Philco Television Playhouse
Twelfth Night
TV Flash files “Twelfth Night” as hour 21 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 1, episode 21, aired 1949-02-20, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E21: listed hour 21 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 21 of 45 in season 1. It aired 1949-02-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Story of Mary Surratt” (S01E20). Next is “St. Helena” (S01E22).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Viola, a young woman who disguises herself as a man to work as a page in the court of Count Orsino. Orsino is hopelessly in love with a woman named Olivia, and soon Viola finds herself hopelessly in love with Orsino. But Orsino thinks she's a man, and her predicament worsens when she realizes that Olivia has fallen in love with her.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Twelfth Night sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S01E21 is listed hour 21 of 256 — hour 21 of 45 in season 1, season 1 episode 21.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S01E21 air?
Twelfth Night aired 1949-02-20 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Marty (May 24, 1953, Rod Steiger) — the teleplay that became the anthology-to-Oscar dream — then sample other surviving Coe/Mann hours.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Philco Television Playhouse is Chayefsky's kitchen-sink live plays: ordinary lives, extraordinary telecasts, Marty with Rod Steiger before the Oscar film. Watch it now as the rise of intimate realist TV drama — Fred Coe's shop, Delbert Mann, and the anthology-to-Hollywood dream in one sponsor's title.
The close-up is a butcher's loneliness, not a gown — kitchen-sink light, live cameras, ordinary lives getting extraordinary writing. NBC's *Philco Television Playhouse* (1948–1955), 256 episodes across seven seasons, Fred Coe's shop, directors like Delbert Mann, Paddy Chayefsky's *Marty* telecast May 24, 1953 with Rod Steiger. A kitchen sink as an Oscar machine. The Philco/Goodyear tandem nights made anthology drama a dual-sponsor prestige ritual. The timeline can call domestic realism mid. The silhouette was a…