PBS·Drama / Comedy·1982–1996

American Playhouse

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Average season ratings show a negative trend over time.

Ended

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

6.4

Series rating

IMDb15 votes

Seasons

211

Episodes

-39%

All-time trend

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Highest rated

Best episodes

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Weekend

S1 · E15 · 1 votes

★ 10.0

Is this the best episode?

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The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket

S5 · E1 · 1 votes

★ 10.0

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Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine

S1 · E5 · 1 votes

★ 9.0

Golden era

Season 3

The peak run. Top 40% of seasons by average rating — consecutive, with an average of 8.00.

Lowest rated

Viewer's least favorites

Andre's Mother

S9 · E6 · 3 votes

★ 4.0

Fifth of July

S1 · E9 · 4 votes

★ 4.8

The Skin of Our Teeth

S2 · E1 · 1 votes

★ 7.0

Keep watching

Related shows

★7.7

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother

1976

Almost Lover

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The Shady Hill Kidnapping	Jan 12, 1982	0.0
2	King of America	Jan 19, 1982	0.0
3	Seguin	Jan 26, 1982	0.0
4	Who Am I This Time?	Feb 2, 1982	0.0
5	Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine	Feb 9, 1982	9.0
6	Come Along with Me	Feb 16, 1982	0.0
7	For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf	Feb 23, 1982	0.0
8	Echoes and Silences	Mar 2, 1982	0.0
9	Fifth of July	Mar 9, 1982	4.8
10	The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters	Mar 16, 1982	0.0
11	Pilgrim, Farewell	Mar 23, 1982	0.0
12	Northern Lights	Mar 30, 1982	0.0
13	Medal of Honor Rag	Apr 6, 1982	0.0
14	Working	Apr 13, 1982	0.0
15	Weekend	Apr 20, 1982	10.0
16	Private Contentment	Apr 27, 1982	0.0
17	My Palikari	May 4, 1982	0.0
18	Oppenheimer (1)	May 11, 1982	0.0
19	Oppenheimer (2)	May 18, 1982	0.0
20	Oppenheimer (3)	May 25, 1982	0.0
21	Oppenheimer (4)	Jun 1, 1982	0.0
22	Oppenheimer (5)	Jun 8, 1982	0.0
23	Oppenheimer (6)	Jun 15, 1982	0.0
24	Oppenheimer (7)	Jun 22, 1982	0.0
25	The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez	Jun 29, 1982	0.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The Skin of Our Teeth	Jan 18, 1983	7.0
2	Miss Lonelyhearts	Jan 25, 1983	7.0
3	Family Business	Feb 1, 1983	0.0
4	Keeping On	Feb 8, 1983	0.0
5	The File on Jill Hatch (1)	Feb 15, 1983	0.0
6	The File on Jill Hatch (2)	Feb 22, 1983	0.0
7	The File on Jill Hatch (3)	Mar 1, 1983	0.0
8	For Us, the Living: The Medgar Evers Story	Mar 22, 1983	0.0
9	Verse Person Singular	Mar 29, 1983	0.0
10	Until She Talks	Apr 5, 1983	0.0
11	Wings	Apr 26, 1983	0.0
12	The Rothko Conspiracy	May 3, 1983	0.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The Ghost Writer	Jan 17, 1984	8.0
2	Pudd'nhead Wilson	Jan 24, 1984	0.0
3	True West	Jan 31, 1984	0.0
4	Nothing But a Man	Feb 7, 1984	0.0
5	Popular Neurotics	Feb 14, 1984	0.0
6	The Cafeteria	Feb 21, 1984	0.0
7	Refuge	Feb 28, 1984	0.0
8	The Gin Game	Mar 6, 1984	0.0
9	Haunted (aka Vengeance Is Mine)	Mar 20, 1984	0.0
10	The Killing Floor	Apr 10, 1984	0.0
11	Heartland	Apr 17, 1984	0.0
12	City News	Apr 24, 1984	0.0
13	Hughie	May 1, 1984	0.0
14	Concealed Enemies, Part I: Suspicion	May 7, 1984	0.0
15	Concealed Enemies, Part II: Accusation	May 8, 1984	0.0
16	Concealed Enemies, Part III: Investigation	May 9, 1984	0.0
17	Concealed Enemies, Part IV: Verdict	May 9, 1984	0.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Testament	Nov 26, 1984	0.0
2	A Matter of Principle	Dec 3, 1984	7.0
3	Solomon Northup's Odyssey	Dec 10, 1984	0.0
4	Tomorrow	Dec 17, 1984	0.0
5	Go Tell It on the Mountain	Jan 14, 1985	0.0
6	Noon Wine	Jan 21, 1985	0.0
7	The Joy That Kills	Jan 28, 1985	7.0
8	Overdrawn at the Memory Bank	Feb 4, 1985	0.0
9	The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski	Feb 11, 1985	0.0
10	Some Men Need Help	Feb 18, 1985	0.0
11	Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom	Feb 25, 1985	0.0
12	Breakfast with Les and Bess	Mar 11, 1985	0.0
13	Nightsongs	Apr 15, 1985	0.0
14	Under the Biltmore Clock	Apr 25, 1985	0.0
15	Displaced Person	May 6, 1985	0.0
16	The Europeans	May 15, 1985	0.0
17	El Norte	May 20, 1985	0.0
18	Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1)	May 27, 1985	0.0
19	Three Sovereigns for Sarah (2)	Jun 3, 1985	0.0
20	Three Sovereigns for Sarah (3)	Jun 10, 1985	0.0
21	Paper Angels	Jun 15, 1985	0.0
22	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Jun 24, 1985	0.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket	Jan 20, 1986	10.0
2	The Roommate	Jan 27, 1986	0.0
3	Valentine's Revenge	Feb 3, 1986	0.0
4	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1)	Feb 10, 1986	0.0
5	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2)	Feb 17, 1986	0.0
6	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (3)	Feb 24, 1986	0.0
7	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (4)	Mar 3, 1986	0.0
8	Tell Me a Riddle	Mar 17, 1986	0.0
9	The Little Sister	Apr 7, 1986	0.0
10	The House of Ramon Iglesia	Apr 14, 1986	0.0
11	A Flash of Green	Apr 21, 1986	0.0
12	Damien	Apr 28, 1986	0.0
13	Rocket to the Moon	May 5, 1986	0.0
14	A Case of Libel	May 12, 1986	0.0
15	Painting Churches	May 19, 1986	0.0
16	Roanoak (1)	May 26, 1986	0.0
17	Roanoak (2)	Jun 2, 1986	0.0
18	Roanoak (3)	Jun 9, 1986	0.0
19	Sunday in the Park with George	Jun 16, 1986	0.0

