18 episodes

American Playhouse - Season 9

First aired Jan 24, 1990Season 9

Browse all 18 episodes in this season, including available images, air dates, runtimes, ratings and episode summaries from TMDB.

Episodes

No episode image

Episode 1

Sensibility and Sense

NR
Jan 24, 1990137 min

Three friends, once bonded over their radical beliefs in the 1930s, reunite after becoming estranged over a book one of them wrote.

No episode image

Episode 2

Women and Wallace

NR
Jan 31, 199080 min

After his mother's suicide, Wallace Kirkman struggles in his relationships with the women in his life.

No episode image

Episode 3

The Wizard of Loneliness

NR
Feb 7, 1990111 min

After his mother dies and father goes to fight in World War II, young Wendall Oler moves in with his aunt and uncle in the countryside. Lonely, he starts believing he has superpowers. Then a 'dead' man shows up.

No episode image

Episode 4

Zora Is My Name!

NR
Feb 14, 199079 min

A celebration of the life of Zora Neale Hurston, who was born at the turn of the 20th-century and grew to be an important voice with her written portrayals of Black American life in the rural south of the 1930s and 40s, and the stories, songs and folklore that were her heritage and inspiration.

No episode image

Episode 5

In a Shallow Grave

NR
Feb 21, 199092 min

Disfigured WWII veteran Garnet Montrose returns from Guadacanal and enlists a drifter to court his former sweetheart through letters, leading to a complex love triangle with unexpected romantic developments.

No episode image

Episode 6

Andre's Mother

4.0
Mar 7, 199048 min3 votes

Katherine Gerard has lost her son Andre to AIDS. At his memorial service, we follow Katherine confronting the death of her son, the anguish of his lover Cal Porter, and, in flashbacks, the key moments of denial and miscommunication with those closest to her.

No episode image

Episode 7

The Wash

NR
Mar 21, 199094 min

Nobu Matsumoto is a neglectful husband. Not the most loving man. His wife Masi gradually encounters a widower, a kind, gentle figure. She eventually makes the transition to leave her husband and go to this fellow.

No episode image

Episode 8

Triple Play

NR
Mar 28, 199056 min

A trio of short films by Chanticleer Films and Columbia Pictures: Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (an older widower accidentally stumbles into a lively, eccentric male dance class in a desolate mall, finding a new lease on life); Teach 109 (futuristic surgeons practice their skill on androids designed to imitate patients, but Dr. Garrett sees this as pointless since she cares little about fake robotic patients; however, her latest patient changes her mind); and Homesick (a young boy named Sam navigates family changes during the 1920s).

No episode image

Episode 9

Break of Dawn

NR
Apr 11, 1990105 min

In 1930s Los Angeles, Mexican immigrant Pedro J. González becomes a pioneering Spanish-language radio star before being wrongly convicted and imprisoned at San Quentin.

No episode image

Episode 10

Prisoners of Inertia

NR
Apr 25, 199092 min

Indecisive newlyweds get into a series of misadventures while on a day trip from Manhattan to Hoboken, New Jersey.

No episode image

Episode 11

Eat a Bowl of Tea

NR
May 2, 1990102 min

An American-Chinese man brings over his wife from China to America, but the challenges of making a living and adjusting to a new life, plus the attentions of a gambler threaten their marriage.

No episode image

Episode 12

All God's Dangers

NR
May 9, 199088 min

Ned Shaw recounts his life as an illiterate Black tenant farmer born into a society of former slaves and slaveholders. The story ends in December 1932 when he courageously stood his ground against white deputy sheriffs who were attempting to seize a neighbor's livestock.

No episode image

Episode 13

Sidewalk Stories

NR
May 16, 1990102 min

A New York City street artist rescues a baby girl after her father is murdered. He then sets off to find the mother, but has to first learn how to care for the child. Ultimately, he ends up in a horse-drawn chase for the murderers.

No episode image

Episode 14

Bloodhounds of Broadway

NR
May 23, 199093 min

On New Year's Eve 1928, in the New York underworld, a gambler sells his body to science, a gangster needs a transfusion, and a gambler is on the run

No episode image

Episode 15

Where the Spirit Lives

NR
Jun 6, 199096 min

In 1937, a young First Nations girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations children to abandon their culture in order to be assimilated into white Canadian/British society. Taken to a boarding school where she's forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment, she has the support of one sympathetic white teacher.

No episode image

Episode 16

An Enemy of the People

NR
Jun 13, 199090 min

When a scientist learns that his town's lucrative springs present a serious health threat, the community refuses to listen to him.

No episode image

Episode 17

Separation

NR
Jun 27, 199080 min

When neurologically ill American actress Sarah calls emotionally crippled English playwright Joe, they begin a very special relationship conducted through trans-Antlantic phone calls. In order to face reality, both must overcome their conditions.

No episode image

Episode 18

Hyde in Hollywood

NR
Jul 6, 1990114 min

In 1939, closeted director/actor Julian Hyde finds himself targeted by vicious and unscrupulous attacks by a gossip column by the name of Hollywood Confidential.