NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service. American television anthology series of wide range of genres, from history and drama, to fantasy, and science fiction. Fiction novels, stories, stage plays, fairytales, and historic events are dramatized in each episode.
NET Playhouse is an American dramatic television anthology series produced by National Educational Television. NET subsequently merged with WNDT Newark, New Jersey to form WNET and was superseded by the Public Broadcasting Service. American television anthology series of wide range of genres, from history and drama, to fantasy, and science fiction. Fiction novels, stories, stage plays, fairytales, and historic events are dramatized in each episode.
Season 1 episodes
Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.
A production of Tennessee Williams's "Ten Blocks on the Camino Real," a one-act play upon which his full-length play, "Camino Real" was based. This allegorical drama is set in the plaza of a Latin American town, a sinister purgatory where laughing street cleaners cart away the dead. Kilroy, a young American ex-boxer with a failing heart, arrives in this nightmarish place.
Episode credits
Directed by Jack LandauWritten by Tennessee WilliamsGuest stars Tom Aldredge, Martin Sheen, Hurd Hatfield, Janet Margolin
Dustin Hoffman stars in Ronald Ribman's critically acclaimed off-Broadway drama and 1965 Obie Award for best play of the season. The story of a kind and good-hearted young landowner in 19th century Russia who, desperate for love and acceptance, sets out to find both, only to discover that if he had never lived at all it would have made no difference to anyone.
Episode credits
Written by Ronald RibmanGuest stars Dustin Hoffman, Charlotte Rae, Michael Tolan
The first hour of this four-part adaptation of Laurence Housman's drama focuses on Queen Victoria's accession to the throne and her conflict with Lord Melbourne, her Prime Minister and close friend. Melbourne brings up the question of marriage-but the Queen rejects his list of suitable bridegroom
Episode credits
Directed by Stuart LathamGuest stars Patricia Routledge, Joachim Hansen
"Victoria Regina: Summer," second of four-part adaptation of Lawrence Hous mans' Broadway hit about the life of England's Queen Victoria. Tonight: Prince Albert faces the problem of being married to a reigning monarch.
"Victoria Regina: Autumn," third of a four-part adaption of Lawrence Housman's Broadway hit about the life of England's Queen Victoria. In this episode: Prime Minister Disraeli clashes with the Queen.
"The Play of Daniel." Filmed at the Cloisters, NYC's Museum of Medieval Art, this 12th-century play dramatizes episodes in the life of the Old Testament hero Daniel. An English narrative by poet W. H. Auden supplements the original Latin and Old French text performed by the New York Pro Musica and the boys choir of New York City's Church of the Transfiguration.
Presented in French with English subtitles, The Theatre de la Mandragore Troupe wore masks and performed the Plautus play about a miser obsessed with his gold.
"The Amorous Flea," is a musical-comedy based on Molière's "School for Wives." The play follows the misadventures of an old man who has raised a young girl, in total ignorance of the ways of the world, so that she will make him a perfect wife. Adapted from the 1964 off-Broadway hit.
William Shakespeare's comic-story of mistaken identity follows the misadventures of two sets of long-lost twins is presented by Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company. Produced by the BBC.
Episode credits
Guest stars Ian Richardson, Barry MacGregor, Alec McCowen
The off-Broadway La Mama Experimental Theater Club, founded by Ellen Stewart presents three avant-garde works. The plays: 1. "Pavane," by Jean-Claude van Itallie, examines rituals of modern society. 2. "Fourteen Hundred Thousand," by Sam Shepard, involves a young couple and their in-laws. 3. "The Recluse," by Paul Foster, focuses on a demented old lady in an abandoned hospital.
Actors Fritz Weaver and Uta Hagen join the folk-singing Tarriers and Carolyn Hester for this adaptation of "The World of Carl Sandburg," which opened on Broadway in 1960. Sandburg, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, is a poet, historian, novelist and folklorist. Carolyn Hester and the Tarriers perform numbers from Sandburg's "The American Songbag,
Episode credits
Directed by Kirk BrowningWritten by Carl SandburgGuest stars Uta Hagen, Fritz Weaver
Roman Polanski directed this study of a clash between generations. On a weekend outing, two men find themselves pitted against each other in a tense psychological rivalry for the affections of the older man's wife.
