Playhouse 90: "Days of Wine and Roses"


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

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About

From Wikipedia:

"The Days of Wine and Roses" was an acclaimed 1958 teleplay by JP Miller which dramatized the problems of alcoholism. John Frankenheimer directed the cast headed by Cliff Robertson, Piper Laurie and Charles Bickford.

The 90-minute telecast was presented live with tape inserts on October 2, 1958 and was the second episode of the third season of the anthology series Playhouse 90 on CBS. Costume changes were made possible because Frankenheimer taped the Alcoholics Anonymous scenes on the day prior to the live telecast. During a rehearsal, according to Miller, the producer Fred Coe dropped by and watched as Robertson and Laurie "played some of the most realistic drunk scenes ever seen anywhere. Frankenheimer was ecstatic but was quickly grounded by Coe's drawled comment, 'John, you've got the Wine. Now let's see if you can get the Roses.'"

The drama depicts the slow deterioration of a marriage due to alcoholism as ambitious ad man Joe Clay (Robertson) gets his wife Kristen (Laurie) to join him in drinking bouts that soon begin to destroy their lives. John J. O'Connor reviewed the 1983 video cassette release in The New York Times:

Mr. Miller reveals that the idea for the play came to him one sleepless night when "I got to thinking about an uncle of mine who was a drunk." He settled on two young people who like to drink and then "fall in love with the bottle more than each other."... As Mr. Robertson observes with admirable detachment, it is raw and imperfect but "it was emotionally honest." Using the framework of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Joe gets up to address the gathering and his story is told in flashbacks that begin 10 years earlier. He meets Kirsten (Miss Laurie) at a business cocktail party. He is a young advertising executive. She is a bright secretary whose self- improvement activities have reached the point of her reading the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The drinking gets serious early on, and gradually their lives dissolve in puddles of cheap liquor. Her father (Mr. Bickford) tries to help, but the process has gone too far for mere sympathy to help... Several of the scenes remain searing.

JP Miller found his title in the 1896 poem "Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetet Incohare Longam" by the English writer Ernest Dowson (1867–1900):

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,

Love and desire and hate;

I think they have no portion in us after

We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:

Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

Within a dream.

Highlights
Cliff Robertson on his character and the importance of the Playhouse 90 production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
03:12
Piper Laurie on performing in the Playhouse 90 production "The Days of Wine and Roses"
04:18
JP Miller on doing research for the Playhouse 90 teleplay "The Days of Wine and Roses"
02:06
Cliff Robertson on John Frankenheimer's directing process on the Playhouse 90 production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
02:08
John Frankenheimer on the "The Days of Wine and Roses" episode of Playhouse 90
05:50
Ethel Winant on casting for Playhouse 90's production of "Days of Wine and Roses"
01:07
Who talked about this show

John Frankenheimer

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John Frankenheimer on the "The Days of Wine and Roses" episode of Playhouse 90
05:50
John Frankenheimer on directing Playhouse 90's "The Days of Wine and Roses"
02:01

Piper Laurie

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Piper Laurie on performing in the Playhouse 90 production "The Days of Wine and Roses"
04:18
Piper Laurie on performing in Playhouse 90's production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
04:47

Martin Manulis

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Martin Manulis on the Playhouse 90 productions "Days of Wine and Roses" and "The Comedian"
02:03

JP Miller

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JP Miller on how the Playhouse 90 teleplay "The Days of Wine and Roses" came about
07:12
JP Miller on the situation that led to him writing "Days of Wine and Roses" for Playhouse 90
03:40
JP Miller on doing research for the Playhouse 90 teleplay "The Days of Wine and Roses"
02:06
JP Miller on Cliff Robertson as "Joe Clay" in Days of Wine and Roses
03:09
JP Miller on John Frankenheimer directing his Playhouse 90 teleplay "The Days of Wine and Roses," and on working with Piper Laurie on the show
04:25
JP Miller on making his acting debut on the Playhouse 90 episode "Days of Wine and Roses"
03:09
JP Miller on the low expectations the network had for Playhouse 90's "Days of Wine and Roses"
03:54
JP Miller on comparing the Playhouse 90 version of "Days and Wine and Roses" with the feature film version
JP Miller on the title of Playhouse 90's "Days of Wine and Roses"
03:47

Rita Riggs

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Rita Riggs on costuming for Playhouse 90's "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Old Man"
02:46

Cliff Robertson

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Cliff Robertson on starring in the Playhouse 90 live production of "The Days of Wine and Roses" 
13:16
Cliff Robertson on the premise of the Playhouse 90 production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
01:55
Cliff Robertson on his character and the importance of the Playhouse 90 production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
03:12
Cliff Robertson on John Frankenheimer's directing process on the Playhouse 90 production of "The Days of Wine and Roses"
02:08

Ethel Winant

View Interview
Ethel Winant on casting for Playhouse 90's production of "Days of Wine and Roses"
01:07

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