Frank T. Wells

Summertime on the coast of Maine, "In the Bedroom" centers on the inner dynamics of a family in transition. Matt Fowler is a doctor practicing in his native Maine and is married to New York born Ruth Fowler, a music teacher. His son is involved in a love affair with a local single mother. As the beauty of Maine's brief and fleeting summer comes to an end, these characters find themselves in the midst of unimaginable tragedy.

Father Michael McKinnon goes from the UK to Boston circa 1935. For unknown reasons, he avoids at all costs the most prominent parishioners, Arthur and Eleanor Barret. Meanwhile Eleanor and Arthur desperately want to have a child, but Arthur is sterile, so they hire Harvard law student Roger Martin to impregnate Eleanor, but unfortunately Roger falls in love with her.

When an urban family moves to a rural New England town with secrets, little do they know that their new house holds a history of tragic sorrow.

In South Boston, where Irish roots run deep and Catholic tradition reigns, two brothers face similar hardships but lead far different lives. While older brother Terry descends into drugs and crime, 16-year-old Cole vies to make the state baseball championships - but must struggle to withstand his brother's destructive influence.

After his mother dies and father goes to fight in World War II, a young boy moves in with his aunt and uncle who live in the countryside. Lonely and unhappy, he starts believing he has super powers. Then a "dead" man shows up.

Dumped by her loser boyfriend, Erin's love life hits rock bottom when her overbearing mother places an embarrassing ad in the "personals" section of a local newspaper on her behalf. Erin's disgust turns to curiosity as she searches for the right guy in a hilarious series of disastrous dates. Meanwhile, a lonely ex-plumber named Alan clumsily searches for his dream job while narrowly missing one chance meeting with Erin after another.

In 1839, the slave ship Amistad set sail from Cuba to America. During the long trip, Cinque leads the slaves in an unprecedented uprising. They are then held prisoner in Connecticut, and their release becomes the subject of heated debate. Freed slave Theodore Joadson wants Cinque and the others exonerated and recruits property lawyer Roger Baldwin to help his case. Eventually, John Quincy Adams also becomes an ally.

From Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story) comes the story of 14 year old Ralphie's first job, and the family vacation the family is planning to a rustic fishing cabin on Lake Michigan. Originally made for the Disney Channel, this film is a delightful family comedy.

The management of a ski resort blatantly ignores a local expert's warning that a mass of snow has build up which is just waiting to come down the ski slopes in a terrible avalanche. Instead of clearing the endangered area, skiers are allowed to remain 'for the rest of the day'. Nature doesn't wait till after business hours, so the crystallized wave rushes down and crushes everything on its path, including a brand new hotel; among the guests is the architect Michael Cooper's own family, which now tries to remember the plans well enough to find the way out, as he tries to instruct the rescue operation above, where a second, even larger avalanche is expected.

In a tiny summer community on Cape Cod the houses sit boarded up and vacant for eight months of the year. Or do they?

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.