American Playhouse

Season 2

TV-PG

Anthology series which ran on PBS throughout the 1980s.

Where to Watch American Playhouse • Season 2

12 Episodes

The Skin of Our Teeth
E1
The Skin of Our TeethA production of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play about mankind's triumph over chaos, which wildly altered dramatic conventions in freely shifting between modern-day New Jersey and the Ice Age--the Antrobus family pets are dinosaurs--and having characters speak directly to the audience and criticize the way their own dialogues were written.
Miss Lonelyhearts
E2
Miss LonelyheartsA young Depression-era reporter is assigned to write his newspaper's advice column on the insistence of his mocking editor. Unhappy in the demeaning assignment, he begins to take an interest in one of the readers sending letters.
Family Business
E3
Family BusinessIsaiah Stern is a wealthy, but dying, toy manufacturer. Once more, Stern has gathered his grown sons to revise his will. Three of the four are used to these idiosyncratic changes, and have come to accept them: however, the fourth, a married psychologist, is heavily in debt and doesn't like his thin share, which sparks a confrontation. The remaining sons are a bachelor who runs the family store, an indecisive sort who still lives at home, and Daddy's favorite, a closet homosexual.
Keeping On
E4
Keeping OnA low-key drama exploring the struggles of an impoverished sharecropping family in the rural South with themes of Southern identity, morality, and family.
The File on Jill Hatch (1)
E5
The File on Jill Hatch (1)A decade-spanning look at marriage of a Black American soldier and a white British woman.
The File on Jill Hatch (2)
E6
The File on Jill Hatch (2)A decade-spanning look at marriage of a Black American soldier and a white British woman.
The File on Jill Hatch (3)
E7
The File on Jill Hatch (3)A decade-spanning look at marriage of a Black American soldier and a white British woman.
For Us, the Living: The Medgar Evers Story
E8
For Us, the Living: The Medgar Evers StoryDuring the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi, Medgar Evers rose from insurance agent to one of the most integral activists of the era. From boycotting white merchants in the mid-'50s to being a key figure in desegregating the University of Mississippi in 1962, Evers met success, and with it, many enemies. When racists swarm his house, his life and the lives of his wife and children are threatened.
Verse Person Singular
E9
Verse Person SingularActor Richard Kiley takes on the personae of thirteen different characters as he reads his favorite poems written in the first-person.
Until She Talks
E10
Until She TalksThe story of a young woman imprisoned for declining to testify before a grand jury; comprised from real courtroom transcripts and based on the experiences of individuals jailed for their refusal to testify.
Wings
E11
WingsFormer aviatrix Emily Stilson suffers a stroke and is plunged into a world of disorientation and grief. Memories flood in between painful attempts to re-learn the basic functions of everyday life.
The Rothko Conspiracy
E12
The Rothko ConspiracyA dramatization of the fight over the estate of artist Mark Rothko, who killed himself in 1970.