Playhouse 90: Season 3
Season 3 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 Playhouse 90 Season 2.
- 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 3 Progress Shield
The Plot to Kill Stalin
Sep 25, 1958
In late 1952, an aging and increasingly paranoid Stalin puts in motion a purge against his doctors, with anti-Semitic overtones. His lackeys, including Khrushchev, Molotov and Beri
Days of Wine and Roses
Oct 2, 1958
An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his "passion" together.
The Time of Your Life
Oct 9, 1958
William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play revolves around the denizens of a San Francisco bar in 1939. Lonely, lovelorn, weary or cynical, the characters drift in and out of th
Shadows Tremble
Oct 23, 1958
An elderly immigrant tries to buy an old house in New England and is opposed by snobbish locals.
Word from a Sealed-Off Box
Oct 30, 1958
A courier for the Dutch Resistance is captured by the Nazis.
Heart of Darkness
Nov 6, 1958
A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.
Old Man
Nov 20, 1958
To fight a Mississippi flood in 1927, a prison farm releases some convicts.
The Return of Ansel Gibbs
Nov 27, 1958
After years in retirement, Ansel Gibbs is asked to return to government service.
Seven Against the Wall
Dec 11, 1958
The story of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.
The Nutcracker
Dec 25, 1958
This telecast of George Balanchine's famous production was broadcast only four years after it was premiered by the New York City Ballet. This was the only episode of the series tel
The Wings of the Dove
Jan 8, 1959
An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the
The Velvet Alley
Jan 22, 1959
Ernie Pandish has tried to be a writer for years and has never made much money out of it. But now he seems likely to hit the big-time.
A Quiet Game of Cards
Jan 29, 1959
A few friends meet each weekend for a quiet game of cards. But they're bored with poker and, in trying to find another diversion, gradually find themselves plotting a hypothetical
Child of Our Time
Feb 5, 1959
War deprives Tanguy of his childhood. When his mother returns to Spain to oppose the Franco regime, he is left in Nazi-occupied Marseilles, France.
The Raider
Feb 19, 1959
A corporate raider plans a hostile takeover. To stall him, pressure is put on a scientist to rush through a new type of engine before all necessary tests have been completed.
The Ding-A-Ling Girl
Feb 26, 1959
A housewife is offered a Hollywood contract. She'd rather stay home, but her husband has ambitions for her.
Made in Japan
Mar 5, 1959
A young soldier in occupied Japan after World War II falls in love with a lovely Japanese girl, but is horrified about what his prejudiced family in Philadelphia will think if he t
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 1
Mar 12, 1959
During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Part 2
Mar 19, 1959
The completion of the mission has tragic consequences.
Judgment at Nuremberg
Apr 16, 1959
In the later stages of the Nuremberg Trials, four German judges are accused of perverting the course of justice.
Dark December
Apr 30, 1959
During World War II, an army doctor struggles to convert a Franciscan monastery into a field hospital.
Diary of a Nurse
May 7, 1959
The daily emergencies and stresses of a major city's hospital ward as seen through the eyes of nurse Gail Lucas.
Out of Dust
May 21, 1959
On a cattle drive across the prairie, the sons of a wealthy cattle baron plot his death.
The Rank and File
May 28, 1959
A powerful union leader is interrogated by a Senate committee. Testifying before a Senate, William Kilcoyne tells the story of his career. He began as a factory worker and his shr
The Killers of Mussolini
Jun 4, 1959
As the Salo Republic crumbles around him, Mussolini, along with his mistress and several of his ministers flee with retreating Nazi soldiers, but are caught at the town of Dongo by
Project Immortality
Jun 11, 1959
Key defense scientist Doner has cancer. Schramm is assigned to code Doner's thinking into a computer. He gets to know him as a friend, a husband and father. The project is successf
Dark as the Night
Jun 18, 1959
A British politician finds himself open to blackmail because of the indiscretion of his American wife.
The Second Happiest Day
Jun 25, 1959
A man about to be married recalls the day his life changed permanently.