East Side / West Side “The Sinner” (September 23, 1963)

This gritty social drama’s premiere outing may also have been its most emotionally involving.  Carol Rossen electrifies the screen as Layna Harris, a proud, resentful single mother fighting a losing battle to keep custody of her child because she also happens to be a prostitute.  Starring as Neil Brock, the social worker who tries to intervene, George C. Scott smartly goes contrapuntally, countering Rossen’s fire with a worn-down terseness not at all characteristic of his trademark intensity.  Writer Ed De Blasio and director Jack Smight pull off an ending even more bleak and sardonic than those which capped the series’ more celebrated race-themed segments, “Who Do You Kill” and “No Hiding Place.”  Lana remains stoic as her baby is taken away, offering matter-of-fact advice on its care and feeding, but after the camera pulls away we hear her calling plaintively down the stairs, begging for a second chance.  One of the tenement harpies who led the crusade against Lana congratulates Brock on their victory.  “Don’t mention it, Mrs. Kopachek,” Neil says bitterly.  “Who knows?  Tomorrow I may be able to help you.”