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"Play Of The Week"
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Season
2 (PBS) (1960-61)
Episode Guide
compiled by The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by: Rina Fox
references:
TV Guide /
Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (https://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
############### Play of the Week #############
############## season 2 1960-61 ##############
##############################################
2.01 [36] Play of the Week: HENRY IV
26Sep60
Executive producer, Worthington Miner ;
Producer, David Susskind
Shakespeare classic
starring
Donald Davis .......... Henry
Eric Berry ............ Falstaff
Donald Madden ......... Hotspur
Stephen Joyce ......... Hal
Nan Martin ............ Lady Percy
J.D. Cannon ........... Poins
Gerry Jedd ............ Mistress Quickly
Dran Seitz
Synopsis:
The story of a young man's elevation from immature prince to responsible king. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Shakespeare's droll portrayal of the friendship between the
crown prince of England and the fat knight Falstaff. [RF]
2.02 [37] Play of the Week: THE DYBBUK
03Oct60
Executive producer David Susskind
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Joseph Liss
Adapted from the 1920 S. Ansky play
Settings by Jack Venza
original music by John Green
starring
Michael Tolan ......... Channon
Carol Lawrence ........ Leah
Eli Mintz ............. Nachmon
Ludwig Donath ......... Rabbi Azrael
Michael Shille ........ Rabbi Samson
Theodore Bikel ........ Sender
Vincent Gardenia ...... Nissen
Milton Selzer ......... Messenger
Gene Saks ............. Hassidim #2
Stefan Gierasch ....... Hassidim #1
Jerry Rockwood ........ Hassidim #3
Theo Goetz ............ Meyer
Sylvia Davis .......... Frade
Synopsis 1:
A haunting tale about ill-fated love, possession, and exorcism
in a small Jewish town in Eastern Europe.
Synopsis 2:
According to Yiddish folklore, a Dybbuk is the disturbed spirit of a dead man or woman
which can inhabit the body of a living person. This story takes place in an Old Country
village where such mystical matters can become reality. [RF]
2.03 [38] Play of the Week: LEGEND OF LOVERS
10Oct60
Producer Jack Kuney
Directed by Ralph Nelson
Adapted from the 1951 Jean Anouilh play as translated by Kitty Black,
a modern version of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend
starring
Piper Laurie ......... Eurydice
Robert Loggia ........ Orpheus
Sam Jaffe
Michael Constantine
Polly Rowles
Synopsis 1:
When they meet in a railroad station and fall in love and escape by themselves to
a shabby hotel room, it is the rest of the world that seems unreal. Their lovers' avowals
are their center of the universe. Everything that goes on around them
seems mean and contrived. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
In the Greek legend, Eurydice dies; Orpheus persuades death to restore her to him.
But death extracts one condition: Orpheus must never look at her. M. Anouilh has
restated the legend in terms of a romantic street musician and the soubrette of
a provincial theatre troupe. [RF]
2.04 [39] Play of the Week: THE VELVET GLOVE
17Oct60
Adapted from the 1949 Rosemary Casey play
starring
Helen Hayes ........... Mother Hildebrand
Larry Gates ........... Bishop
Robert Morse .......... Pearson
Jean Dixon ............ Monica
Collin Wilcox ......... Mary
Arthur Shields
Synopsis:
When beloved Mother Hildebrand returns from a tour of her many convents,
she is upset to learn that the bishop intends to dismiss young Professor Pearson
from the college staff. She reluctantly agrees to the bishop's order, but in her
heart she has other plans. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
The shrewd woman president of a parochial college sides
with a young teacher against a powerful bishop. [RF]
2.05 [40] Play of the Week: DUET FOR TWO HANDS
24Oct60
Adapted from the 1947 play by Mary Hayley Bell
starring
Signe Hasso ........ Herda Sarclet
Eric Portman ........ Dr. Edward Sarclet
Lois Nettleton ........ Abigail Sarclet
Patrick Horgan ........ Stephen Cass
Synopsis:
Abigail Sarclet gets word from her father that he's returning to their castle on the
Orkney Islands with a celebrated poet.
