Playhouse 90

'Playhouse 90' was an exceptionally good anthology series, which consistently offered the most prestigious actors, directors and scriptwriters available in America at the time, combining their talents to create 90-minute dramas. (Hence the title of the series.) This posting is specifically about 'A Town Has Turned to Dust', an original drama by Rod Serling which aired as the 'Playhouse 90' episode for 19 June 1958.

In August 1955, a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till, from a black working-class neighbourhood in Chicago, went to visit relatives in a deeply segregated small town in Mississippi. He made the mistake of speaking disrespectfully to a white townswoman. Two days later, Till was abducted by white men. His mutilated corpse was later found in the Tallahatchie River. This lynching attracted national attention. Two men were arrested and charged with Till's murder, but were acquitted at trial after the defence attorney explicitly urged the all-white jury to be faithful to their Anglo-Saxon heritage.

'A Town Has Turned to Dust', written by Rod Serling, was intended to be an indictment of the entire Emmett Till affair. Serling's original script followed the facts closely, only changing the name of the town in the Deep South, and the names of key individuals. A few fictional details were added. In the real-life case, Emmett Till's abductors made no attempt to conceal their identities; in Serling's script, the men are described as wearing hoods over their heads. Unfortunately, the TV network's censors had conniption fits when they read this script. The network became afraid of 'offending' their sponsors or viewers. One after another, all the most salient details of Serling's script were changed in order to make the material 'safe' and inoffensive.

To avoid offending Southerners, the town in Serling's script was relocated to New England. (So it's all right to offend New Englanders, then.) The reference to 'hooded' abductors was taken out of the script, for fear of offending the Ku Klux Klan. (Heaven forbid we should offend the Klan.) Serling was required to alter the dialogue so that references to 'hoods' became 'homemade masks'. (How many grown men wear homemade masks?) Worst of all, the victim of the abduction -- originally a black teenage boy -- was changed to a white boy with a speech impediment. The script that had been an indictment of racism and lynch law was now a character study about bigots who killed a boy merely because he stammered! These changes sound laughable, but Serling was (understandably) outraged. At very nearly the last minute, the script was altered even more ... relocating the action to a southwestern border town, and changing the victim and a few other characters to stereotypical Mexicans.

'A Town Has Turned to Dust' does feature an excellent cast, including Rod Steiger in the lead role, and a supporting performance by William Shatner: this at a time when Shatner was still considered a respected actor rather than an outrageous ham. Shatner gives a reasonably restrained performance here, although he does seem to spend rather much time flexing his immense biceps in a short-sleeved shirt. Less impressive is the shrill Fay Spain as the wife of the lynch mob's leader.

In later years, Rod Serling gave many interviews in which he spoke bitterly about network censorship of his scripts. Although he never (to my knowledge) specifically cited 'A Town Has Turned to Dust', nevertheless this script received more corporate interference than any of Serling's other projects. Serling's ordeal on this project was directly responsible for his decision to create a TV series devoted to science fiction and fantasy: Serling believed that teleplays which took place in the far future, on distant planets, would be less likely to incur interference than scripts which took place in the here and now. Although we might resent the decisions of the censors who bowdlerised Serling's script about the Emmett Till incident, the fact remains that -- were it not for the interference of those censors -- Serling might never have been provoked into creating his wonderful series 'The Twilight Zone'.

Playhouse 90 featured some of the best that Television has ever presented. The dialogue, the acting, and of-course the writing are unparalleled.

Rod Sterling being one of the most accomplished and notable writers who worked on the series, won an Emmy for Requiem for a Heavyweight in the series first season in 1956. This episode was a testament to the quality and creativity that Playhouse 90 was committed to.

Unfortunately, we can only hope with extreme futility, for quality on par with Playhouse 90 from todays Hollywood. However, there is reminisce of this type of excellent writing from Independent filmmakers. Unfortunately, the independent filmmakers receive little fanfare and far less hype compared to their Hollywood counterparts.

