Original title
Letter to Loretta
Released
9/20/1953
Origin country
US
Genre
Drama
Production companies
Toreto Enterprises, Lewislor Productions
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
8
Number of episodes
257
Letter to Loretta is an American anthology drama series telecast on NBC from September 1953 to June 1961 for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show was hosted by Loretta Young who also played the lead in various episodes. Letter to Loretta was sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960. The final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's Listerine.
The first episode of the series, explaining the letter anthology format. A shop girl is courted by a man whose family looks down upon her, so she feigns crassness to teach them a lesson. One of a few episodes with a laugh track.
A spoiled and selfish woman goes without her husband to a vacation home and is tormented by a woman escaped from a mental institution which makes her confront her own mental challenges.
A young man is accused of murder in a small Western town, but the sheriff's wife believes him innocent, while the townspeople form a mob to storm the jail.
A teacher publicly opposes a candidate, only to be romanced by him, much to the chagrin of her boyfriend.
A shipboard con artist falls for his mark.
A man using an iron lung who has lost hope regains his will through the efforts of his wife to keep him breathing when an earthquake causes a power failure.
The glowing, tiresome reminisces of a wife and mother about her now-famous former beau and his devotion to her comes to a head.
Two widowed parents fall in love but feel their relationship might be hampered by their lively young children.
Charlotte Bronte struggles to cope with her controlling and oppressive father even as it interferes with her courtship with and marriage to Arthur Nicholls.
The kidnapping of a boy by young toughs takes an unexpected turn when one of the hoodlums befriends the boy.
An aspiring actress falls in love with a clown and marries him, but then she's ashamed to be publicly associated with him.
Glass-jawed Walter Stone attempts to rescue Kay Coughlin from a purse snatcher, but he gets hurt instead. Kay nurses him back to health and asks Walter to help her get her boyfriend jealous to goad him into proposing.
A little girl in a Mexican village falls desperately ill and places her faith in God through her patron saint, regardless of whether she survives or not.
Charming holiday story about a small boy who frequents a postal station, chatting incessantly with a disillusioned laborer.
Corporate hotel snoop Sally Webster creates unpleasant situations in a hotel to test its operation while becoming impressed with the character and ambition of hotel clerk Newton Ralston.
Indomitable Inga Helborg convinces a bank president to conditionally reverse the foreclosure of the family farm and takes labor from the prison farm by which both actions she successfully demonstrates her resolute and trusting nature.
A mystery writer discovers she is marked for death.
A spirited wife challenges the stodgy attitudes of researcher husband by refusing to respond to one of his survey questions: "If you had it to do all over again, would you marry the same person?"
Beverly Washburn plays a lonely schoolgirl whose decision to start a rumor about her mother turns into classroom blackmail. Jeannette Nolan portrays her stern Aunt.
Madge Mason based on her prowess as a local actress in a small Iowa town goes to Hollywood and meets with only modest success but when it appears she is on verge of major success she has second thoughts about the price of fame.
The son of an affluent couple, whose father has little time for him, joins the Cub Scouts.
Eddie Albert plays a mild-mannered soul whose happy marriage to an earthy woman seems to be coming to an end.
A glamorous mother and wife who dallies with other men's attention takes her own husband and son for granted. Clever opening schoolroom sequence in which the moms comment in theirs heads about each other. The climax in which the woman's mind races with impending terror about her son's lateness might seem melodramatic, but it's all too real for many of us who worry about loved ones. Mabel Albertson of "Bewitched" and so many other series plays the PTA spokesperson.
Fictionalized story of a Chicago juvenile delinquent who meets Jack Robbins, founder of the BBR, a boy's club that still exists today. A familiar face in one scene is the ubiquitous Argentina Brunetti, to whom Dean Martin sang "That's Amore" in "The Caddy." At the end of the story, Young introduces actor Chick Chandler and the real-life Jack Robbins.
Tiger Tipton retired from a successful boxing career at his wife's insistence. Now broke from her expensive medical care, he arranges one last fight with the champ, but he can't let his wife find out.
The great composer and his concert pianist wife, whose seemingly idyllic marriage descends into mental breakdown.
Flashbacks tell the story of a charming but irresponsible ex-husband who re-enters the lives of his wife and son. The father/son relationship is similar to that of Gloria's son and her first husband on the series, "Modern Family." In this episode, Young's character's name is "Ginger," a decade before her co-star, Alan Hale Jr., addressed Tina Louise by the name on "Gilligan's Island."
