Playhouse 90
The Plot to Kill Stalin
TV Flash files “The Plot to Kill Stalin” as a desk essential hour — Playhouse 90 (1956–1960) on CBS, season 3, episode 1, aired 1958-09-25, 90 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E01: listed hour 80 of 133 in the Playhouse 90 guide, first listed hour of season 3. It aired 1958-09-25 (90 min). The listed hour before it is “The Great Gatsby” (S02E40). Next is “Days of Wine and Roses” (S03E02).
Essential hour: “The Plot to Kill Stalin”. The Plot to Kill Stalin: Cold War title card as event TV, high-wire night with geopolitics in the playbill.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Plot to Kill Stalin sit in the Playhouse 90 guide?
S03E01 is listed hour 80 of 133 — first listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 1.
When did Playhouse 90 S03E01 air?
The Plot to Kill Stalin aired 1958-09-25 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…