"Playhouse 90" came as the grand finale of that elusive TV genre which precedes even my 44 years on this earth: the dramatic anthology. Prior to this one, anthology programs had existed on the infant medium for almost a decade. The networks had KRAFT TELEVISION THEATRE, FORD THEATRE, GOODYEAR PLAYHOUSE, and STUDIO ONE as early as 1948. They all had the same common goal: presentation of self-contained, live, dramatic stories, their quality rivaled only by the best of the Broadway stage. (It was no coincidence that many of these dramas were produced in New York.) While all previous series were only 30 and 60 minute episodes, P90 introduced something new: its show was done in the "Television City" studio in Hollywood, and it was a lavish, unheard of, *90* minutes. In those days a live play could exist on a sound-stage without a studio audience with intimate, claustrophobic, camera set-ups, and present over a span of 90 minutes, "The Plot To Kill Stalin;" "Bomber's Moon;" "Bitter Heritage;" "Requiem For A Heavyweight;" "No Time At All," "The Comedian," "The Helen Morgan Story," "Judgment At Nuremberg," and "The Miracle Worker" straight through, without second takes, and on a week-by-week basis!! Stories were adaptations by Hemingway and Faulkner, as well as originals by Reginald Rose, J.P. Miller, and Rod Serling- all with stellar actors and directors. Eventually some productions were filmed in kinescope or on location as TV-movies, but the productions I'd kill to see are the ones which initiated the first ever videotape. Because videotape was not up and running until late 1957, the P90 archive of plays is uneven. Most of the museum archive is still on kinescope (which you can see at one of the two MT&R television museums on the coast of your choice), but the good news is that many plays from the last two years of the series were captured on glorious black-and-white videotape- the medium which comes closest to simulating the original live broadcast. A CBS special in 2002 dusted off some of these tapes and aired- probably only for the second time ever- clips of 1958's "The Old Man" and "Days of Wine And Roses," 1959's "Judgment at Nuremberg," and the final P90 from 1960, "In The Prescence of Mine Enemies." I suspect, sadly, that these show quality tapes are probably tied up in copyright laws and cannot be shown publicly. The series was a short, brilliant blaze of Emmy-winning glory, and came to a crashing halt in 1961- one year before I was born. I miss it.

This was the jewel in the crown of the golden age of television, the fifties and early sixties. This show had the best actors, the best directors, and the best writers. Many of these were on kinescope and are available somewhere, in a vault somewhere, or happily for the rest of us, at the Museum of television and radio. Some of the shows I have seen are The Comedian, with Mickey Rooney as a beloved comedian, who is a vulture in real life (kind of a similar story to A Face in the Crowd). It is one of Rooney's best performances. There is also the beautiful Requiem for a Heavyweight, with wonderful performances by Jack Palance, Ed and Keenan Wynn, and Kim Hunter. It is probably the best known of these shows. Also there is Days of Wine and Roses, with shattering, brilliant work by Piper Laurie, Cliff Robertson, and especially Charles Bickford. It equally comparable to the film. And recently I have been able to see A Sound of Different Drummers with Diana Lynn and Sterling Hayden. It is a story about a future society where books are banned; book owners are killed. It is sort of similar to Farenheit 451; it is very good, with touching performances by both stars. The best one of all that I have seen is The Miracle Worker. I was so excited that a copy exists. It is equally comparable to the film and features an outstanding, Emmy nominated performance by Teresa Wright as Annie Sullavan. She should have gotten the Emmy, and been able to continue her role in the stage and film versions, all respects to the wonderful Anne Bancroft though! It is the best of her many fine fifties televsion performances and right up there with A Shadow of a Doubt and The Little Foxes in terms of her best performances of all time. Several of these shows are available on VHS, too bad they all aren't!

On Oct. 11, 1956, the second episode of Playhouse 90 was aired. It was Requiem for a Heavyweight by Rod Serling, starring Jack Palance. It was another masterpiece from the golden age of television. Luckily, Requiem was recorded as kinescope. The recording quality is poor, but the play was and is drama at its best. If you can find Requiem at your local video store and you like great drama, please watch it. You will not be disappointed.