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American Playhouse

Season 3 · 17 episodes · Jan 17, 1984

  1. Episode 1

    The Ghost Writer

    Jan 17, 1984

    Aspiring writer Nathan Zuckerman visits the secluded home of his literary idol, E.I. Lonoff. While there, Zuckerman becomes entangled in the author's complex domestic life and becomes captivated by a mysterious young woman.

  2. Episode 2

    Pudd'nhead Wilson

    Jan 24, 1984

    A slave switches her light-skinned baby with her master's baby. The child grows up raised by whites.

  3. American Playhouse season 3 episode 3 still

    Episode 3

    True West

    Jan 31, 1984

    Estranged brothers, screenwriter Austin and drifter Lee, clash while staying at their mother's house in suburban Southern California, leading to a chaotic role reversal that explores themes of identity, family, and the American Dream.

  4. Episode 4

    Nothing But a Man

    Feb 7, 1984

    Railroad laborer Duff Anderson struggles to maintain his dignity and marriage to a preacher's daughter in the racially segregated South.

  5. American Playhouse season 3 episode 5 still

    Episode 5

    Popular Neurotics

    Feb 14, 1984

    Two young urban professionals, Lynne and Murray, meet by happenstance and begin an on-again, off-again relationship in which they struggle to transcend modern-day neuroses concerning courtship.

  6. Episode 6

    The Cafeteria

    Feb 21, 1984

    Esther Mirkin, a traumatized Holocaust survivor, frequents a Manhattan cafeteria where she meets Aaron, a Jewish writer, who tries to uncover the ghosts of her past.

  7. Episode 7

    Refuge

    Feb 28, 1984

    On a remote island off the coast of Maine, four people attempt to relax but the isolated refuge fails to protect them from their own insecurities and jealousies.

  8. Episode 8

    The Gin Game

    Mar 6, 1984

    Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey reside at a nursing home, and they strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy, and engage in lengthy conversations about their families and their lives in the outside world.

  9. Episode 9

    Haunted (aka Vengeance Is Mine)

    Mar 20, 1984

    A recently divorced woman returns to her dysfunctional Rhode Island family home and gets involved in drama with her neighbors.

  10. Episode 10

    The Killing Floor

    Apr 10, 1984

    During World War I, a poor black Southerner travels north to Chicago to get work in the city's slaughterhouses, where he becomes embroiled in the organized labor movement.

  11. Episode 11

    Heartland

    Apr 17, 1984

    Miraculous occurrences happen to people throughout the world every day. God's Miracles presents personal experiences as well as unvarnished scientific and factual evidence, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to whether it is possible for God to grant miracles.

  12. Episode 12

    City News

    Apr 24, 1984

    The struggles of Tom Domino, publisher and editor of a seemingly doomed, underground newspaper in New York City's East Village are chronicled in this dark comedy.

  13. Episode 13

    Hughie

    May 1, 1984

    In the lobby of a small hotel in midtown New York, small-time hustler Erie Smith talks to the hotel's new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting how Smith's luck has worsened since the death of Hughie, Hughes' predecessor.

  14. Episode 14

    Concealed Enemies, Part I: Suspicion

    May 7, 1984

    A dramatized account of the actual events that led to the 1950 conviction of former U. S. State Department official Alger Hiss of perjury before a federal grand jury and his resulting imprisonment.

  15. Episode 15

    Concealed Enemies, Part II: Accusation

    May 8, 1984

    A dramatized account of the actual events that led to the 1950 conviction of former U. S. State Department official Alger Hiss of perjury before a federal grand jury and his resulting imprisonment.

  16. Episode 16

    Concealed Enemies, Part III: Investigation

    May 9, 1984

    A dramatized account of the actual events that led to the 1950 conviction of former U. S. State Department official Alger Hiss of perjury before a federal grand jury and his resulting imprisonment.

  17. Episode 17

    Concealed Enemies, Part IV: Verdict

    May 9, 1984

    A dramatized account of the actual events that led to the 1950 conviction of former U. S. State Department official Alger Hiss of perjury before a federal grand jury and his resulting imprisonment.