Episode credits
Directed by Roman PolanskiWritten by Jerzy Skolimowski, Roman Polanski, Jakub GoldbergGuest stars Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka
A retired professor has returned to his estate to live with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. The estate originally belonged to his first wife, now deceased; her mother and brother still live there and manage the farm
Episode credits
Directed by Stuart BurgeWritten by Constance GarnettGuest stars Max Adrian, Robert Lang, Michael Redgrave
In 16th-century Spain, pressure is brought on Don Alvaro Dabo to take part in the conquest of the West Indies-but Don Alvaro, an anti-colonialist and religious mystic, resists all arguments. Adapted from the play by contemporary French novelist-playwright Henri de Montherlant.
Episode credits
Directed by Christopher MorahanWritten by Jonathan Griffin, Henry de MontherlantGuest stars John Le Mesurier
This BBC documentary-drama re-creates the Battle of Culloden (1746)-- the last battle fought on British soil. The final attempt to restore the house of Stuart to the throne of Scotland, England and Ireland culminated in the meeting (at Culloden) of an English army and the Highlander force, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.
Playwright-actor-director Peter Ustinov presents a satiric "improvisation on musical themes" with pianist Anthony Hopkins, and British satirists Dudley Moore and Bernard Keefe. Ustinov caricatures typical Russian, American, German and English composers with pen and piano, singing along with the wild musical themes he invents for each composer
Episode credits
Directed by Francis ColemanGuest stars Peter Ustinov, Dudley Moore, Antony Hopkins
A presentation of George Bernard Shaw's "Misalliance," a farce about love and the misunderstandings between family members. The visitors at the country home of a manufacturer find their lives changed by the sudden appearance of an outspoken Polish aviatrix.
Episode credits
Written by George Bernard ShawGuest stars Jacqueline Colson, Richard Dysart
"Sponono," by South African author Alan Paton, incorporates native songs and dances into its narrative-drama form. The story is about a black delinquent's clash with his white reformatory principal.
Episode credits
Written by Alan PatonGuest stars Cocky Tlhotlhalemaje
Britain's Sadler's Wells Opera Company performs Offenbach's popular, light opera. According to Greek myth, the poet Orpheus played beautiful music and loved his wife Eurydice so much that. when she died, he went into the infernal regions to reclaim her life. In Offenbach's satiric treatment of the legend, Orpheus is such a bore and his music is so wretched that Eurydice is glad to go to hell. Orpheus, on the other hand, is equally happy to be rid of her.
Episode credits
Directed by Wendy ToyeWritten by Ludovic Halévy, Hector CrémieuxGuest stars June Bronhill
A courtroom drama based on the court-martial of 10 HMS Bounty mutineers. The 10 seamen on trial all claim to have taken no part in the mutiny, but they may still be punished: The naval regulations of 1792 state that sailors who do not try to prevent a mutiny share equal guilt with active mutineers. Only one of two verdicts can be handed down: acquit or hang.
Episode credits
Directed by Cyril CokeWritten by Stanley MillerGuest stars John Hurt
This dramatization of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's master novel explores the conflicting feelings of guilt and superiority in a student who murders two old women and then tries to justify his crime.
Episode credits
Directed by Cyril CokeWritten by Stanley Miller, Fyodor DostoevskyGuest stars Peter Bowles, Liane Aukin
"Ballet Gala" features principal dancers from Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, London's Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet performing excerpts from Swan Lake, Don Quixote and Romeo and Juliet.
The first of an eight-part series focusing on life in England during the 1800's. Part 1: A young farmer and his wife face eviction unless they find a way to pay their rent.
Episode credits
Directed by Herbert WiseWritten by Gerald SavoryGuest stars John Wood, Michael Barrington
"The Victorians: The Ticket-of-Leave Man," a 19th-century detective story. Released from prison, a young man sets out to find the crook who framed him.
Episode credits
Directed by Stuart LathamWritten by Gerald Savory, Tom TaylorGuest stars John Wood, Michael Barrington
