Philco Television Playhouse
Gretel
TV Flash files “Gretel” as hour 253 of 256 in the TV Flash guide — Philco Television Playhouse (1948–1955) on NBC, season 7, episode 25, aired 1955-08-21, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S07E25: listed hour 253 of 256 in the Philco Television Playhouse guide, hour 25 of 28 in season 7. It aired 1955-08-21 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “A Room in Paris” (S07E24). Next is “The Miss America Story” (S07E26).
Viewer FAQ
Where does Gretel sit in the Philco Television Playhouse guide?
S07E25 is listed hour 253 of 256 — hour 25 of 28 in season 7, season 7 episode 25.
When did Philco Television Playhouse S07E25 air?
Gretel aired 1955-08-21 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…