Playhouse 90
Panic Button
TV Flash files “Panic Button” as hour 51 of 133 in the TV Flash guide — Playhouse 90 (1956–1960) on CBS, season 2, episode 12, aired 1957-11-28, 90 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E12: listed hour 51 of 133 in the Playhouse 90 guide, hour 12 of 40 in season 2. It aired 1957-11-28 (90 min). The listed hour before it is “The Troublemakers” (S02E11). Next is “Galvanized Yankee” (S02E13).
Viewer FAQ
Where does Panic Button sit in the Playhouse 90 guide?
S02E12 is listed hour 51 of 133 — hour 12 of 40 in season 2, season 2 episode 12.
When did Playhouse 90 S02E12 air?
Panic Button aired 1957-11-28 and is listed at 90 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the most cited nights named in the record: Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight and the TV Judgment at Nuremberg, then branch into other surviving Manulis-era teleplays.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Playhouse 90 treated living rooms like Broadway with a stopwatch: ninety-minute teleplays, often live, from Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight to a TV Judgment at Nuremberg. A 2026 viewer watches the gold standard of Golden Age drama — sponsor meddling, high-wire nights, and prestige Variety still ranked among television's greatest.
Flash: a living room pretending it has orchestra seats, a stopwatch instead of a curtain, and a sponsor already in the wings with a pencil. CBS's *Playhouse 90* ran October 4, 1956 through May 18, 1960 — 133 episodes of original teleplays and adaptations, often live, prestige as a dare. Martin Manulis steered the machine. Rod Serling's *Requiem for a Heavyweight* and a television *Judgment at Nuremberg* were not museum labels. They were high-wire nights with last-minute rewrites and the kind of technical panic…