Letter to Loretta Season 1, Episode 12: Laughing Boy

Trial Run

The first episode of the series, explaining the letter anthology format. A shop girl is courted by a man whose family looks down upon her, so she feigns crassness to teach them a lesson. One of a few episodes with a laugh track.

The Mirror

A spoiled and selfish woman goes without her husband to a vacation home and is tormented by a woman escaped from a mental institution which makes her confront her own mental challenges.

Prisoner at One O'Clock

A young man is accused of murder in a small Western town, but the sheriff's wife believes him innocent, while the townspeople form a mob to storm the jail.

Girl on a Flagpole

A teacher publicly opposes a candidate, only to be romanced by him, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend.

Turn of the Card

A shipboard con artist falls for his mark.

Earthquake

A man using an iron lung who has lost hope regains his will through the efforts of his wife to keep him breathing when an earthquake causes a power failure.

The One That Got Away

The glowing, tiresome reminisces of a wife and mother about her now-famous former beau and his devotion to her comes to a head.

Kid Stuff

Two widowed parents fall in love but feel their relationship might be hampered by their lively young children.

The Bronte Story

Charlotte Bronte struggles to cope with her controlling and oppressive father even as it interferes with her courtship with and marriage to Arthur Nicholls.

Thanksgiving in Beaver Run

The kidnapping of a boy by young toughs takes an unexpected turn when one of the hoodlums befriends the boy.

Love Story

An aspiring actress falls in love with a clown and marries him, but then she's ashamed to be publicly associated with him.

30 min

The Faith of Chata

A little girl in a Mexican village falls desperately ill and places her faith in God through her patron saint, regardless of whether she survives or not.

The Night My Father Came Home

Charming holiday story about a small boy who frequents a postal station, chatting incessantly with a disillusioned laborer.

Hotel Irritant

Corporate hotel snoop Sally Webster creates unpleasant situations in a hotel to test its operation while becoming impressed with the character and ambition of hotel clerk Newton Ralston.

30 min

Inga

Indomitable Inga Helborg convinces a bank president to conditionally reverse the foreclosure of the family farm and takes labor from the prison farm by which both actions she successfully demonstrates her resolute and trusting nature.

Lady Killer

A mystery writer discovers she is marked for death.

30 min

Secret Answer

A spirited wife challenges the stodgy attitudes of researcher husband by refusing to respond to one of his survey questions: "If you had it to do all over again, would you marry the same person?"

Big Little Lie

Beverly Washburn plays a lonely schoolgirl whose decision to start a rumor about her mother turns into classroom blackmail. Jeannette Nolan portrays her stern Aunt.

The Hollywood Story

Madge Mason based on her prowess as a local actress in a small Iowa town goes to Hollywood and meets with only modest success but when it appears she is on verge of major success she has second thoughts about the price of fame.

A Family Out of Us

The son of an affluent couple, whose father has little time for him, joins the Cub Scouts.

Act of Faith

Eddie Albert plays a mild-mannered soul whose happy marriage to an earthy woman seems to be coming to an end.

The New York Story

A glamorous mother and wife who dallies with other men's attention takes her own husband and son for granted. Clever opening schoolroom sequence in which the moms comment in theirs heads about each other. The climax in which the woman's mind races with impending terror about her son's lateness might seem melodramatic, but it's all too real for many of us who worry about loved ones. Mabel Albertson of "Bewitched" and so many other series plays the PTA spokesperson.

Nobody's Boy

Fictionalized story of a Chicago juvenile delinquent who meets Jack Robbins, founder of the BBR, a boy's club that still exists today. A familiar face in one scene is the ubiquitous Argentina Brunetti, to whom Dean Martin sang "That's Amore" in "The Caddy." At the end of the story, Young introduces actor Chick Chandler and the real-life Jack Robbins.

The Count of Ten

Tiger Tipton retired from a successful boxing career at his wife's insistence. Now broke from her expensive medical care, he arranges one last fight with the champ, but he can't let his wife find out.

The Clara Schumann Story

The great composer and his concert pianist wife, whose seemingly idyllic marriage descends into mental breakdown.

Son, This is Your Father

Flashbacks tell the story of a charming but irresponsible ex-husband who re-enters the lives of his wife and son. The father/son relationship is similar to that of Gloria's son and her first husband on the series, "Modern Family." In this episode, Young's character's name is "Ginger," a decade before her co-star, Alan Hale Jr., addressed Tina Louise by the name on "Gilligan's Island."

The First Man to Ask Her

Offbeat comic tale of a sheltered young woman whose house is turned upside down by an eccentric lady, her cowboy son -- and his horse. Jock Mahoney makes the first of his many appearances in the series, playing nephew "Andy" to Frances Bavier, who would ironically play Aunt Bee to Andy Griffith less than a decade later.

Man's Estate

Profile of a teenager who wants to be treated as an adult.

Forest Ranger

A forest ranger's wife unknowing allows into her house an escaped convict who seeks revenge on her husband.

The Enchanted Schoolteacher

A near-sighted, reclusive teacher is romanced by the father of her shyest pupil and discovers what she's been missing.

The Judgment

A woman is plagued by guilt when her politician husband killed a pedestrian in a car accident. Instead of taking responsibility, he was elated to see someone else arrested and blamed for it.

Oh, My Aching Heart

Nora is hired as a secretary under the condition that she disguise herself to be old and unattractive, so as not to distract her boss. When her boss has need to drop in to Nora's home, he is taken with the young lady he finds there, who claims to be Nora's sister.

Dear Midge

Midge is an unmarried social worker with an overactive imagination, including having a curmudgeonly fairy to guide her. Her fairy gets her into sticky situations, and she is afraid of making a poor impression on her attractive neighbor.

Something Always Happens

A young widow's beau won't marry her until he establishes some financial capital, so she deceives him into believing he won a $5000 raffle.

Lady in Wet Paint

A new teacher in a remote Native American community struggles to get children out of work and into school, and she ends up instigating a strike against the local farmer who employs most of the natives.