American Playhouse - Season 5

First aired: 1/20/1986 19 episodes

Episodes

1. The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket

Aired: 1/20/1986

A young boy is ridiculed by his schoolmates for his eccentric behavior and assertions that he can fly. Little do they know...

2. The Roommate

Aired: 1/27/1986

In 1952, two polar opposites at Northwestern University are assigned to the same dorm room.

3. Valentine's Revenge

Aired: 2/3/1986

A convict serving five years writes stories under the name 'O. Henry'. He encounters a convicted safecracker and is inspired to write the story of Jimmy Valentine, a man invincible in the art of cracking safes.

4. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1)

Aired: 2/10/1986

Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.

5. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (2)

Aired: 2/17/1986

Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.

6. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (3)

Aired: 2/24/1986

Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.

7. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (4)

Aired: 3/3/1986

Huckleberry Finn, a rambunctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River.

8. Tell Me a Riddle

Aired: 3/17/1986

Aging couple David and Eva have lost the spark that once infused their marriage. After nearly four decades together, the elderly duo is feel disconnected and lost. When they discover that Eva is sick, they decide to travel across the country to stay with their granddaughter in San Francisco. On the trip, with Eva's possible death looming, the couple rediscovers the passion and love that had been missing from their lives.

9. The Little Sister

Aired: 4/7/1986

A Boston probation officer tries to help a troubled teenager from a rich Boston family.

10. The House of Ramon Iglesia

Aired: 4/14/1986

Ramón Iglesias plans to retire from his janitorial job, sell his house in a Long Island suburb and return to Puerto Rico with his wife and three sons. Unfortunately, he doesn't hold the deed to his house which was purchased through a verbal agreement, harping back to a different cultural tradition involving codes of honor and community.

11. A Flash of Green

Aired: 4/21/1986

Jimmy Wing is a Florida journalist and long-time friend of Elmo Bliss, a local businessman and politician involved in real-estate development. Bliss reveals his ruthless side, threatening Wing when the reporter becomes close to beautiful wildlife conservationist Kat Hubble, one of a group of ecologists that stands in the way of a new landfill. While Wing clashes with Bliss, his life complicates further as his romance with Hubble progresses.

12. Damien

Aired: 4/28/1986

Father Damien de Vuester, a 19th-century Roman Catholic priest who worked with lepers confined to the island of Molokai, discusses his experiences.

13. Rocket to the Moon

Aired: 5/5/1986

In 1938 New York, a dentist finds his business failing and his marriage on the rocks. Turning 40, he's a henpecked husband with little drive left for success. That is, until he starts getting involved with his lively assistant, a free spirit with a penchant for tall tales and a hidden loneliness. Receiving encouragement from his own father-in-law, the two find comfort in each other's attention.

14. A Case of Libel

Aired: 5/12/1986

A former World War II reporter gets a lawyer and takes a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist to court.

15. Painting Churches

Aired: 5/19/1986

Gardner and Fanny Church prepare to move out of their Beacon Hill home to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Once a famous poet, the now-retired Gardner slips in and out of senility as his wife valiantly tries to keep them both afloat. They've asked their daughter, Mags, to come home and help them move. Mags agrees, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait. She is now on the verge of artistic celebrity herself and hopes, by painting her parents, to reconcile.

16. Roanoak (1)

Aired: 5/26/1986

In 1584, a small band of Englishmen reached Roanoak Island off the coast of North Carolina, set up camp, and make contact with the residing Native Americans, calling on them for help in an attempt to live peacefully as they trade for the profit of both sides.

17. Roanoak (2)

Aired: 6/2/1986

18. Roanoak (3)

Aired: 6/9/1986

19. Sunday in the Park with George

Aired: 6/16/1986

The days leading up to the completion of his most famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat is struggling to make meaningful art and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Dot. Amid the scorn of the artistic community, Seurat's artistic ability thrives while his love diminishes. A century later, Seurat's descendant – named George and also an artist – finds himself burnt out and in search of what artistic path to follow, but he finds the answer to his future in the past.