T5#76 The City Manager

Episode number: 76
Network broadcast date: Monday, November 16, 1964
The City Manager
Genre: Science comedy
Author: Robert Cenedella
Production number: 79
Production date: Monday, October 26, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: An affably tyrannical city manager goes to any length to ensure the progress of his city, no matter what the consequences to its citizens. Only one councilman fights back, and while the city manager uses all his power to maintain control, it’s ultimately his own obsession with automation and efficiency that does him in.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641116+076+The+City+Manager.flac

Cast: Leon Janney, Charles Randall, Owen Jordan, Jack Hurdle

Notes:

Hybrid opening with teaser scene followed by Foy teasing the plotline

T5#75 Deedle Deedle Dumply, My Son X1

Episode number: 75

Network broadcast date: Friday, November 13, 1964
Deedle Deedle Dumply, My Son X1
Genre: Science fiction
Author: George Bamber
Production number: 73
Production date: Friday, October 16, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Producer:

Plotline: Paul is convinced his son John has been replaced by a complex machine, created by aliens plotting to infiltrate the human race. The more his wife tries to convince him he’s wrong, the more certain Paul becomes — with tragic consequences.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641113+075+Deedle+Deedle+Dumpling+My+Son+X1.flac

Cast: Bryna Raeburn, William Mason, William Griffis, Peter Fernandez

Notes:

The title is a tribute to the NBC science fiction series X Minus One and the story is very similar to "Zero Hour" from that series; one of the last episodes that opens with a spoken plot description rather than an opening scene, and does not have Foy announcing over opening music; error in story refers to "light years" as a measure of time and not as a measure of distance, but it was a common expression at the time

T5#74 A Brand New Life

Episode number: 74

Network broadcast date: Thursday, November 12, 1964
A Brand New Life
Genre: Social comedy
Author: Robert Cenedella
Production number: 74
Production date: Monday, October 19, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: A successful businessman with a loving wife and young son leaves it all behind for the excitement of a life free from responsibility. Years later, on the cusp of their son’s graduation, his wife sends a lawyer to track him down and ask if he’s ready to come back. But with the lawyer going through a midlife crisis of his own, the real question is whether the former businessman has room for another swinging divorcee.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641112+074+A+Brand+New+Life+(sl+clipped+close).flac

Cast: George Petrie, Joan Shea, Court Benson, Ruth Yorke, Ben Yaffe

Notes:

One of the last episodes that opens with a spoken plot description rather than an opening scene, and does not have Foy announcing over opening music. 

Aircheck from WFAA radio ID (Dallas)

One of T5's top episodes.

T5#73 The Gift

Episode number: 73

Network broadcast date: Wednesday, November 11, 1964
The Gift
Genre: Melodrama
Author: Richard McCracken
Production number: 70
Production date: Tuesday, October 13, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: The lives of poor, young newlyweds change drastically when their humble abode in a tiny Mexican village is glorified by an internationally famous painter.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641111+073+The+Gift+VLQ.flac

Cast: Ralph Camargo, Evie Juster, Norman Rose, George Petrie, Luis Van Rooten, Frank Thomas, Frances Spanier

Notes:

Surviving recoring is in very bad sound.

T5#72 World Enough and Time

Episode number: 72

Network broadcast date: Tuesday, November 10, 1964
World Enough and Time
Genre: Fantasy
Author: John Nicholas Iannuzzi
Production number: 72
Production date: Thursday, October 15, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: A man who has managed to avoid aging by constantly travelling west to stay ahead of the international dateline faces a serious crisis when a car accident threatens to delay his flight.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641110+072+World+Enough+and+Time+(has+ad+with+Freberg+%26+Frees+re+radio+advertising).flac

Cast: Donald Buka, George Baxter, Frank Thomas, George Petrie, Jack Grimes

Notes:

Iannuzzi was a novelist, but was on his way to become a noted New York City criminal attorney, especially for homicide cases, and an author of law books. The circulating recording includes a promo for radio advertising by Stan Freberg with Paul Frees; Fred Foy's voice can be heard as the airport public address announcer.

