American Playhouse

- Season 1

(1982)

John Cheever's comedy of a supposedly kidnapped 5-year-old boy. At first the police aren't interested until a ransom note is discovered. Then the town goes into action to support the finding of Toby.

Hot-tempered Greek immigrant Andreas arrives in America in 1915. He finds work on a railroad, but soon gives his corrupt foreman Mekakis a savage beating. Making his way west across the country, Andreas eventually comes upon another railroad looking for workers. It turns out Mekakis has gone westward, too. He offers Andreas the only job suitable for him, a "moutain mover" on the suicide squad: He must grapple down the face of a cliff, position sticks of dynamite and then climb back up again before the lit fuses reach the explosive.

Based on the memoirs of Juan Nepomuceno Seguin, a soldier and politician born in San Antonio in the 19th century. He fought for the independence of Texas at the Alamo and became a highly respected politician to insure better living conditions for his people. Frustration arose when American ranchers move into the Texas flatlands bringing prejudice and bigotry against the Mexican populations.

From a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. Christopher Walken is a shy hardware store employee. But whenever he takes a part in a local amateur theater production, he becomes the part completely--while on stage. Susan Sarandon is new in town, a lonely itinerant telephone company employee. On a whim, she auditions for and gets the part of Stella to Walken's Stanley when the theater group does A Streetcar Named Desire. Before anyone realizes the growing affection between Helene and Stanley, she falls deeply in love with the sexy brute, not knowing what the real man is like.

The arrival in a small town of a stranger who calls himself 'Charles Dickens' makes a magical and lasting change in the lives of an imaginative 12-year-old boy and a loving young woman.

About the recently widowed lady Estelle Parsons who is selling all her belongings to start a new life. Estelle believes she has powers to see into the future and to conduct seances. She moves to a boarding house and interacts with the strange residents.

A unique award-winning tale of the African-American woman's journey in America.

"Perry Miller Adato's first attempt to combine documentary techniques with dramatic re-enactment. The film uses actor John Cullum both as himself and to play the young Sandburg in short dramatic sequences. In search of Sandburg, Cullum travels to the poet's native home, Galesburg, Illinois speaking with close friends and family of the writer. Through a remarkable recently discovered trove of period photographs of Galesburg, the small-town America of Sandburg's childhood - the horse carriages, the ice-man delivering ice, a Fourth of July celebration - is revived in ...

Ken Talley is 32, strong, goodlooking and a Vietnam vet with both legs shot off seven years earlier. He is somewhat cynical. His lover Jed is bigger and stronger, a gardner, a good listener. On Independence Day 1977 Ken's home in Lebanon Missouri is visted by the others. Much of their past relationships, pre- and post-Vietnam, must be pulled up and examined before any of them can decide their future.

Matt Dillon plays a young Jean Shepherd (author and narrator of A Christmas Story). Through Matt, Shep tells several humorous stories about his teen years in an Indiana steel town.

A woman suffering from terminal cancer determines to resolve several relationships in her life, especially with her daughter.

On a North Dakota wheat farm at the turn of the 20th century, Ray Sorenson builds his world around childhood sweetheart Inga. But then Ray sees his plans come apart when the bank forecloses on his family's farm.

A Medal of Honor-winning Vietnam veteran has difficulty readjusting to civilian life, and turns to a psychiatrist for help when he finds himself descending to robbery.

A musical adaptation of Studs Terkel's book celebrating the lives of everyday working-class people.

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A young soldier goes home to attend his mother's funeral just before being shipped out to serve in World War II.

A middle-aged Greek immigrant visits his native village, with his American-born son in tow. The older finds that the place he remembered as paradise on earth now seems like a desolate wasteland, while the son, who has mede this journey reluctantly, falls in love with his ancestral homeland.

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The retelling of an incident in Gonzales, Texas in 1901 revolving around a stolen horse, mistaken identity and a killing. An unusual story of the all too usual exploitation of the powerless in Texas History.