A macabre tale of ghostly revenge in a castle in the Orkneys. [RF]
2.06 [41] Play of the Week: SEVEN TIMES MONDAY
31Oct60
Directed by Wes Kenney
Written by Ernest Pendrell
starring
Ruby Dee ........ Lila
Ossie Davis ........ Will
William Windom ........ Bob
Warren Berlinger ........ Salvatore Mantini
Judson Laire ........ John Cliff
Milt Kamen ........ Harold
Rosetta Le Noire ...... Belle
Earl Syndor ........... Miller
Billie Allen .......... Ruthir
Synopsis:
The problems of a factory worker who dreams of becoming a "cop," of replacing the
drudgery of the machine shop with the thrill of riding along on a motorcycle.
But there are family responsibilities to meet, and the problems of prejudice to be
dealt with - which they are, in a most heart-warming and honest way. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Willie Harris endures the drudgery of everyday life sustained by his dreams:
an apartment for his family and a policeman's badge for himself. [RF]
2.07 [42] Play of the Week: TWO BY SAROYAN
07Nov60
Adapted from the 1950 and 1937 William Saroyan plays.
** 2 plays **
(1) Once Around the Block
starring
Walter Matthau
Orson Bean
Larry Hagman
Nina Wilcox
Synopsis 1:
A screenwriter with a reputation as a ladies
man offers advice to a young writer on how he too can be highly appealing to the
opposite sex, yielding some rather surprising results. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
In ONCE AROUND THE BLOCK, a playboy screenwriter gives advice to a young
writer on how to appeal to the opposite sex. [RF]
*
(2) My Heart's in the Highlands
starring
Walter Matthau
Kevin Coughlin
Myron McCormick
Eddie Hodges
Synopsis 1:
An aspiring poet and his young son-financially impoverished, but rich in dreams
and generous of spirit-struggle to survive while never "ceasing to care for the
wellbeing of their fellow man. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
In MY HEART'S IN THE HIGHLANDS,
a poet and his son, poor in funds but rich in spirit live their day to day existence. [RF]
2.08 [43] Play of the Week: THE ICEMAN COMETH, PART 1
14Nov60
Executive Producer Worthington Miner
Producer Lewis Freedman
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Assistant director Ed Waglin
Adapted from the Eugene O'Neill 1946 play
Set Designer Bob Markell
Costumes Gene Coffin
On-screen Introduction Brooks Atkinson
starring
Jason Robards Jr. ..... Theodore 'Hickey' Hickman
Myron McCormick ....... Larry Slade
Roland Winters ........ Piet Wetjoen, the General
Robert Redford ........ Don Parritt
Farrell Pelly ......... Harry Hope
Tom Pedi .............. Rocky
James Broderick ....... Willie Oban
Ronald Radd ........... Cecil Lewis, the Captain
Harrison Dowd ......... Jimmy Tomorrow
Michael Strong ........ Chuck
Sorrell Booke ......... Hugo
Maxwell Glanville ..... Joe Mott
Charles White ......... Pat
Walter Klavun ......... Ed Mosher
Hilda Brawner ......... Margie
Herb Voland ........... Moran
Joan Copeland ......... Cora
Julie Bovasso ......... Pearl
Synopsis 1:
The spotlight is on the failed lives, empty hopes, and perpetual pipe dreams of
an assortment of down-and-out denizens of a seedy saloon, set in New York in 1912.
Their sad, but complacent existences are rattled when Hickey arrives for his annual
bender a changed man - forswearing alcohol and preaching a deliverance from
"the lie of the pipe dream." [RF]
Synopsis 2:
The dreams and failures of the denizens of a seedy New York saloon circa 1912.