T5#71 The Nameless Day

Episode number: 71

Network broadcast date: Monday, November 9, 1964
The Nameless Day
Genre: Mystery
Author: Richard McCracken
Production number: 75
Production date: Tuesday, October 20, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: Overcome with fever, a young man takes refuge in a strange old manor owned by a mysterious woman and her overbearing sister. She may be his dream girl, but the house turns out to be the stuff of nightmares.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641109+071+The+Nameless+Day.flac

Cast: George Petrie, Ivor Francis, Guy Sorel, Connie Lembcke

Notes:

General return to opening with a teaser scene or dialogue and Fred Foy announcing the series name

T5#70 Living Credit

Episode number: 70

Network broadcast date: Friday, November 6, 1964
Living Credit
Genre: Fantasy
Author: Morton Golding
Production number: 68
Production date: Wednesday, October 7, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: In the world of the future, you must have a spotless credit record to purchase just about anything. So when a couple tries to buy a new refrigerator, things quickly spin out of control as the Credit Supervisor’s office demands more and more paperwork from the overwhelmed couple.

T5#69 Twenty Minutes in the Life of Melinda Madison

Episode number: 69

Network broadcast date: Thursday, November 5, 1964
Twenty Minutes in the Life of Melinda Madison
Genre: Psychological drama
Author: Raphael David Blau
Production number: 69
Production date: Monday, October 12, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: A has-been movie star spends her days getting drunk and wallowing in self-pity, so her managers concoct a scheme to get her back in the spotlight: overdose on sleeping pills and remind the public how much they love her. What could possibly go wrong?

T5#68 Body Without the Crime

Episode number: 68

Network broadcast date: Wednesday, November 4, 1964
Body Without the Crime
Genre: Mystery
Author: Joseph Cochran
Production number: 68
Production date: Wednesday, October 7, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Producer: Ted Bell

Plotline: It’s not against the law to wish your wife were dead, but when a guilt-ridden man turns himself into the police, confessing to doing just that before she was killed in a car accident, the cops find themselves in the awkward position of trying to talk him OUT of a confession.

Listen: https://archive.org/details/T5project/Theater+Five+641104+068+Body+Without+the+Crime+(sl+clipped+close).flac

Cast: Frank Thomas, Lenka Peterson, Ralph Camargo, Luis Van Rooten, Robert Dryden

Notes:

Episode opens with a spoken plot description rather than an opening scene, and does not have Foy announcing over opening music; at about 18:50 "Mr. District Attorney" is said, which may have created a grin with Ed Byron and others as they read the script since that was his big claim to fame in his early career, likely placed in the script as a mild in-joke

 

T5#67 Why Can't Life Be More Like the Movies?

Episode number: 67

Network broadcast date: Tuesday, November 3, 1964
Why Can't Life Be More Like the Movies?
Genre: Comedy
Author: Robert Cenedella
Production number: 65
Production date: Monday, October 5, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: Three unemployed movie actors stage a real kidnapping using their extensive experience playing villains, but discover their victims are a lot weirder than they faced on the big screen.

T5#66 June 17th, Where Are You?

Episode number: 66

Network broadcast date: Monday, November 2, 1964
June 17th, Where Are You?
Genre: Melodramatic romance
Author: George Lowther
Production number: 71
Production date: Wednesday, October 14, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: A stubborn school marm returns from a cruise trip furious to discover she lost a day when her ship crossed the International Dateline and sets out to sue the steamship company for her loss.

T5#65 The Second Chance

Episode number: 65

Network broadcast date: Friday, October 30, 1964
The Second Chance
Genre: Comedy
Author: Robert Cenedella
Production number: 64
Production date: Friday, October 2, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: While cleaning the attic for his domineering wife, an aging husband finds a sorcery book and casts a spell that causes him to age backwards. He kills his wife and starts a new life, moving from town to town, dating younger women until he finally settles down with the 25-year-old blonde bimbo he’s always dreamed of. But he’s about to learn the meaning of “be careful what you wish for.”

