contributes to his final decision.
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Episode 10 - The Man Who Got Away With It
Release Date: 1950-11-12 -
Episode 11 - I'm Still Alive
Release Date: 1950-11-19A mousy teacher at a small school had written a swashbuckling story filled with international spies and adventure. Unbeknownst to him, the story is sold to a newspaper as a true account of his life. Suddenly, femme fatales and real gangsters are paying him visits.
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Episode 12 - Torch for a Dark Journey
Release Date: 1950-11-26A Czech scientist escapes from Prague with the aid of an American industrialist, who wants to hire him for his personal benefit. The scientist is followed by a former student, now a fanatic Communist, who insists that the scientist must return to his own country to work for the People's Republic. The scientist must decide whether to return or abandon his countrymen and accept personal freedom in America.
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Episode 13 - Wacky, the Small Boy
Release Date: 1950-12-03 -
Episode 14 - Bonanza
Release Date: 1950-12-10The residents of a Western ghost town won't admit that their gold rush "boom town" days ended long ago.
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Episode 15 - Decoy
Release Date: 1950-12-17 -
Episode 16 - The Pupil
Release Date: 1950-12-24A tutor hired to instruct an uncontrollable 10-year-old soon recognizes the child's problem: it's his parents. The boy has had never received any affection from his negligent mother and father.
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Episode 17 - Leaf out of a Book
Release Date: 1950-12-31 -
Episode 18 - The Symbol: Jefferson Davis
Release Date: 1951-01-07Three decades in the life of the Confederate president are covered by three women: each of his two wives, and his daughter.
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Episode 19 - The Lost Diplomat
Release Date: 1951-01-14 -
Episode 20 - Confession
Release Date: 1951-01-21The final confession of the highest degree. A compelling story, told by the eyes of the beholder.
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Episode 21 - The Great Escape
Release Date: 1951-01-28The story of the biggest POW-camp escape of World War II.
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Episode 22 - A Matter of Life and Death
Release Date: 1951-02-04 -
Episode 23 - Kitty Doone
Release Date: 1951-02-11A faded movie star schemes to keep her career at all costs.
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Episode 24 - Let Them Be Sea Captains
Release Date: 1951-02-18Horace Greeley, volatile editor of The New York tribune, and Margaret Fuller, the mid-19th century feminist and first woman employed on the newspaper's staff.
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Episode 25 - The Man Who Bought a Town
Release Date: 1951-02-25A butcher purchases the town he calls home to preserve its quiet lifestyle.
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Episode 26 - No Medals on Pop
Release Date: 1951-03-11A young boy believes his father deserves a medal for being in the war and is heartbroken when he finds out the truth and how his father disgraced the family.
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Episode 27 - The Dark Corridor
Release Date: 1951-03-18The story of the Marr family which is made up of a dominant mother who bates everyone, the vacillating son, his wife, and the blind son. Then a new maid arrives, a maid who has served a term in prison as an accessory to a murder.
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Episode 28 - Bulletin 120
Release Date: 1951-03-25In Mississippi in 1915, Dr. Joseph Goldberger works with a test group of convicts and discovers that pellagra is caused by a dietary deficiency and not infection.
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Episode 29 - Parnassus on Wheels
Release Date: 1951-04-01In 1900's New England, Helen McGuill buys a horse-drawn, traveling bookstore, "Parnassus," from its owner, Roger McGuill. Roger travels with Helen in the beginning of her book-selling odyssey, and out of that comes adventure and romance.
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Episode 30 - Routine Assignment
Release Date: 1951-04-08A reporter gets a confession of robbery from a man only to have the man then deny his guilt in a complex twist of events.
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Episode 31 - Hour of Destiny
Release Date: 1951-04-15 -
Episode 32 - The Birth of the Movies
Release Date: 1951-04-22Drama on the career of D.W. Griffith. Producer Fred Coe briefly talks with Lillian Gish before and following the drama.
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Episode 33 - Mr. Arcularis
Release Date: 1951-04-29After undergoing important surgery, Mr. Arcularis goes on a long ocean voyage - where increasingly strange things occur.