2.09 [44] Play of the Week: THE ICEMAN COMETH, PART 2
21Nov60
(Same as above)
2.10 [45] Play of the Week: HIGHLIGHTS OF NEW FACES
28Nov60
Sketches and musical numbers from the 1952 and
1956 versions of the Leonard Sillman Broadway productions
starring
Alice Ghostley
Ronny Graham
Robert Clary
Paul Lynde
June Carroll
Virginia DeLuce
Inga Swenson
Summary:
Songs and sketches from the "New Faces" revues of 1952 and 1956.
Recreating their original successes are Ronny Graham, Alice Ghostley,
Paul Lynde, June Carroll, Robert Clary and Inga Swenson. [RF]
2.11 [46] Play of the Week: UNCLE HARRY
05Dec60
Adapted from the 1942 Thomas Job play.
starring
Ray Walston .......... Uncle Harry
Betty Field .......... Hester
Jeff Donnell ......... Lucy
Ruth Ford ............ Lettie
Sylvia Miles ......... Miss Phipps
John Zacherle ........ Mr. Jenkins
Synopsis:
A fabric designer who is henpecked by his spinster twin sisters with whom he lives,
become enraged when he meets and falls in love. His jealous sister, drives him to a
murder plot. The wrong sister gets the poison, but he gets the torment. [RF]
2.12 [47] Play of the Week: RASHOMON
12Dec60
Executive producer Worthington Miner
Producer Lewis Freedman
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Fay & Michael Kanin
Adapted from the 1959 Fay and Michael Kanin
Based on the stories of Akutagawa.
starring
Ricardo Montalban ....... Bandit
Carol Lawrence ........ Wife
James Mitchell ....... Husband
Oscar Homolka
Michael Higgins ....... Priest
Michael Shillo ........ Woodcutter
Aida Loy .............. Medium
Harry Davis
Osceola Archer
Synopsis 1:
In the heat of the afternoon, a bandit sees a husband and wife moving along a path.
He decides he must have the woman, even if he has to kill the man. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Rashomon is a Japanese murder mystery set in the 16th century. It tells the story of
a samurai and his wife who are attacked and savaged by a bandit. [RF]
2.13 [48] Play of the Week: EMMANUEL
19Dec60
Directed by Kirk Browning
Adapted from the 1960 Christmas play on the birth of Jesus.
starring
Peter Mark Richman ........ Joseph
Lois Nettleton ....... Mary
Earle Hyman
Albert Dekker
Synopsis:
The story of the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
[--] Play of the Week: BOGUS GREEN
26Dec60 (unaired or postponed)
2.14 [49] Play of the Week: A CLEARING IN THE WOODS
02Jan61
Adapted from the 1957 Arthur Laurents play
starring
Celeste Holm ............. Virginia
Arthur Hill .............. Barney
Barbara Dana ............. Nora
J.D. Cannon .............. George
Nancy Malone ............. Ginna
Candance Culkin .......... Jigee
James Olson .............. Pete
Gerald S. O'Loughlin ..... Andy
Synopsis:
A young woman seeking asylum from an urban world where she is in crisis,
caught between madness and reason. In her search for solace in the woods, she
is propelled into a world far more disorienting - where time is turned upside down
and the phantoms of her past meet the realities of her present in a storm
of illusion and desire. [RF]
2.15 [50] Play of the Week: THE POTTING SHED
09Jan61
Written by Graham Greene
starring
Fritz Weaver........... James Callifer
Ann Harding ........... Mrs. Callifer
Nancy Wickwire ........ Sara
Frank Conroy .......... Callifer
Zina Bethune .......... Anne
Ludwig Donath ......... Kreuzer
Synopsis 1:
The story concerns the son of a famous atheist who seeks to uncover a childhood
mystery in his past. He eventually discovers that he committed suicide in the
eponymous potting shed at the age of 14, but was revived when his uncle,
a priest, entered into a strange bargain with God.
Synopsis 2:
James Callifer, long estranged from his family, returns home to his dying father.
