Philco Television Playhouse
The Druid Circle
TV Flash files “The Druid Circle” as hour 23 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 1, episode 23, aired 1949-03-06, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E23: listed hour 23 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 23 of 45 in season 1. It aired 1949-03-06 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “St. Helena” (S01E22). Next is “Quality Street” (S01E24).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
An embittered professor comes near to wrecking the lives of a young man and young woman whose love for each other has been accidentally revealed to him through a letter written by the boy to the girl. The professor uses this to humiliate the young people, unconsciously venting upon them his own perverse cruelty for the disappointment suffered in his own life.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Druid Circle sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S01E23 is listed hour 23 of 256 — hour 23 of 45 in season 1, season 1 episode 23.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S01E23 air?
The Druid Circle aired 1949-03-06 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…