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Episode 34 - A Secret Island
Release Date: 1951-05-06A vicious woman is determined to see her niece wed for money and social position instead of for love.
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Episode 35 - The Visitors
Release Date: 1951-05-13A young boy's disappearance when his mother remarries leads to a mystery when he is found and has forgotten who he is.
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Episode 36 - Justice and Mr. Pleznik
Release Date: 1951-05-20The story of a naturalized immigrant's first experience with jury duty.
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Episode 37 - Rescue
Release Date: 1951-05-27 -
Episode 38 - The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
Release Date: 1951-06-03A mild-mannered proof-reader goes on a world tour, and demonstrates several esoteric skills whilst undergoing exciting adventures.
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Episode 39 - The Fast Dollar
Release Date: 1951-06-10A humorous tale of life in a small town and its impact on a would-be confidence man.
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Episode 40 - Operation: Airlift
Release Date: 1951-06-17The story of the Berlin airlift, when the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. The success of the airlift humiliated the Soviets claiming that such a thing would never work.
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Episode 41 - Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal
Release Date: 1951-06-24Widower Dr. Hudson lives with his daughter and housekeeper and keeps his medical practice success by using the Good book as guidance.
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Episode 42 - The Plot
Release Date: 1951-07-01Widower Dr. Hudson lives with his daughter and housekeeper and keeps his medical practice success by using the Good book as guidance.
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Episode 43 - Case History
Release Date: 1951-07-08A sleuthing psychiatrist probes a murder in his fiancee's home and stirs up a hornet's nest with his future in-laws.
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Episode 44 - I Want to March
Release Date: 1951-07-15The year is 1915 and the suffragettes cause a stir in the home of a zoology professor as his wife takes up the banner of "women's rights".
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Episode 45 - Pretend I Am A Stranger
Release Date: 1951-07-22The story of a British soldier and his buddy's widow as the two grow closer in their grief.
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Episode 46 - Television Story
Release Date: 1951-07-29A covetous young actress' career means more to her than marriage to a middle-aged actor who turns to TV after a successful career in other facets of show business only to find that his wife influences his work there.
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Episode 47 - The Return
Release Date: 1951-08-05An amnesia victim is told by his alleged stepfather that he is heir to a fortune. When his so-called family greet him with reserve, however he gets busy to iron out the unreal problem.
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Episode 48 - Ephraim Tutt's Clean Hands
Release Date: 1951-08-12Lawyer Tutt refuses to cross the street for a $5 million account, but goes clear to Pottsville to draw up a will for Jim Lawton, staying there until he successfully contests a claim to a woman's farm.
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Episode 49 - Come Alive
Release Date: 1951-08-19An arrogant woman whose self-centered tactics cause endless grief for her secretary, husband, sister and anyone who comes into contact with her.
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Episode 50 - Night at the Vulcan
Release Date: 1951-08-26When an actor is murdered backstage, the cast of the production become the suspects, seems the actor had plenty of enemies.
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Episode 51 - This Time Next Year
Release Date: 1951-09-02The ghost of Ulysses S. Grant materializes every year at the same time, at his tomb, Grant's Tomb.
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Episode 52 - Women of Intrigue
Release Date: 1951-09-09In this tale of Communist intrigue set in England, a man who works for the foreign office disappears.
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Episode 53 - The Wayward Season
Release Date: 1951-09-16A composer's reaction to his daughter's marriage to a middle-aged man brings changes in his own life.
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Episode 54 - The Spur
Release Date: 1951-09-23After the assassination of President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth leaped to the stage below, his spur became entangled in the American flag draping the balcony causing Booth to break his leg.
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Episode 55 - By-Line for Murder
Release Date: 1951-09-30A bitter assistant foreign editor of a London newspaper commits murder in the newspaper office after being passed over yet again for a promotion.
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Episode 56 - Requiem for a Model A
Release Date: 1951-10-07After buying a very used car, a writer uncovers some very unusual items under one of the seat cushions. The story of the vehicle's former owners is told via flashbacks.