The Philco Television Playhouse: Season 2
Season 2 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 The Philco Television Playhouse Season 1.
- 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 2 Progress Shield
What Every Woman Knows
Sep 4, 1949
A Victorian Scotswoman of far-reaching ambition. Using her supposedly frail feminine wiles, she maneuvers her fatuous husband into a successful political career. He rises to a parl
Pride's Castle
Sep 11, 1949
Pride Dawson was one of those "Robber Barons", who started out his life in rags and turned his life to riches and women. His contempt for human decency or moral restraint left him
The Little Sister
Sep 18, 1949
A woman from Kansas comes to Marlowe to help find her missing brother.
The Lonely
Sep 25, 1949
An engaged Air Force lieutenant goes on a ten-day furlough to Scotland with a female friend. Their understanding is that the trip will be purely platonic; instead, they fall madly
The Queen Bee
Oct 2, 1949
A conniving and devious Southern socialite who manipulates the lives of those around her with tragic results.
Something's Got to Give
Oct 9, 1949
A couple of New England housewives disrupt their marriages by becoming an early morning radio team.
The Last Tycoon
Oct 16, 1949
A 1930's brilliant and efficient movie mogul and the story behind the Hollywood Dream Factory.
Because of the Lockwoods
Oct 23, 1949
The Lockwoods are patronising toward their former neighbours, the Hunters, who are now living in the poorer district in town. The Hunters are saved from despair from the help of a
Damion's Daughter
Oct 30, 1949
A theater owner's daughter discovers his father's true nature and is shaken by the discovery. She moments jealousy backstage to expose him.
The House of Seven Gables
Nov 6, 1949
With the ownership of Seven Gables, the opulent family estate, at stake, a man frames his brother for murder.
The Promise
Nov 13, 1949
A husband and wife are drifting apart due to different goals in their individual careers.
The Wonderful Mrs. Ingram
Nov 27, 1949
A female psychiatrist visits the home of a famous woman novelist and discovers unhappiness aplenty. She learns the novelist's ambitions and vanity are causes of the trouble.
Mist on the Waters
Dec 4, 1949
Blackmail terrorizes a couple because of an accident which was a terrible tragedy.
The Beautiful Bequest
Dec 11, 1949
The story of a spoiled and jilted young novelist of intellectual pretensions, who is freshened up and made marketable and happy again by design of his sporting publisher.
The Strange Christmas Dinner
Dec 18, 1949
A modern day Ebenezer Scrooge refuses to close his store on Christmas Day.
In Beauty Like the Night
Dec 25, 1949
A British pilot who lost his sight during the Second World War deals with the problems caused by the injury.
Little Boy Lost
Jan 1, 1950
An English poet searches for his son whom he has never seen. The child disappeared shortly after his mother was killed by the Gestapo.
Bethel Merriday
Jan 8, 1950
A small-town girl named Bethel Merriday is determined to become an actress.
Murder at the Stork Club
Jan 15, 1950
A wealthy matron is murdered at the Stork Club and the suspect list is growing.
The Marriages
Jan 22, 1950
In England in the 1890s, Colonel Chart, a widower with four children, falls in love with a charming, wealthy American widow, Mrs. Churchley, but his 27-year-old spinster daughter A
Uncle Dynamite
Jan 29, 1950
Uncle Fred wants Pongo to marry Sally Painter, an unsuccessful American sculptor. They had been engaged but she broke it off when Pongo refused to smuggle jewellery into America fo
The Sudden Guest
Feb 5, 1950
A New England spinster Miss Leckton disregards her neighbours' cry for help and assistance during a hurricane. She resents the intrusion, especially since her neighbours happen to
Ann Rutledge
Feb 12, 1950
The short life of Ann Rutledge, Abraham Lincoln's one true love who passed away at age 22 of typhoid fever.
A Letter to Mr. Priest
Feb 19, 1950
An attorney, voted most likely to succeed in college, looks back on his life.
Hometown
Feb 26, 1950
Mitchell Hickok, an author from the country, comes to New York for a publicity build-up for his book. He meets a glamorous woman, who introduces him to the nightlife of Manhattan.
The Uncertain Molly Collicutt
Mar 12, 1950
A flirtatious woman has a difficult time settling down to her marital responsibilities.
The Trial of Steven Kent
Mar 19, 1950
A jury foreman seeks to wreak personal vengeance on the murder defendant.
The Second Oldest Profession
Mar 26, 1950
An idealistic newspaper editor battles with his stubborn publisher.
Nocturne
Apr 2, 1950
In London in 1910, two sisters, Jenny and Emmy Blanchard, must support and care for their widowed, invalid father. Jenny, the younger, pretty sister, seeks to escape from the depre
Dirty Eddie
Apr 9, 1950
Dirty Eddie is a sleek black pig with a fat movie contract and Hollywood isn't too happy about it.
The End is Known
Apr 16, 1950
A department store tycoon comes home and is nearly hit by a falling body. He then learns the suicide jumped from his apartment. A mystery surrounds a suicide.
The Man in the Black Hat
Apr 23, 1950
A gambler has nothing to lose as his shady past with women and cards catch up to him.
The American
Apr 30, 1950
An American travelling in Europe finds clashes between the two cultures.
The Feast
May 7, 1950
A seaside resort hotel brings together an odd assortment of people: a frustrated married couple, four young lovers, children and an grouchy old miser.
Brat Farrar
May 14, 1950
Identical twins concoct a plan to defraud an insurance company and collect a large sum of cash.
The Charmed Circle
May 21, 1950
A poverty-ridden student feels out-of-place among his wealthy fraternity brothers. He eventually falls in love with a rich girl and leads a revolt against the President of the frat
Semmelweis
May 28, 1950
Story of the great physician who saved millions of lives due to his discovery of the cause of childbed fever (puerperal fever) and eliminated its danger by prescribing the absolute
Sense and Sensibility
Jun 4, 1950
Sisters left poor by the death of the family matriarch search for suitable husbands in Georgian England.
The Bump on Brannigan's Head
Jun 11, 1950
A bonk on the head turns a grouchy hothead into the sweetest man in town. Brannigan runs for mayor of his small town--and wins--with his "love everybody" campaign. He even wins ove
Anything Can Happen
Jun 18, 1950
A Russian emigrant to America finds a new language, and strange manners bewildering but tries mightily to adapt to his new homeland.
Hear My Heart Speak
Jun 25, 1950
A shell-shocked WWI ex-soldier is unable to speak though doctors say the problem isn't physical. Tired of completing with his overbearing, doting mother, the woman he loves begins
The Reluctant Landlord
Jul 2, 1950
Georgi, a kindly and honest immigrant from the Georgian area of Russia, experiences many difficulties as he tries to adapt to his adopted country. He works hard to make a place for
The Tentacles
Jul 9, 1950
A young wife fights to free her husband from the control of his manipulative and controlling father.