He learns there that as a boy he had hanged himself in the potting shed, but had
been cut down and 'resurrected'. It transpires his father had lost his agnosticism
and as a result James's mother had disowned her son - who was a living proof that
a 'miracle' had occurred in his past. [RF]
2.16 [51] Play of the Week: BLACK MONDAY
16Jan61
Executive producer, Worthington Miner
Producer, David Susskind
Directed by Ralph Nelson
Adapted from the Reginald Rose play
starring
Myron McCormick ....... Dennison
Robert Redford ........ George
Pat Hingle ............ Arthur McGill
Ruby Dee .............. Jane
Juano Hernandez ....... James
Nancy Coleman ......... Betty
Marc Connelly ......... Porter
Hilda Sims ............ Lily
William Prince
House Jameson
Frances Fuller
Joey Trent
Edward Asner
Arthur Tell
Roy Johnson
Luke Halpin
James Caan
Andrew Prine
Joanna Roos
Dan Morgan
Claudia Crawford
Ivan Dixon
Charles Grodin
Lincoln Kilpatrick
Jerry Wimberley
Glynn Turman
Ossie Davis
Richard Ward
Synopsis:
A Negro girl is about to enter a white school for the first time. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
A black child's first day at a white school in the deep South. [RF]
2.17 [52] Play of the Week: NEW YORK SCRAPBOOK
23Jan61
Written by Tom Whedon
Story by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt
starring
Kaye Ballard
Orson Bean
Jane Connell
Maureen Bailey
Synopsis:
Humorous musical revues of life in New York City.
Songs:
Mister Off-Broadway (M: Harvey Schmidt, L: Tom Jones)
Summer/Autumn/Winter/Spring (M: Harvey Schmidt, L: Tom Jones)
2.18 [53] Play of the Week: HE WHO GETS SLAPPED
30Jan61
Adapted from the 1915 play by Leonid N. Andreev
starring
Richard Basehart ...... Stranger
Julie Harris ..........
David Opatoshu ........ Manchini
Loring Smith .......... Brique
Carroll O'Connor
Synopsis:
A clown becomes disenchanted with life as the drama unfolds.
Synopsis 2:
A nameless stranger falls in love with a circus performer. [RF]
2.19 [54] Play of the Week: FOUR BY TENNESSEE
06Feb61
Adapted from four plays by Tennessee Williams
starring
Jo Van Fleet
Eileen Heckart
Ann Revere
Maureen Stapleton
Mike Kellin
Alfred Ryder
Vivian Nathan
Leueen McGrath
Thomas Chalmers
Synopsis:
Play #1 "I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix" 1959 based on the last few days
and death of DH Lawrence.
Play #2 "Hello from Bertha." 1954 A disturbed drunk prostitute named Bertha wallows
around while her two housemates try in vain to help her.
Play #3 "The Lady of Larkspur Lotion." 1949
Sedlachek, the owner of a fleabag hotel, who wants to evict her deadbeat tenant.
She is a faded Southern belle who, despite being reduced to prostitution, tries
gamely to maintain a facade of gentility. What she refers to as lotion is actually hooch.
Her castle in the air is a plantation in Brazil, and the man of her dreams a "rubber king";
but the knight who rides to her rescue turns out to be the alcoholic blocked
writer who lives down the hall. [RF]
Play #4 "The Purification" 1959.
"The Lady of Larkspur Lotion," is a study of an early Blanche DuBois, maintaining
hauteur in a world environment. Miss Van Fleet again performs with distinction."
Shanley, John P. 'Four by Tennessee'. New York Times. February 7,1961.