T5#64 Nightmare

Episode number: 64

Network broadcast date: Thursday, October 29, 1964
Nightmare
Genre: Topical melodrama
Author: Frances Rickett
Production number: 62
Production date: Wednesday, September 30, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

T5#63 Odds on the Tower

Episode number: 63

Network broadcast date: Wednesday, October 28, 1964
Odds on the Tower
Genre: Action melodrama
Author: Richard McCracken
Production number: 66
Production date: Tuesday, October 6, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: Flat broke and getting squeezed by his loan shark, a Las Vegas air traffic controller reluctantly agrees to intentionally crash a private plane full of the loan shark’s rivals. But as the flight gets closer, it becomes clear this is one gamble the dispatcher never should have taken.

T5#62 The Prodigal Son

Episode number: 62

Network broadcast date: Tuesday, October 27, 1964
The Prodigal Son
Genre: Human interest
Author: Max Berton
Production number: 63
Production date: Thursday, October 1, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: When a stranger arrives in town baring a striking resemblance to a local boy who left town years before, the local’s father has a proposition: he’ll pay this out-of-towner to impersonate his son, giving the boy’s dying mother some solace in her final days. But the longer the ruse goes on and the more the drifter learns about this family, the more desperate he becomes for a way out.

T5#61 Sirens in the Night

Episode number: 61
Network broadcast date: Monday, October 26, 1964
Sirens in the Night
Genre: Drama
Author: Robert A. Arthur
Production number: 61
Production date: Tuesday, September 29, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: An obedient wife has to put up with her husband’s persistent criticism when she convinces him to take the long walk home from the movies. She has a surprise waiting for him along the route, but between his incessant negativity and a terrifying encounter with a police shootout, the marriage may not last that long.

T5#60 The Sacrifice

Episode number: 60
Network broadcast date: Friday, October 23, 1964
The Sacrifice
Genre: Melodrama
Author: Raphael David Blau
Production number: 57
Production date: Wednesday, September 23, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: A construction company executive’s loyalty is tested when the CEO asks him to send his own son to deal with a radiation leak at their new site. He can either sacrifice his career or his son’s life.

T5#59 Including Murder

Episode number: 59
Network broadcast date: Thursday, October 22, 1964
Including Murder
Genre: Mystery
Author: Sam Elkin
Production number: 59
Production date: Friday, September 25, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Producer: Ted Bell

Plotline: When a woman hires a private eye to tail her husband, she braces herself for news that he’s cheating on her. Instead, she discovers his secret rendezvous have been with a hit man planning her murder.

T5#58 Captain Gamble's Uniform

Episode number: 58
Network broadcast date: Wednesday, October 21, 1964
Captain Gamble's Uniform
Genre: Drama
Author: Richard McCracken
Production number: 55
Production date: Monday, September 21, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Producer: Ted Bell

Plotline: At the height of World War II, a tyrannical sea captain’s vessel is shipwrecked on a tiny South Sea island where he discovers that his personality undergoes a remarkable change depending on the uniform he wears.

T5#57 The Man Who Loved Jellyroll

Episode number: 57
Network broadcast date: Tuesday, October 20, 1964
The Man Who Loved Jellyroll
Genre: Melodrama
Author: Albert G. Miller
Production number: 60
Production date: Monday, September 28, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: After getting knocked unconscious with a golf club, Fred Lambert wakes up in the hospital with the ability to read people’s minds. That’s bad news for his wife and his assistant who’ve been plotting his murder.

T5#56 An Honorable Way to Die

Episode number: 56
Network broadcast date: Monday, October 19, 1964
An Honorable Way to Die
Genre: Mystery
Production number: 58
Production date: Thursday, September 24, 1964

Plotline: On a flight bound for Los Angeles, an aspiring actress finds herself sitting next to a cynical screenwriter whose sour perspective makes her fear of flying even worse. And that’s before the landing gear jams and the pilot announces they’re headed for a crash landing!

T5#55 The Captive Spirit

Episode number: 55
Network broadcast date: Friday, October 16, 1964
The Captive Spirit
Genre: Melodrama
Author: Don Haring
Production number: 56
Production date: Tuesday, September 22, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: A PI has his suspicions when he's hired to track down a rich man's daughter who has only been gone for five hours. But when a well-meaning journalist comes across the terrified girl hiding on a train and lets her lay low in his hotel room, that’s when the real mystery begins.

