The Empty Chair

Originally Aired: September 21, 1953 Suspense #518, "The Empty Chair," stars Agnes Moorhead as Barbara Warner, a new high school teacher who takes up residence with her student Bobby Morrison and his anxious mother. On the first day of school, Miss Warner arranges her homeroom seats alphabetically but instructs the students to leave one chair empty for David Cooper. After school, Bobby drives his teacher home in his prized car, a vehicle he built himself, speeding through residential streets at nearly seventy miles per hour despite the traffic safety lessons he learned in driver education class. Miss Warner's concerns about Bobby's reckless driving prove well-founded when she overhears a heated argument between the seventeen-year-old and his struggling single mother. Mrs. Morrison confides her worries about her son to the young teacher, revealing how Bobby has grown wild and uncontrollable. Miss Warner mentions Mr. Douglas, the school's driver education teacher who works with troubled students like Bobby, but before she can elaborate, young David Cooper arrives looking for his friend. The empty chair in Miss Warner's classroom takes on ominous significance as the drama unfolds around teenage rebellion, parental concern, and the deadly consequences of careless driving.