American Playhouse: Season 9
Season 9 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of American Playhouse Season 8.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 9 Progress Shield
Sensibility and Sense
Jan 24, 1990 · 137 min
Three friends, once bonded over their radical beliefs in the 1930s, reunite after becoming estranged over a book one of them wrote.
Women and Wallace
Jan 31, 1990 · 80 min
After his mother's suicide, Wallace Kirkman struggles in his relationships with the women in his life.
The Wizard of Loneliness
Feb 7, 1990 · 111 min
After his mother dies and father goes to fight in World War II, young Wendall Oler moves in with his aunt and uncle in the countryside. Lonely, he starts believing he has superpowe
Zora Is My Name!
Feb 14, 1990 · 79 min
A celebration of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, who was born at the turn of the 20th-century and grew to be an important voice with her written portrayals of Black American life i
In a Shallow Grave
Feb 21, 1990 · 92 min
Disfigured WWII veteran Garnet Montrose returns from Guadacanal and enlists a drifter to court his former sweetheart through letters, leading to a complex love triangle with unexpe
Andre's Mother
Mar 7, 1990 · 48 min
Katherine Gerard has lost her son Andre to AIDS. At his memorial service, we follow Katherine confronting the death of her son, the anguish of his lover Cal Porter, and, in flashba
The Wash
Mar 21, 1990 · 94 min
Nobu Matsumoto is a neglectful husband. Not the most loving man. His wife Masi gradually encounters a widower, a kind, gentle figure. She eventually makes the transition to leave h
Triple Play
Mar 28, 1990 · 56 min
A trio of short films by Chanticleer Films and Columbia Pictures: Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (an older widower accidentally stumbles into a lively, eccentric male dance cla
Break of Dawn
Apr 11, 1990 · 105 min
In 1930s Los Angeles, Mexican immigrant Pedro J. González becomes a pioneering Spanish-language radio star before being wrongly convicted and imprisoned at San Quentin.
Prisoners of Inertia
Apr 25, 1990 · 92 min
Indecisive newlyweds get into a series of misadventures while on a day trip from Manhattan to Hoboken, New Jersey.
Eat a Bowl of Tea
May 2, 1990 · 102 min
An American-Chinese man brings over his wife from China to America, but the challenges of making a living and adjusting to a new life, plus the attentions of a gambler threaten the
All God's Dangers
May 9, 1990 · 88 min
Ned Shaw recounts his life as an illiterate Black tenant farmer born into a society of former slaves and slaveholders. The story ends in December 1932 when he courageously stood hi
Sidewalk Stories
May 16, 1990 · 102 min
A New York City street artist rescues a baby girl after her father is murdered. He then sets off to find the mother, but has to first learn how to care for the child. Ultimately, h
Bloodhounds of Broadway
May 23, 1990 · 93 min
On New Year's Eve 1928, in the New York underworld, a gambler sells his body to science, a gangster needs a transfusion, and a gambler is on the run
Where the Spirit Lives
Jun 6, 1990 · 96 min
In 1937, a young First Nations girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations chi
An Enemy of the People
Jun 13, 1990 · 90 min
When a scientist learns that his town's lucrative springs present a serious health threat, the community refuses to listen to him.
Separation
Jun 27, 1990 · 80 min
When neurologically ill American actress Sarah calls emotionally crippled English playwright Joe, they begin a very special relationship conducted through trans-Antlantic phone cal
Hyde in Hollywood
Jul 6, 1990 · 114 min
In 1939, closeted director/actor Julian Hyde finds himself targeted by vicious and unscrupulous attacks by a gossip column by the name of Hollywood Confidential.