Philco Television Playhouse
Mr. Arcularis
TV Flash files “Mr. Arcularis” as hour 123 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 3, episode 33, aired 1951-04-29, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E33: listed hour 123 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 33 of 56 in season 3. It aired 1951-04-29 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Birth of the Movies” (S03E32). Next is “A Secret Island” (S03E34).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
This drama based on the supernatural revolves around the expansion and contraction on an anesthesia rebreathing bag as Mr. Arcularis' life hangs in the balance on the operating table. While he is unconscious, he dreams that he has recovered and gone on a sea voyage to regain his health. However death follows him in a recurrent dream in which he takes a journey through the heavens. The dream obsesses him, but Clarice, a pretty woman with whom he falls in love, forces him back to reality. At the end, Mr. Arcularis regains consciousness to find Clarice, his nurse, bending over him to say he is all right.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Mr. Arcularis sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S03E33 is listed hour 123 of 256 — hour 33 of 56 in season 3, season 3 episode 33.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S03E33 air?
Mr. Arcularis aired 1951-04-29 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…