2.20 [55] Play of the Week: THE SOUND OF MURDER
13Feb61
Adapted from the British mystery by William Fairchild.
starring
Kim Hunter
Felicia Montealegre
Donald Davis
Synopsis:
A murder plot is accidentally recorded and the victims
secretary holds the tape, the lovers tiff develops. [RF]
2.21 [56] Play of the Week: THE MAGIC AND THE LOSS
20Feb61
Executive Producer David Susskind
Producer Lewis Freedman
Written by Julian Funt based on his 1954 play
Directed by Richard Dunlap
Set Designer William Bohnert
Art Director Myron Bleam
Costumes Michael Travis
Makeup Inez Lopardo
Music Ronnie Noll
Production Supervisor Buddy Wilds
starring
Patricia Neal ......... Grace Wilson
Jeffrey Lynn .......... George Wilson
Vicki Cummings ........ Anita Harmon
Patrick O'Neal ........ Larry Graves
Frederick Clarke ...... Nicki Wilson
Synopsis:
Grace Wilson, a divorced career woman wants a higher position at the advertising
agency.
She has an affair with one of the executives and is caught by her 14-year-old son,
complicating things is the return of her ex who
wants to reconnect with his son.
2.22 [57] Play of the Week: NO EXIT; THE INDIFFERENT LOVER
27Feb61
Directed by Silvio Narizzano
No Exit adapted from the 1936 play by Jean-Paul Sartre as translated by Paul Bowles;
The Indifferent Lover adapted from the Jean Cocteau monologue
(1) No Exit:
starring
Colleen Dewhurst ...... Inez
Dane Clark ............ Cradeau
Diana Hyland .......... Estelle
Jim Oyster ............ Bellboy
Synopsis:
Three people are stuck in hell without the convenience of a torturer on whom
to focus their fear and hatred. Naturally being resourceful humans, they find infinite
ways to torment each other. Best line Sartre wrote is "Hell is other people".
(2) The Indifferent Lover
starring
Miriam Hopkins
2.23 [58] Play of the Week: THE OLD FOOLISHNESS
06Mar61
Adapted from the 1940 Paul Vincent Carroll play.
starring
Fred Gwynne
Albert Salmi
Synopsis:
A family feud set in Bromley, Kent when their religious
beliefs overtake their reasoning. [RF]
2.24 [59] Play of the Week: THERESE RAQUIN
13Mar61
Executive producer, Worthington Miner
Producer, Jack Kuney
Directed by Bill Penn
From the 1873 play by Emile Zola, as translated by Kathleen Boutall
starring
Eva Le Gallienne
Peter Mark Richman .... Laurent
Anne Meacham .......... Therese
Philip Coolidge ....... Grivet
Donald McKee .......... Michaud
Joyce Bulifant ........ Suzanne
Alvin Epstein
Synopsis:
A sinister tale of adultery and murder among the
lower orders in nineteenth-century Paris. [RF]
2.25 [60] Play of the Week: THE WOODEN DISH
20Mar61
Adapted from the 1954 Edmund Morris play
starring
Martha Scott ....... Clara
Henry Hull ............ Pop
Lonny Chapman ......... Ed
Joseph Warren ......... Glenn
Ellen Geer ............ Susan
George Mathews ........ Floyd
Charlotte A. Jones .... Bessie
Roland Wood ........... Sam
Synopsis:
Clara and the father-in-law she has been trying to dislodge ever since she married
who is a tough, asthmatic old wreck combining all the pride and cunning of his age
with the simplicity of a baby. His son, Glenn, is tossed helplessly from one loyalty
to another, and Clara has grown desperate enough for anything, even an attempted
love affair with another man, anything to release her from this burden. When Pop
finally gives up the fight to remain in his son's home, it is left to his granddaughter, Susan,
to see with the compassion that only youth can feel for age, the true tragedy of his going. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
A woman with her own problems to face decides to put
her troublesome father in an old-age home. [RF]
2.26 [61] Play of the Week: A COOL WIND OVER THE LIVING
27Mar61
Written by Joseph LeSueur
starring
Diana Hyland
Carmen Mathews
J.D. Cannon
James Patterson
Synopsis:
Torn by love between two men, and overcoming a
crippling illness, she decides to remain alone. [RF]
2.28 [--] Play of the Week: WAITING FOR GODOT
03-April-1961
Executive producer Worthington Miner
Producer Jack Kuney
Directed by Alan Schneider
Written by Samuel Beckett
starring
Burgess Meredith ...... Vladimir
Zero Mostel ........... Estragon
Kurt Kasznar .......... Pozzo
Alvin Epstein ......... Lucky
Luke Halpin ........... The Boy
Barney Rosset ......... Publisher of the Grove Press
Milo O'Shea ........... Presenter
Synopsis:
Two tramps are waiting by a sickly looking tree for the arrival of M. Godot.
