"The Final War of Olly Winter" is the first

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

episode of the first season of the American television series '' CBS Playhouse''. Written by Ronald Ribman, it followed the tale of Olly Winter, an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

Master Sergeant A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries. Israel Defense Forces The (abbreviated "", master sergeant) is a non-commissioned officer () rank in the Israel Defense Force ...

in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

who is walking back to allied-controlled land following a battle with the Viet Cong. Along the way, he meets up with a Vietnamese girl, an orphaned infant, and a dog. The program is basically a monologue as the character of Winter speaks to the girl about his experiences even though she cannot understand him. The episode was broadcast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on January 29, 1967. Ivan Dixon, who played the title character, was nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for his performance.

Cast

* Ivan Dixon as Olly Winter *

Maidie Norman Maidie Ruth Norman (October 16, 1912 – May 2, 1998) was an American radio, stage, film, and television actress as well as an instructor in African-American literature and theater. Early life Norman was born Maidie Ruth Gamble on a plantat ...

as Mrs. Pierce * Paulene Myers as Olly's mother *

James Hong James Hong (born February 22, 1929) is an American actor, producer and director. Known as one of the most prolific character actors of all time, he has worked in over 400 productions in U.S. media since the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1950s. ...

as Vietnamese lieutenant * Tina Chen as Vietnamese girl * Patrick Adiarte as Viet Cong guerilla * Kam Tong as Chief elder

References

External links

*
The Paley Center for Media
1967 American television episodes 1967 plays CBS Playhouse episodes Television episodes about the Vietnam War {{tv-episode-stub