The Story on Page One

The Bergers, a blue-collar Jewish family living in an overstuffed tenement and undone by the Depression, struggle through hard times and dream of a better future in this 1972 production of Clifford Odets' pungent play. Personalities and politics clash as Odets' mélange of characters try to survive on pennies a day. Walter Matthau plays cynical World War I amputee Moe Axelrod, and Leo Fuchs portrays the family's iron-willed leftist grandfather.

In 1938 New York City, a dentist finds his business and marriage failing as he embarks on a love affair with a young dental assistant.

Frank Elgin's career in the theater is all washed up — but his friend Bernie thinks he can make a comeback, as long as his wife Georgie doesn't interfere.

Can Los Angeles of the 30’s be effectively placed alongside modern 21st century Los Angeles? As a true experiment, Awake and Sing mixes periods and genres taking pleasure not in easy solutions, but in the search for a form or way of telling that has to be tried out, discovered.

Playwright Clifford Odets' portrait of the Great Depression unfolds in the modest two-family home of Leo and Clara Gordon as misfortune strikes them and the people running with them. Opened on Broadway in 1935, it became one of the Group Theatre's most controversial plays and Odets' favorite.

New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disapproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method.

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.

An actor on the skids is given one more chance to regain his stardom, as well as his self-respect, yet his alcoholism may prevent that from happening.

A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.

Director Bernie Dodd hires alcoholic has-been actor Frank Elgin and strikes up a stormy relationship with the actor's wife Georgia.

An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband’s best friend.

Fictionalized biography of George Gershwin and his fight to bring serious music to Broadway.

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

Despite his talent as a musician, a city boy decides to become a boxer. He's successful as a fighter — much to the dismay of his father. When gangsters try to buy a piece of him, he begins to have second thoughts.

China, 1930s, during the ravaging civil war. General Pen entrusts O'Hara, an intrepid American adventurer, with the mission of providing a large sum of money to Mr. Wu with the task of buying weapons in Shanghai to help end General Yang's tyranny that keeps an entire province under his ruthless iron boot.

When an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop, they're both tempted to turn to crime to help make ends meet.