Philco Television Playhouse
The Beautiful Bequest
TV Flash files “The Beautiful Bequest” as hour 60 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 2, episode 15, aired 1949-12-11, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E15: listed hour 60 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 15 of 45 in season 2. It aired 1949-12-11 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Mist on the Waters” (S02E14). Next is “The Strange Christmas Dinner” (S02E16).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The story of a spoiled and jilted young novelist of intellectual pretensions who is freshened up and made marketable and happy again by design of his sporting publisher.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Beautiful Bequest sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S02E15 is listed hour 60 of 256 — hour 15 of 45 in season 2, season 2 episode 15.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S02E15 air?
The Beautiful Bequest aired 1949-12-11 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…