Offbeat comic tale of a sheltered young woman whose house is turned upside down by an eccentric lady, her cowboy son -- and his horse. Jock Mahoney makes the first of his many appearances in the series, playing nephew "Andy" to Frances Bavier, who would ironically play Aunt Bee to Andy Griffith less than a decade later.
Profile of a teenager who wants to be treated as an adult.
A forest ranger's wife unknowing allows into her house an escaped convict who seeks revenge on her husband.
A near-sighted, reclusive teacher is romanced by the father of her shyest pupil and discovers what she's been missing.
A woman is plagued by guilt when her politician husband killed a pedestrian in a car accident. Instead of taking responsibility, he was elated to see someone else arrested and blamed for it.
Nora is hired as a secretary under the condition that she disguise herself to be old and unattractive, so as not to distract her boss. When her boss has need to drop in to Nora's home, he is taken with the young lady he finds there, who claims to be Nora's sister.
Midge is an unmarried social worker with an overactive imagination, including having a curmudgeonly fairy to guide her. Her fairy gets her into sticky situations, and she is afraid of making a poor impression on her attractive neighbor.
A young widow's beau won't marry her until he establishes some financial capital, so she deceives him into believing he won a $5000 raffle.
A new teacher in a remote Native American community struggles to get children out of work and into school, and she ends up instigating a strike against the local farmer who employs most of the natives.
Duke and Rita visit a remote mountain cabin for a romantic getaway. During a fierce snowstorm, a young boy with pneumonia shows up at their door. Duke won't call for help because he is wanted for robbery, but Rita uses a ham radio to ask for medical help.
A doctor unravels the mysterious circumstances and suspects surrounding the near-death of a young heiress.
Granite jawed Hugh O'Brien, clearly enjoying a change of pace from his usual rugged roles, plays a shy cartoonist whose heroism is awakened by a fraud scandal involving a woman and a his exact double.
What seems to be Aladdin's Lamp also seems to be fulfilling the fondest wishes of a young couple.
A couple finds themselves terrorized by a disturbed man who rear ends their car. There is some genuine suspense in this episode and warrants attention in that it comes years before Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other such anthologies.
This familiar plot of a lone holdout juror benefits from extreme unusual close-ups, montages and double-exposures to "open up" the drama beyond the single room setting.
Clever "amateur sleuth" tale with a sharp Catholic priest who helps a family escape from a smooth con man. Very "Columbo"-like.
An idealistic widow, whose last name is that same to that of a candidate, allows two slick politicians to add her name to a small town mayoral ballot.
A girl scout is left alone with an escaped convict.
Former stuntman and TV's "Range Rider" and "Yancy Derringer," Jock Mahoney, returns to this series, this time playing the owner of a small diner who is taken with a lost soul seemingly left alone in the rain.
Pushy history teacher nags her math teacher-coach boyfriend to have more ambition and winds up coaching the football team in his place.
A dancer's resolution to go on with her life as a singer inspires an architect who had become embittered after his hands were injured in the Korean war. Sally Field's mother Margaret (wife of Loretta Young show favorite Jock Mahoney) co-stars as Gene Barry's fiancée.
Like Spielberg's "Lincoln," which celebrated the little-known people who made a difference as well as high-profile leaders, this episode focuses on one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence, John Hart.
A young man attempts to reform his delinquent mother when she stops in town to see him.
An embittered man takes revenge on a beloved doctor who lost his wife on the operating table, leading to vigilantism. Among the cast is Oscar-winner Jane Darwell ("The Grapes of Wrath," "Mary Poppins"). The theme of friendly neighbors transformed into a hideous mob would be echoed in Twilight Zone episodes "The Shelter" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
At a hospital and nursing home, everyone wants to stage Christmas parties for the sick children, but the event coordinator connives to get a party for the elderly residents.
A financially strapped New York cab driver becomes desperate for cash when his wife goes into labor.
Familiar TV faces abound in this fanciful dramedy about a woman's ability to know the time without a watch challenged by a watch company's efforts to use a conceited employee's charms to discredit her.
A man whose experience as a prisoner of war has caused him to be alcoholic and homeless stumbles into a situation in which he must use his army medical training and receives advice and support from a nurse and a doctor to change his life.
The wife of a pilot runs the gamut of emotions and memories while awaiting the return of her husband, whose plane has lost an engine in a storm.
Hugh Beaumont plays the dad in one of two suburban families that allow the childish teasing between their sons escalate into a serious social and business conflicts.
A successful Art Director lets her imagination run away with her when a young female business associate of her husband's wants to talk to her about something "personal."
A little girl's stories about her seemingly imaginary friend, "Mrs. Bannister," begin to foreshadow real events and imminent danger.