American Playhouse

Best episodes

Season 3

Viewer's least favorites

Related shows

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother

Almost Lover

Be with You

Yozakura Quartet

Genshiken

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#	Episode	Air Date
1	All My Sons	Jan 19, 1987
2	The Prodigious Hickey	Jan 26, 1987
3	The Wide Net	Feb 2, 1987
4	Smooth Talk	Feb 9, 1987
5	A Mistaken Charity	Feb 16, 1987
6	Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart	Mar 2, 1987
7	Eleanor: In Her Own Words	Mar 9, 1987
8	The Innocents Abroad	Mar 23, 1987
9	Story of a Marriage: Courtship	Apr 13, 1987
10	Story of a Marriage: On Valentine's Day	Apr 13, 1987
11	Story of a Marriage: 1918	May 4, 1987
12	Charley's Aunt	May 11, 1987
13	Gal Young 'Un	May 18, 1987
14	The House of Blue Leaves	May 25, 1987
15	Blue Window	Jun 1, 1987
16	Dottie	Jun 8, 1987
17	Waiting for the Moon	Jun 15, 1987

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Strange Interlude, Part I	Jan 13, 1988
2	Strange Interlude, Part II	Jan 19, 1988
3	Strange Interlude, Part III	Jan 20, 1988
4	The Lawrenceville Stories, Part 2: The Return of Hickey	Feb 3, 1988
5	Lemon Sky	Feb 10, 1988
6	The Revolt of Mother	Feb 17, 1988
7	Pigeon Feathers	Feb 17, 1988
8	Billy Galvin	Feb 24, 1988
9	Journey Into Genius	Apr 6, 1988
10	Suspicion	Apr 13, 1988
11	The Trial of Bernhard Goetz	May 11, 1988
12	The Land of Little Rain	Jun 1, 1988
13	I Never Sang for My Father	Jun 15, 1988
14	Native Son	Jun 29, 1988
15	The Big Knife	Jul 27, 1988
18	Episode 18	TBA

