American Playhouse
Season 4
Anthology series which ran on PBS throughout the 1980s.
Where to Watch Season 4
22 Episodes
- A Matter of Principle
E2A Matter of PrincipleFlag Purdy, a "man of many principles" must learn the hard lesson of compromisation in order to keep his wife and children. The "final straw" comes when Flag's wife and children bring a Christmas tree into his house. Flag's principles will not allow such extravagances, and he destroys the tree. The next morning Flag's wife, Ada, and the children are gone. Flag learns his lesson in time for Christmas, and as Ada says, "A man with as many principles as Flag, some of them are bound to be wrong.". - Solomon Northup's Odyssey
E3Solomon Northup's OdysseySolomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984 and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free. - Noon Wine
E6Noon WineOn a hot day in Texas in the the 1890s, a stranger shows up at the small dairy farm of Royal and Ellie Thompson. He asks for work and is hired. He's a taciturn, English-speaking Swede from North Dakota; he's competent, strong, and good at farming and dairying. The years pass, the farm flourishes. Then one day a second stranger, also from North Dakota, Homer Hatch, arrives and lives are changed in ways no-one could have imagined. - Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom
E11Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in FreedomDrama based on the true story of Charlotte Forten, a young black woman who became an integral part of President Lincoln's "great experiment." During the Civil War, Southern troops were forced off the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia, which left 8,000 slaves as free. Miss Forten's mission was to journey south to Sea Island and lead those slaves in the transition from slavery to freedom, where she sought to give newly freed black children a decent education and chance for a better life - Under the Biltmore Clock
E14Under the Biltmore ClockIn 1915 Chicago, 21-year-old Myra Harper sets her sights on the wealthy and reserved Knowleton Whitney to get him to marry her. All goes well, but later when Myra gets to meet his wacky parents, it turns out to be much harder for Myra than simply landing the man of her dreams. - The EuropeansE16
The EuropeansAn adaptation of the novel about the Countess Eugenia and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, she hopes to make an advantageous marriage with one of their wealthy cousins. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit. - El NorteE17
El NorteBrother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It s a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava's groundbreaking El Norte (The North), the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival, which critic Roger Ebert called a Grapes of Wrath for our time.
