The Tenth Man
October 17, 1947 – January 16, 1948 · 13 broadcasts
The Tenth Man was a public-service drama anthology produced by the National Mental Health Foundation -- a reform group founded by World War II conscientious objectors who had witnessed the neglect inside America's mental hospitals. Across thirteen fifteen-minute plays on NBC in the autumn and winter of 1947-48, it dramatized a different mental-health theme each week, from Dorothea Dix's crusade for humane care to depression, child and adolescent psychology, occupational therapy and the stigma of mental illness. The title came from the premise pressed home in every broadcast: that roughly one person in ten will need psychiatric care in their lifetime -- "think of nine of your closest friends," the program suggested, and you may be the tenth. Ralph Bellamy narrated all thirteen episodes and Jackson Beck announced (and performed in several), a rare pairing of two acclaimed voices lent to a modest, socially-minded cause. Direction was by Drex Hines, scripts by Jack Nair, with psychiatrist Dr. Dallas Pratt as technical advisor.
Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
1947
1948
The Tenth Man was a public-service drama anthology produced by the National Mental Health Foundation -- a reform group founded by World War II conscientious objectors who had witnessed the neglect inside America's mental hospitals. Across thirteen fifteen-minute plays on NBC in the autumn and winter of 1947-48, it dramatized a different mental-health theme each week, from Dorothea Dix's crusade for humane care to depression, child and adolescent psychology, occupational therapy and the stigma of mental illness. The title came from the premise pressed home in every broadcast: that roughly one person in ten will need psychiatric care in their lifetime -- "think of nine of your closest friends," the program suggested, and you may be the tenth. Ralph Bellamy narrated all thirteen episodes and Jackson Beck announced (and performed in several), a rare pairing of two acclaimed voices lent to a modest, socially-minded cause. Direction was by Drex Hines, scripts by Jack Nair, with psychiatrist Dr. Dallas Pratt as technical advisor.