American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

Twins Tia Landry and Tamera Campbell were separated and adopted at birth. Fourteen years later, they encounter each other by chance at the mall. After the families meet, Tia's widowed father agrees to let Tamera and her single mother move in with them.

Millicent Torkelson does what she can to hold her family together as it shrinks to just her and her children after her husband Randy abandons the family.

The Newton family live in their comfortable home, but there seems to something missing. This "hole" is filled by a small puppy, who walks into their home and their lives. Beethoven, as he is named, grows into a giant of a dog... a St Bernard. Doctor Varnick, the local vet has a secret and horrible sideline, which requires lots of dogs for experiments. Beethoven is on the bad doctor's list.

A fateful night in 1959, four people die when the bus they are riding crashes. They continue as ghosts; their souls become eternally entwined to the life of a child born at the moment of their deaths as his guardians. Baby Thomas grows up to be a businessman who has memories of his playmates, but assumes they are products of his youthful imagination. When the ghosts realize they need Thomas' help to move on to the afterlife, they decide to make an appearance once more.

A ten year old boy gets tired of life with abusive parents and cashes in his piggy bank and steals a Mustang. He rides off into a surreal America playing "Motorama," a game sponsored by Chimera Gas Company. He has various encounters with different people, and eventually reaches the Chimera Gas Company where he finds they are not playing by the rules of the game.

A small town is terrorized by an unknown stranger who kidnaps and abuses little girls. When her only child is kidnapped right in front of her, the school bus driver begins the desperate chase to catch the criminal.

Two truckers hired to transport toxic waste across the country get caught up with a teen genius who stows away on their truck.

Ralph the mouse lives at the Mountain View Inn and loves his motorcycle. When the inn becomes overriden with mice and Ralph's friend Matt the bellboy must leave, Ralph asks his other friend Ryan to take him to school as part of a plan to help Matt.

In the 1950s a father helps his 11-year-old son overcome his fear of the A-bomb. Presented on PBS American Playhouse as part of a trilogy of short films on childhood events by new directors.