True story of a Depression-era mother's efforts to redirect her talented little boy's creative projects to more practical pursuits -- and who this boy turns out to be is the twist, as Ms. Young introduces the real-life man and his mom at the end of the episode.
The Hollywood success of a New York writer takes up so much of his time and attention that it threatens his marriage.
A western drifter retrieves a beloved horse to court a maiden settler.
Only a few years after "Spellbound," but before "Vertigo" and "The Three Faces of Eve," this episode uses extended two-actor scenes in its thoughtful exploration of claustrophobia and the benefits of therapy - as well as forgiveness of others and oneself.
The plight of poverty-stricken war orphans forces a hard-nosed war correspondent to face the flesh-and-blood effects of her cynical editorials.
Dennis Hopper was only nineteen when he appeared in this episode as a privileged young man who is sent to work on a farm to build his character.
Series favorites Jock Mahoney, Ann Doran and Casey Adams (Max Showalter) reunite with Ms. Young in an amusing "Fisherman and His Wife/If You Give a Mouse A Cookie"-like fable about the effects an unexpected mink coat has on a two suburban couples.
Craig Stevens plays the head of a modeling agency who likes to discover his clients in ordinary walks of life, prompting an earnest hopeful to pose as an auto mechanic to catch his attention.
An aging man is unfaithful to his wife and negligent to his daughter.
In a memorable episode that showcases Ms. Young's comic timing and dancing talent, she plays a passive secretary who cuts loose after a visit to the dentist and the lingering effects of laughing gas. In the scene in which she makes a grand entrance, bellowing "Anita, DAH-ling!" it strongly resembles the first appearance of Cruella DeVil in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians."
A man is plagued by guilt and worry when his daughter breaks a finger after he spanks her in anger.
A British writer recalls the captivating Maharani with whom he fell in love while on assignment in India.
At a desolate weather station, a woman (Phyllis Thaxter) encounters an escaped mental patient.
A mother suspects her daughter has become a juvenile delinquent.
A schoolmarm in the 1920's is imported into an all-Irish community for the sole purpose of marriage to one of the O'Moore boys. When her intended decides she is too frail for ranch life and sets about looking for another prospect, the teacher must prove he is wrong.
A family is engaged in a battle they may not win: their home is in the way of a proposed freeway.
A wife in a small town is having her portrait painted by a promising young artist. Rumor has it that her interest in him is more than that of a patron.
A girl seeks out a former sweetheart on a tropical island and unexpectedly also becomes involved with a writer.
A woman whose husband was killed in an airplane crash refuses to believe that he was running off with another woman when the crash occurred.
A newspaperwoman and her fiance find themselves involved in a Central American revolution. To further complicate things, her former sweetheart shows up in town.
This Christmas day tale of a small town waitress, lonely serviceman and the child of separated parents marks Loretta Young's first appearance on the series after many months of guest star presenters who filled in while she recovered from illness.
One of Inga's prison workers is distraught over his wife's ill health, and Inga takes steps so that he can care for his wife. Seeing the strength of their marriage, Inga contemplates marriage for herself.
A young couple faces a serious test when the husband is denied an important promotion.
In Rome, an 18-year-old girl finally meets the man who has been her "second father" through a foster-parents program. Thrilled with her voice and with the girl herself, the older man plans an extensive singing career for her in New York.
John Newland becomes another series fixture as the practical, detached father of a disabled mute boy, both whom are brought out of their shells by a children's book author.
A middle-aged Japanese fisherman finds a pearl in an oyster and conceals it from his wife.
A famous New York stage actress finds herself allergic to her leading man.
The drab life of a spinster is brightened by her interest in amateur painting and the encouragement of a kindly priest.
An otherwise responsible husband and father has a periodic urge to leave his family and wander.
A mother, suffering sustained grief of losing one of her two sons, has distanced herself from her other son and husband. She becomes attached to a melancholy neighborhood boy.
A well-meaning friend tries to prevent a brilliant engineer from destroying his life.
A young priest uses his skill as a baseball player to clear his parish of debts.
A deaf woman is entangled in strange and deadly events.
A real-life research project inspired this tale about a wife and mother having trouble juggling work and family when she becomes embroiled in a psychological thesis based on asking people a very telling question.
Refugee worker Kim Collett had believed her husband died a hero in a Communist prison camp - until she hears conflicting stories.
Tommy Kirk returns, this time as a youngster with his heart set on qualifying for a little league baseball team.
The local schoolmarm makes a habitual drunk face up to the responsibilities of caring for his new ward -- his recently orphaned nephew.
A copywriter finds herself writing speeches for two opposing candidates.