#	Episode	Air Date
1	A Raisin in the Sun	Feb 1, 1989
2	Ask Me Again	Feb 8, 1989
3	Stacking	Feb 15, 1989
4	My American Cousin	Feb 22, 1989
5	Love and Other Sorrows	Mar 1, 1989
6	Stand and Deliver	Mar 15, 1989
7	The Silence at Bethany	Mar 22, 1989
8	The Lawrenceville Stories, Part 3: The Beginning of the Firm	Apr 5, 1989
9	Life Under Water	Apr 12, 1989
10	A Great Wall	Apr 15, 1989
11	The Diaries of Adam and Eve	Apr 26, 1989
12	The Meeting	May 3, 1989
13	A Walk in the Woods	May 10, 1989
14	Big Time	May 17, 1989
15	The Thin Blue Line	May 24, 1989
16	Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss	May 31, 1989
17	Imagining America	Jun 7, 1989
18	Belizaire the Cajun	Jun 14, 1989
19	Rachel River	Jun 21, 1989
20	Thousand Pieces of Gold	Nov 30, 1989

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Sensibility and Sense	Jan 24, 1990	0.0
2	Women and Wallace	Jan 31, 1990	0.0
3	The Wizard of Loneliness	Feb 7, 1990	0.0
4	Zora Is My Name!	Feb 14, 1990	0.0
5	In a Shallow Grave	Feb 21, 1990	0.0
6	Andre's Mother	Mar 7, 1990	4.0
7	The Wash	Mar 21, 1990	0.0
8	Triple Play	Mar 28, 1990	0.0
9	Break of Dawn	Apr 11, 1990	0.0
10	Prisoners of Inertia	Apr 25, 1990	0.0
11	Eat a Bowl of Tea	May 2, 1990	0.0
12	All God's Dangers	May 9, 1990	0.0
13	Sidewalk Stories	May 16, 1990	0.0
14	Bloodhounds of Broadway	May 23, 1990	0.0
15	Where the Spirit Lives	Jun 6, 1990	0.0
16	An Enemy of the People	Jun 13, 1990	0.0
17	Separation	Jun 27, 1990	0.0
18	Hyde in Hollywood	Jul 6, 1990	0.0

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Into the Woods	Mar 15, 1991
2	The Grapes of Wrath	Mar 22, 1991
3	Three Hotels	Mar 29, 1991
4	The Sunset Gang	Apr 5, 1991
5	Signs of Life	Apr 26, 1991
6	The End of a Sentence	May 3, 1991
7	O Pioneers!	May 15, 1991
8	Triple Play II	May 21, 1991
9	Hot Summer Winds	May 22, 1991
10	The Plot Against Harry	May 31, 1991
11	Darrow	Jun 7, 1991
12	The Hollow Boy	Jun 14, 1991
13	Misplaced	Jun 28, 1991
14	A Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz	Jul 26, 1991
15	Longtime Companion	Sep 29, 1991
16	Metropolitan	Dec 4, 1991

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Surviving Desire	Jan 22, 1992
2	The Feud	Feb 26, 1992
3	Fool's Fire	Mar 25, 1992
4	Mrs. Cage	May 20, 1992
5	Daughters of the Dust	Jul 22, 1992
6	Tales from Hollywood	Oct 19, 1992
7	Strangers in Good Company	Nov 11, 1992
8	84 Charlie Mopic	Nov 18, 1992
9	Tru	Nov 23, 1992
10	Thank You and Good Night	Nov 30, 1992
11	Straight Out of Brooklyn	Jan 20, 1993
12	Fires in the Mirror	Apr 28, 1993
13	In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway	Jun 11, 1993
14	La carpa	Jun 16, 1993
15	Porgy and Bess	Oct 6, 1993
16	The Quarrel	Nov 29, 1993
17	Hallelujah	Dec 22, 1993

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Tales of the City	Jan 10, 1994
2	Simple Men	Apr 4, 1994
3	Brother's Keeper	May 2, 1994
4	Long Shadows	Aug 26, 1994
5	Ethan Frome	Nov 16, 1994
6	Golden Gate	Nov 30, 1994

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Angels and Insects	Jan 2, 1995
2	Blown Sideways Through Life	Jul 19, 1995
3	Drawn from Memory	Oct 30, 1995
4	The Beans of Egypt, Maine	Aug 11, 1996
5	Passion	Sep 29, 1996
6	Episode 6	TBA