American Playhouse Season 4, Episode 1: Testament

A Matter of Principle

60 min

Solomon Northup's Odyssey

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.

60 min

Tomorrow

60 min

Go Tell It On the Mountain

60 min

Noon Wine

60 min

The Joy That Kills

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.

60 min

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski

Some Men Need Help

Charlotte Forten's Mission: Experiment in Freedom

Breakfast with Les and Bess

Nightsongs

Under the Biltmore Clock

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.

Displaced Person

The Europeans

El Norte

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part I

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part II

Three Sovereigns for Sarah: Part III

Paper Angels

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof