CBS Playhouse

Seasons

1966

USA

6.8

An anthology series of well regarded screenplays. Presenting twelve shows over its run, it showcased many up-and-coming actors and garnered its share of Emmy nominations.

Episode List

S1 • E1

The Final War of Olly Winter

A television movie set in the Vietnamese jungle in 1963, black master sergeant Olly Winter is a career soldier sent to Vietnam as an advisor to fight one last war against the communists. Flashbacks reveal Winter's harsh childhood including the suicide of his mother. This helps him sympathize with the poor villagers he is trying to protect. Accompanied by a Vietnamese young girl, a dog, and an orphaned baby found near the bodies of its slain parents, Sergeant Winter is pursued and finally killed by the Viet Cong. One of the first TV programs to focus on the Vietnam War and the social injustice at home.

S1 • E2

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Peter Schermann is angry at the world after his children move him into a nursing home. Still physically and mentally strong, he searches for a meaning to his life in a new and uncompromising world.

S1 • E3

Dear Friends

After fifteen years of marriage, Michael and Lois Graves separate and await divorce. Their best friends, three other married couples, arrange a dinner party in an attempt to reconcile the pair. However, in the process, the complex and often precarious relationships between all of the couples, as well as individuals within the group, begin to emerge.

S1 • E4

My Father and My Mother

Much of the action takes place in the mind and memory of Ned, a father who is struggling to cope with a spiritual crisis. He has placed his only son, who is retarded, in an institution and it is a hard decision to live with. Tortured by doubt, Ned searches desperately in his past, reliving and twisting memories, hoping to sift out solace and some answers from the heritage handed down by his father and his mother.

S1 • E5

Secrets

Following a chance encounter that brings him face to face with his past, conservative businessman Bryan Gray goes in search of Janet Ferguson, an actress with whom he had a relationship many years before. His unwillingness to share private parts of himself arouses the suspicion of wife Doris who is determined to know all of his secrets and the motivations behind them.