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The Best Episodes of American Playhouse Season 11

Every episode of American Playhouse Season 11 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of American Playhouse Season 11!

Binge this in 1d 0h•Peaking at 7.8/10

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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 3 - Fool's Fire
    7.8/10(172 votes)

    S11:E3

    A crippled dwarf is forced to become jester under a tyrannical king, but when the king abuses a beautiful dwarf with whom the jester is in love, the jester plots a terrible revenge.

    Director:Julie Taymor
    Writer:Julie Taymor

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  2. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 1 - Surviving Desire
    7.6/10(69 votes)

    S11:E1

    A literature professor falls for a student, leading to a relationship that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally fraught, paralleling the Dostoevsky-inspired themes he lectures on.

    Director:Hal Hartley
    Writer:Hal Hartley

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  3. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 5 - Daughters of the Dust
    7.6/10(36 votes)

    S11:E5

    In 1902, a Gullah family on the Sea Islands off South Carolina decide whether to migrate to the mainland, risking their unique cultural heritage.

    Director:Julie Dash
    Writer:Julie Dash

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  4. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 2 - The Feud
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E2

    In 1950s upstate New York, what begins as a trivial hardware store argument over a lit cigar and a non-smoking policy spirals into a bizarre, full-scale feud between neighboring communities. Despite growing tensions—and an eventual suspicious fire—the situation is heavily laced with dark comedy, as well as a Shakesperean-esque romance between the children of the warring sides.

    Director:Bill D'Elia
    Writers:Bill D'Elia, Robert Uricola

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  5. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 4 - Mrs. Cage
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E4

    Feeling insignificant, a housewife witnesses a murder in a parking lot, shoots the killer, and then turns herself in, leading to an interrogation that reveals her inner turmoil.

    Director:Robert Allan Ackerman
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 6 - Tales from Hollywood
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E6

    Young playwright Ödön von Horváth joins a colony of German artists who fled the Nazis in Los Angeles, observing their struggles and compromises.

    Director:Carlos Ávila
    Writers:Edit Villarreal, Carlos Ávila

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  7. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 7 - Strangers in Good Company
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E7

    A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.

    Director:Cynthia Scott
    Writers:Cynthia Scott, David Wilson, Sally Bochner, Gloria Demers

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  8. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 8 - 84 Charlie Mopic
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E8

    An Army cameraman is embedded with a reconnaissance patrol and charts their mission across territory controlled by the North Vietnamese.

    Director:Patrick Sheane Duncan
    Writer:Patrick Sheane Duncan

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  9. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 9 - Tru
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E9

    Isolated in his apartment, Truman Capote deals with the crisis of his friends turning on him following the publication of an excerpt from Answered Prayers.

    Directors:Kirk Browning, Jay Presson Allen
    Writer:Jay Presson Allen

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  10. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 10 - Thank You and Good Night
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E10

    Blending humor and tragedy, filmmaker Jan Oxenberg goes on a personal journey to process the aging and death of her grandmother.

    Director:Jan Oxenberg
    Writer:Jan Oxenberg

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  11. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 11 - Straight Out of Brooklyn
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E11

    Larry, a troubled teen living in the rough Red Hook section of Brooklyn, decides he wants out and turns to crime to fund his escape. But his plan involves scamming the neighborhood's biggest drug kingpin, a heist that's dangerous at best.

    Director:Matty Rich
    Writer:Matty Rich

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  12. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 12 - Fires in the Mirror
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E12

    Actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith performs a series of 29 different roles related to the Crown Heights riot in 1991. Anonymous and famous figures are portrayed by Smith, expressing pain and anger on the many sides of a conflict involving the Black and Jewish communities over an accident, a crime, and the riots.

    Director:George C. Wolfe
    Writer:Anna Deavere Smith

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  13. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 13 - In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E13

    Includes production meetings, rehearsals and performances, as well as interviews with New York cast members prior to the May 1993 Broadway opening of 'Millennium Approaches', the first half of the play.

    Director:Tom Bywaters
    Writer:Tom Bywaters

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  14. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 14 - La carpa
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E14

    Along the US–Mexico border, a young, shy laborer, after witnessing the tragic slaying of his best friend, is transformed by the spirit of a traveling Mexican carpa (tent theatre troupe).

    Director:Carlos Ávila
    Writers:Edit Villarreal, Carlos Ávila

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  15. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 15 - Porgy and Bess
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E15

    In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a Black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels via a goat-drawn cart, loves drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.

    Director:Trevor Nunn
    Writer:DuBose Heyward

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  16. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 16 - The Quarrel
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E16

    In 1948 Montreal, on Rosh Hashanah, writer Chaim Kovler is forced to reflect on his religion when asked to be the tenth in a minyan. At the park, he suddenly sees an old friend whom he hasn't seen since they quarrelled when they were at Yeshiva together. Hersh Rasseyner, a rabbi, survived Auschwitz and his faith was strengthened by the ordeal, while Chaim escaped the Nazis, but had lost his faith long before. The two walk, reminisce, and argue passionately about themselves, their actions, their lives, their religion, their old quarrel, and their friendship.

    Director:Eli Cohen
    Writer:David Brandes

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  17. American Playhouse Season 11 Episode 17 - Hallelujah
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S11:E17

    As Christmas at the Messiah Church in Washington D.C. approaches, a young preacher and, later in the day, a mysterious pregnant girl arrive at the church doors looking to begin new lives. Reverend Oliver Crawford is not the judgmental committee's first choice; an unwed father of a teenage son, he is given only two days to prove his worth. Meanwhile, pregnant 16-year-old Katherine has arrived in the area fleeing an abusive home and seeking a grandfather she doesn't know. With the help of local homeless advocate 'Big' Willie Thorton, Crawford attempts to revive the spirit of the church and provide solace to the displaced girl.

    Director:Charles Lane
    Writer:Michael Genet

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Season 11 Ratings Summary

"Fool's Fire" is the best rated episode of "American Playhouse" season 11. It scored 7.8/10 based on 172 votes. Directed by Julie Taymor and written by Julie Taymor, it aired on 3/25/1992. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Surviving Desire".