In a taut drama that sadly still resonates today, an arrogant personnel director finds his ageist hiring policies coming back to bite him.
A playwright tries to get background material for a new play by taking a job in a boys' reform school. He attempts to apply his own brand of psychology on the youngsters.
During a beach picnic, a widowed mother recalls when her romance with a novelist hit an unexpected snag.
A woman convinced she will never marry falls for an old school friend.
Just as a disillusioned schoolteacher is about to quit, she encounters classroom challenges including stolen money and a neglected student.
Inga Helborg returns, this time to help get an accounting job for a ex-convict who was jailed for embezzlement.
A decorated veteran contends with careers that threaten his integrity, as well as an ambitious, social climbing wife.
Sister Ann touches the lives of numerous patients she attends to at a hospital.
A little Swiss boy suspects the respected Burgermeister of loading his scales and cheating village children.
While sculpting a bust of the Egyptian monarch, the artist declares his love for her, putting both of them at risk with the Pharoah.
A sensitive little girl becomes hysterical when she sees a horror movie starring her mother's boyfriend.
A deluded Southern belle has trouble facing the truth about why she really refused her engagement.
A best selling author, who has taken to callous treatment of those he deems unimportant, finds his wife and himself in a death trap when his car hits a high tension wire.
An eerie period piece about a bride suffering apparent breakdown and confusion in the wake of strange events she can't seem to piece together.
A man and woman who live in neighboring city apartments are reluctant to allow romance into their lives.
A jaded news photographer named Gretchen or "Gretch" gains new insight into the human condition when she covers the story of refugees from Budapest.
The difficult conditions of an inheritance put a couple in conflict
Ken Osmond plays a young boy involved in a deadly resistance movement for a small country under military siege.
A top fashion designer is charmed by the owner of a budget dress line -- until she discovers his company has copied her latest designs.
One of the stars of a renowned dance duo loses her sight in a freak accident and sinks into self-pity.
A sight impaired dancer secretly trains herself in hopes of rejoining her husband/dance partner on stage again.
The spoiled daughter of a brash manicurist discovers that her father hadn't died when he returns from a prison sentence for forgery.
A loyal Japanese wife finds a way to help her discouraged husband when an orphan wanders into their lives.
A mother struggles to protect her son (Johnny Crawford), who witnessed a murder.
A widowed small-town gift-shop owner and children's book illustrator meets a charmingly foreign handyman and it seems her dreams of a Prince Charming are coming true.
A Chinese vase and a steroids surprise party drastically alter a young businessman's life.
A serial strangler is at large in a community where two determined women attempt to raise awareness of the correlation that salacious pictures have on sex crimes.
A wife who has written a loving book about her milkman husband encounters marital conflict when a Hollywood producer wants to make a movie based on the wife's book except the producer's vision is to change reality to suit cinema practices.
A newly returned widow discovers to her dismay that her only daughter has been adopted while she was a POW. While trying to retrieve her daughter, she encounters frustrating complications that endanger her child and challenge her faith.
Ruth's 16 yo sister Ellen, appears to have become mentally ill. Ruth and her boyfriend struggle to come up with a workable strategy to help her.
During a night flight aboard a transcontinental airplane, a dangerous drug disappears from its storage place.
A chic boutique owner is very tempted to compromise her integrity when she falls for a handsome, cultured married man. The feeling is mutual and the chemistry electric and she struggles to "close that door."
A man who is to be tried for murder tries to escape across the Mexican border since he was not granted a change of venue. His concern was that the judge, being a woman, would allow emotion to influence the verdict.
Loretta plays it for laughs as a clever con artist who dupes three parish priests out of money. They compare notes and set up a trap to help her back on the right path.
Globe-trotting lady encounters what looks like her own portrait in an Italian gift shop, leading to a romantic fling and a shocking surprise.
A woman's day of rest assigned to her by the husband due to a her developing cold becomes problematic due to the needs of her six children.
A gangster's moll encounters her doppelganger in a sweetly innocent young woman and exploits their resemblance to avoid certain death. Loretta plays both parts in this suspenseful drama.
Jeb and Amy Stewart plan the perfect second honeymoon - and send their children to summer camp.
An American travel agent visits a depressed village in Italy. James Philbrook later was the co-star of the New Loretta Young Show (1962-63).
To make ends meet, a high school teacher must take a second job as a waitress. Conflicts occur when students begin coming to the restaurant.
A man possessed is Alex Stark, who never has anything on his mind but business, even staying away from his fabulous New York penthouse for long periods to make deals. His wife Eleanor loses interest in him and falls for the family lawyer, She Alex's firm by selling their stock to the paramour.