T5#54 The Good Samaritans

Episode number: 54
Network broadcast date: Thursday, October 15, 1964
The Good Samaritans
Genre: Human interest
Author: Peter Irving
Production number: 48
Production date: Thursday, September 10, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: When a group of strangers discover a man lying in the middle of the road naked and badly beaten, it sparks a debate about the right thing to do. We’re brought inside the man’s thoughts, fighting to cling to life as the samaritans struggle to come to a decision.

T5#53 The Dog Killer

Episode number: 53
Network broadcast date: Wednesday, October 14, 1964
The Dog Killer
Genre: Horror drama
Author: Richard McCracken
Production number: 54
Production date: Friday, September 18, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: Have you heard the rumor about the weird woman who lives down the dirt road? One kid says she’s a witch. Another saw her kill a dog. The truth is, she’s just a sad spinster who lives with her cruel mother, but as the savage lies and harassment from the neighborhood kids grows, the real horror begins.

T5#52 The Autocrat

Episode number: 52

Network broadcast date: Tuesday, October 13, 1964
The Autocrat
Genre: Melodrama
Author: William Kendall Clarke
Production number: 51
Production date: Tuesday, September 15, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: An aging battle-axe maintains total control of her terrified family, but when she resorts to lying to her husband’s boss and hiding her daughter’s letters from her, they decide she’s finally gone too far…

T5#51 All the Bright Young Ones

Episode number: 51

Network broadcast date: Monday, October 12, 1964
All the Bright Young Ones
Genre: Social
Author: Virginia Radcliffe
Production number: 50
Production date: Monday, September 14, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: In a world where everyone over 40 is considered a senior citizen, a middle-aged college professor finds himself in forced retirement, working as a doorman and ignored by his estranged son — the 21-year-old mayor of New York City. But when the doorman finally snaps, his hysterical rant lands him in jail and on the evening news, making him a mess the Mayor needs to clean up one way or another.

T5#50 I'm Sorry, Mom

 

Episode number: 50
Network broadcast date: Friday, October 9, 1964
I'm Sorry, Mom
Genre: Psychological drama
Author: Vernon Delston
Production number: 47
Production date: Wednesday, September 9, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: Convinced his mother doesn’t care about him, the scion of a wealthy dynasty makes a deal with some hoods: fake his kidnapping and they’ll split the ransom. What could go wrong? Turns out, a lot when you don’t really know the criminals you’ve gotten into business with — or your own family.

T5#49 Justice is an Uncertain Thing

 

Episode number: 49
Network broadcast date: Thursday, October 8, 1964
Justice is an Uncertain Thing
Genre: Melodrama
Author: Max Berton
Production number: 46
Production date: Tuesday, September 8, 1964
Director: Ted Bell
Producer: Ted Bell

Plotline: A criminal laying low in Mexico gets some bad news: a new law will allow authorities to extradite him back to the United States to face justice. As law enforcement closes in, he leans on his corrupt lawyer to find a way out, but he’s about to discover that justice is not always handed out by the law…

T5#48 Echo of Madness

 

Episode number: 48
Network broadcast date: Wednesday, October 7, 1964
Echo of Madness
Genre: Psychological drama
Author: George Lowther
Production number: 49
Production date: Friday, September 11, 1964
Director: Warren Somerville

Plotline: Judith Morgan checks into Room 6 in a strange hotel. It’s closed for the season, yet fully staffed. The people seem familiar but swear they’ve never met her. Is it a dream? Deja vu? And who is the mysterious Mr. Mansfield who invited her to be a guest? Judith is desperate for the truth, but may be descending into madness.

T5#47 The Last Land Rush

 

Episode number: 47
Network broadcast date: Tuesday, October 6, 1964
The Last Land Rush
Genre: Science fiction
Author: George Bamber
Production number: 53
Production date: Thursday, September 17, 1964
Director: Ted Bell

Plotline: In an overcrowded future, a desperate couple join a government contest for the last available plots of land - the median of a superhighway. It’s a brutal fight for survival, where contestants are forced to kill or be killed and even if they manage to win by holding onto their plot for 24 hours, they’ll come out the other side a shell of their former selves.