The Philco Television Playhouse: Season 4
Season 4 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 3.
- 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 4 Progress Shield
Marcia Akers
Oct 21, 1951
A young woman has an unhealthy desire to get ahead, climbing the social ladder and stepping on people along the way. She's set to marry a wealthy man--just what's always wanted--wh
The Education of a Fullback
Nov 4, 1951
A comedy on the foibles of campus activities about a professor who can't understand why a football hero shouldn't be given an unsatisfactory grade especially when he slept thru the
A Little Night Music
Nov 18, 1951
Elizabeth Chapin is the belle of the town who is now approaching 40 as a spinster music teacher.
Incident at Golden's Creek
Dec 2, 1951
An Iron Curtain delegation is marooned in a small mid-western town.
Perspective
Dec 16, 1951
The play suggested by the career of Hans VanMergeren called the master art forger.
The Sisters
Dec 30, 1951
The lives of two sisters are disrupted by a psychopath who appears claiming to be their godson.
Without Fear or Favor
Jan 13, 1952
Modern day corruption investigations (film of the Kefauver investigation is shown) has a parallel in 1870s New York, where the New York Times crusades against the crooks in City Ha
Segment
Jan 27, 1952
During a convention, a visiting family takes a hotel room. The father and Mother get ready while the daughter leaves. The wife nagging pushes the man over the edge and he is determ
Rich Boy
Feb 10, 1952
This well-received adaptation of the 1924 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story starred Gene Lyons as rich playboy Anson Hunter, who realizes too late that he has wasted his life by allo
Tender Age
Feb 24, 1952
The tragic aspects of the so-called "lost generation" of the 20's is told.
Dusty Portrait
Mar 9, 1952
A tragic story of an innocent victim of justice based entirely on circumstantial evidence.
The Best Laid Schemes
Mar 23, 1952
Boy can we relate to this PLOT TWIST from back in the 40's. Doctors are helpless in dealing with an epidemic that hits New York City. The answer is provided by an exterminator.
The Room Next Door
Apr 5, 1952
A social-climbing couple scheme to find a mate for their unromantic inclined daughter. She however prefers an unstable piano player over an established member of the tea and crumpe
The Basket Weaver
Apr 19, 1952
The story of the marine assault on Iwo Jima leads a former veteran into a crackup with a bullying personality increased by a personal crisis.
We Were Children
May 4, 1952
A close knit family learns that a man who was the son of their family gardener is related to them thru an indiscretion.
A Cowboy for Chris
May 18, 1952
A little boy's infatuation for a cowboy who boards at his home and another boarder who attempts to disillusion the child.
A Man's Game
Jun 1, 1952
A big league manager travels to Alabama to scout catcher Chub Evans but signs Evans' fireball pitching sister instead.
Flight into Darkness
Jun 15, 1952
A psychological drama about two brothers obsessed with the idea that he is going insane and later that his brother, a doctor is going to murder him.
The Monument
Jun 29, 1952
A reporter has undertaken the biography of a Confederate general to get the authentic version of his heroism at Bull Run.
A Letter to Mr. Priest
Jul 13, 1952
The camera becomes you and you become the narrator as the camera becomes a person and unfolds the story. Nelson Olmsted is the voice.
Bratt Farrar
Jul 27, 1952
No Not Brett Favre- Brat Farrar has been carefully coached to assume the identity of Patrick Ashby, heir to the Ashby fortune who disappeared when he was 13.
The Five Fathers of Pepi
Aug 10, 1952
A young war orphan is taken in by five men living along the Italian Riviera. Their hope is to find a wealthy American couple who will adopt Pepi and give him a proper upbringing. W
Three Sundays
Aug 24, 1952
A criminal brings scandal to the family of a dead intelligence officer but eventually confesses his shoddy motives for creating the affair and absolves the dead man.
The Last Hour
Sep 7, 1952
A woman is on trial for espionage and has but a few hours to prove her innocence.
Holiday Song
Sep 14, 1952
The night before Rosh Hashonah, a cantor suffers a spiritual crisis. That same night, he is sent by someone to see a rabbi out in Brooklyn, A mysterious train station attendant giv