They quarrel, make up, contemplate suicide, try to sleep, eat a carrot and gnaw
on some chicken bones. Two other characters appear, a master and a slave,
who perform a grotesque scene in the middle of the play. A young boy arrives
to say that M. Godot will not come today, but that he will come tomorrow.
He does not come and the two tramps resume their vigil by the tree, which between
the first and second day has sprouted a few leaves, the only symbol of a possible
order in a thoroughly alienated world. [RF]
2.28 [63] Play of the Week: IN A GARDEN
10Apr61
Adapted from the 1925 Philip Barry play
starring
Roddy McDowall ........ Adrian Terry
George Grizzard ....... Bliss
Barbara Cook .......... Lissa
Christopher Hewitt .... Frederic
Laurie Main ........... Compton
Synopsis:
The story of Adrian Terry, a wealthy, fortyish playwright who has decided to
retire from writing plays. His jealous hack-writer friend Roger Compton insists that
Terry keep on writing, telling him he is a dramatist to the soles of his shoes. When
Terry demurs, Compton attempts to provoke him with an idea: he states that every
man's wife is another man's mistress. Compton then tells Terry that he has information
that Terry's young wife Lissa had a dalliance when she was a debutante with dashing
Ivy Leaguer Norrie Bliss, in a garden in Katonah. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
A great playwright wants to retire until a suspicion of his wife's
infidelity becomes a superb idea for a new play. [RF]
2.29 [64] Play of the Week: THE WINGLESS VICTORY
17Apr61
Adapted from the 1936 Maxwell Anderson play
starring
Hugh O'Brian .......... Nathaniel
Eartha Kitt ........... Oparre
Michael Tolan ......... Ruel
Cathleen Nesbitt ...... Mrs. McQueston
Tim O'Connor .......... Phineas
Gene Wilder ........... Happy
Jane Wyatt
Synopsis:
Set in 1800 Indian princess, rejected form white society, commits suicide
with her children after losing her husband's love.
Synopsis 2:
In 1800, a man returns to Massachusetts with a cargo of spices,
a fortune and a native wife and their children. [RF]
2.30 [65] Play of the Week: CLOSE QUARTERS
24Apr61
Adapted from the 1937 Gilbert Lennox
adaptation of the W.O. Simins play "Attentat"
starring
Richard Kiley
Patricia Jessel
Synopsis:
One apartment and two possible renters,
solves these unusual problem. [RF]
2.31 [66] Play of the Week: ALL SUMMER LONG
01May61
Adapted from the 1954 Robert Anderson play
Adapted from the Donald Wetzel novel, "A Wreath and A Curse"
starring
Philip Fox ............ Willie
Keir Dullea ........... Don
Betty Field ........... Mother
Henderson Forsythe .... Dad
Nina Wilcox ........... Ruth
James Olson ........... Harry
Synopsis:
Portrait of a complacent Midwestern family. Blustering father, bumbling mother,
brainless daughter, whose river bank house is threatened by erosion. Two brothers
work together to make retaining wall to save their home form the rising river. They fail,
the house crumbles, and the family has to flee for its life. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Young Willie's problems include parents he can't talk to
and a home he thinks will be swept away by flood waters. [RF]
############### Play of the Week
#############
################## the end #################
##############################################
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