American Playhouse - Season 4
1 - Testament
Air Date: November 26, 1984
2 - A Matter of Principle
Air Date: December 3, 1984
3 - Solomon Northup's Odyssey
Air Date: December 10, 1984
Solomon Northup's Odyssey, reissued as Half Slave, Half Free, is a 1984 American television film based on the autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film, which aired on PBS, was directed by Gordon Parks with Avery Brooks starring as the titular character. It was the second film to be funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, following Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in 1982. Parks returned to direct the film after years of absence. He chose to work in the Deep South and to collaborate with a crew of mixed races. The film first aired on PBS on December 10, 1984 and as part of PBS's American Playhouse anthology television series in the following year. It was released on video under the title Half Slave, Half Free.
4 - Tomorrow
Air Date: December 17, 1984
5 - Go Tell It On the Mountain
Air Date: January 14, 1985
6 - Noon Wine
Air Date: January 21, 1985
7 - The Joy That Kills
Air Date: January 28, 1985
The Joy that Kills is a 1984 television film adaptation of Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour." It was directed by Tina Rathborne and co-written by Rathbone and Nancy Dyer. It was released in 1984 as a part of the PBS series American Playhouse.
8 - Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
Air Date: February 4, 1985
9 - The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski
Air Date: February 11, 1985
10 - Some Men Need Help
Air Date: February 18, 1985
11 - Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom
Air Date: February 25, 1985
12 - Breakfast with Les and Bess
Air Date: March 11, 1985
13 - Nightsongs
Air Date: April 15, 1985
14 - Under the Biltmore Clock
Air Date: April 25, 1985
F. Scott Fitzgerald's comedy of a stylish young flapper (Sean Young) who chooses a husband (Lenny Von Dohlen), but finds she can't compete with his family.
15 - Displaced Person
Air Date: May 6, 1985
16 - The Europeans
Air Date: May 15, 1985
17 - El Norte
Air Date: May 20, 1985
18 - Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I
Air Date: May 27, 1985
19 - Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part II
Air Date: June 3, 1985
20 - Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part III
Air Date: June 10, 1985
21 - Paper Angels
Air Date: June 15, 1985
22 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Air Date: June 24, 1985