On a ship bound for Paris, a businessman (James Philbrook) spends his time with a Mrs. Mathews - he assumes is married.
Drama of test pilot's reaction to space travel.
A badly injured man is brought to a hospital, needing long term care with his hands and eyes covered during his period of treatment. he's gruff, irritable and ill mannered, not realizing he's been taken to a Catholic hospital or that his nurse that he falls in love with is actually a nun. When the bandages are removed and finally knows, he must suppress his feelings.
A Hindu slaver tries to sell two Muslim captive women from Pakistan in a small town. The single local constable puts a stop to it but holds the women in his gaol. The younger woman bargains for her freedom by helping the policeman to trap a bandit gang who have been raiding nearby homes and farms.
On Valentine's Day, a housewife receives a large, expensive valentine - but isn't sure who sent it.
An old line aristocrat has a portrait painter in to do his daughter's likeness, but he finds her painfully shy and given to revealing only half her face, the side he's asked to paint. Soon it comes out she's been scarred in a fire, one that her mother died in and her stern father blames her for.
A famous fashion model returns to her home town for her 20-year class reunion. After spending the evening with her old flame, she longs to return to a more meaningful small town life.
A shy bank employee meets a hardened female parolee at a cafeteria.
A self-absorbed business man constructs a plan that includes the employment of a psychiatrist to stop his bored wife's descent into alcoholism.
A healing process for a couple's marriage and a cure for the wife's alcoholism begin after a psychiatrist helps them face their specific roles in causing dysfunction.
In a middle-class residential district, police are trying to solve a series of evening attacks on women in the neighborhood. Two women from the PTA begin to look at some of the precedents for the possibilities that sex offenders are thriving in the neighborhood. They propose that local stores cease to sell smutty magazines and run into resistance. But they go to great lengths to make protests and their convictions begin to gain some respect.
An unhappy wife, with a brain tumor, leaves for France without her husband. See ends up on a road trip to Lourdes (filmed on location).
A teacher's attitude is transformed during a trip to Hawaii, but she faces a crisis upon her return.
A woman watching Mardi Gras from her balcony becomes concerned when a stranger comes over to her apartment - and won't leave.
A widowed dance instructor decides to volunteer at a rehabilitation center.
A woman lives in a store window for a week to win a contest - but seems to be watched by a mysterious man.
The principal at Jefferson High has an immediate dislike for the new Hungarian-born physics teacher because he seems so "foreign." She unexpectedly finds herself defending him against false accusations from a spoiled student.
Jeff, a recently adopted child, continually makes up stories - worrying his new family.
Felice Minton agrees to her husband's request to have her portrait painted, only after the visiting husband of her closest friend makes romantic overtures.
In the midst of planning her teen-age daughter's wedding, Betty Rogers finds out she is having another baby.
Laury Barlow blames her mother for her failed romances. Julie Sommars first television role as Laury.
Another story involving Sister Ann, this time involving funds multiplying to help those Sister Ann meets.
On a sight-seeing tour, a bored American widow and a French businessman are left behind on a Greek island.
On a Greek island, a French businessman tries to help an unhappy American widow face the Now.
The lives of the new family next door have a great impact on a housewife's own marriage.
A wife reflects back on the time she went to the family's beach house alone after an argument with her husband. Loretta Young stars as an attractive married woman who receives a “confession” of love from a bachelor, but not until he dies does she discover the reason behind it.
A crazed maniac with a switchblade intimidates his friends and citizens of a small Midwestern town.
At a popular play, a widow believes her meddling aunt arranged to have a certain man sit next to her. James Philbrook (New Loretta Young Show co-star) plays the mystery man.
Spurned and rejected by her family, a Southern belle finds romance then disappointment in New York city.
A former actress does not approve of the content of the motion pictures her husband produces.
A man who has been working closely with a young woman, asks his wife for a divorce. However, he's not prepared for her reaction.
A wife's decides to leave a New Year's Eve party early to spend the evening with her family.
A boy with an imaginary friend becomes more attaches to him with his real fami
A husband's recovery from back surgery results in an increasing dependence on pain killers.
Loretta Young plays a Japanese governess who finds it necessary to make a personal sacrifice in order to keep the family she works for together.
The Perkins family contemplates breakup and separation as Victor's boss pressures him to move to Japan for his job.
A wealthy woman decides to assist fate - and pursues a bank vice president.
After an accident involving their son, a wife must locate her philandering husband.
After the death of her husband, a sculptress without children fixates on her statues.
A wife begins to believe her personal horoscope impacts what happens to her family.
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