Showing results by author "Radio Shows of the Past!" in All Categories

Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on August 5, 1924, in the New York Daily News.The plot followed the wide-ranging adventures of Annie, her dog Sandy and her benefactor Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks. Secondary characters include Punjab, the Asp and Mr. Am. The strip attracted adult readers with political commentary that targeted (among other things) organized labor, the New Deal and communism.Following...

Macabre was a horror radio series that aired in 1961 and 1962. The show was produced by the Far East Network (FEN) of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). How it came aboutMacabre was the result of a contest between the FEN and the AFRS in Germany. The FEN won the contest and the show aired worldwide. What it was aboutMacabre was a supernatural and spooky series based on novels and short stories. The show was written and directed by William Verdier, who also starred in the series. What's notable*The first show in the series was called "Final Resting Place".*The show was well-written ...

Sexton Blake is a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893. Sexton Blake adventures were featured in a wide variety of British and international publications (in many languages) from 1893 to 1978, comprising more than 4,000 stories by some 200 different authors. Blake was also the hero of numerous silent and sound films, radio serials, and a 1960s ITV television series.

Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was one of radio's longest running shows, airing October 12, 1937 to April 19, 1955, continuing well into the television era. It was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, who based it upon Robert W. Chambers' 1906 novel The Tracer of Lost Persons. The sponsors included Whitehall Pharmacal (as in Anacin, Kolynos Toothpaste, BiSoDol antacid mints, Hill's cold tablets and Heet liniment), Dentyne, Aerowax, RCA Victor and Chesterfield cigarettes. It aired on the NBC Blue network until 1947, when it switched to CBS.

Anthony Berkeley set in 1920s London in which a group of armchair detectives, who have founded the "Crimes Circle", formulate theories on a recent murder case Scotland Yard has been unable to solve. Each of the six members, including their president, Berkeley's amateur sleuth Roger Sheringham, arrives at an altogether different solution as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrator, and also applies different methods of detection (basically deductive or inductive or a combination of both). Completely devoid of brutality but containing a lot of subtle, tongue-in-cheek humour ...

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.The radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among radio drama enthusiasts, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." It ran unsponsored for its first few years, with CBS funding its ...

33 Half Moon came out of South Africaand was a radio sensation in its day. "Assignments Unlimited" was thename of the PI firm in this airwaves success. The Chief Investigator,Aubrey Mason, guaranteed successful completion of all cases...which was atall order since most their cases were the uncommon. The voice of Masonwas Michael Todd, an extremely popular actor in South Africa. Duringits run in 1965-66, the show was written by Adrian Steed and thenDouglas Laws. The private investigation office was at 33 Half Moon Street.

Beyond Midnight was a South African radio horror anthology series that ran from 1968 to 1970 on Springbok Radio. The program "was a replacement series for SF'68. Michael McCabe served as producer, and adapted stories for both series. Unlike its sci-fi predecessor, Beyond Midnight served up stories with a supernatural bent."[1] The show was sponsored by Biotex and featured the tagline "Just Soak, Just Soak, Just Soak in Biotex."

The Burkiss Way is a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy series, originally broadcast between August 1976 and November 1980. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, with additional material in series 1 and 2 by John Mason, Colin Bostock-Smith, Douglas Adams, John Lloyd, Tom Magee Englefield and Liz Pollock.The first series of the show starred Denise Coffey, Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees and Fred Harris. From series 2 onwards the show starred Jo Kendall, Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees and Fred Harris. The series had three producers, announced as "Simon Brett of Stepney", "John Lloyd...

The program shows us just how fragile liberty and justice can be. These stories of everyday events are still interesting, even after 50 years. Stories of criminal liability, legal wills, buying on installment, and leasing an apartment. Each story is well written, and the acting, though dated and a bit hokey by today’s standards, still manages to achieve the desired effect.Not much information is available for this series, it was apparently broadcast on a limited basis, and originated on WMAQ Chicago, an NBC station. It was comprised of thirteen episodes, twelve of which are currently ...

Under Arrest was a fictional radio drama about crime and detection that aired in the 1940s. It was a summer replacement series for The Shadow in 1946 and 1947. What was it about?Under Arrest was a modern drama set in 1948. It starred Craig McDonnell as Police Captain John Drake. When did it air?Under Arrest aired in the 1940s, a year before the more well-known radio show Dragnet. Who starred in it?Under Arrest starred Craig McDonnell as Police Captain John Drake.

The characters originated in 1930s vignettes written by Richard Lockridge for the New York Sun, and he brought them back for short stories in The New Yorker. These stories were collected in Mr. and Mrs. North (1936). Lockridge increased the readership after he teamed with his wife Frances on a novel, The Norths Meet Murder (1940), launching a series of 26 novels, including Death Takes a Bow, Death on the Aisle and The Dishonest Murderer. Their long-run series continued for over two decades and came to an end in 1963 with the death of Frances Lockridge. The series was unusual in ...

Although Mel Blanc "did countless character impersonations on other radio programs, as well as being the voice of many cartoon characters," he used his natural voice in this program and played himself – except that instead of being an entertainer, the Mel Blanc character in the show was "the bumbling owner of a fix-it shop that was never able to fix anything." The show's one regular outlet for another Blanc voice was the character Zookie, a stuttering helper. One website noted, however, "Many episodes required Mel to impersonate an exotic foreigner or other stranger in town, ostensibly for ...

The series was created by co-stars Chester Lauck (who played Columbus "Lum" Edwards) and Norris Goff (Abner Peabody). Lum always pronounced his own name as Ed'erds and was very annoyed if Abner or anyone brought up his full first name. The two characters performed as a double act, with Lum generally playing the straight man to Abner's attempts to break free from Lum's influence. As co-owners of the Jot 'em Down Store in the fictional town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas, the pair are constantly stumbling upon moneymaking ideas only to find themselves fleeced by nemesis Squire Skimp, before finally ...

Arch Oboler's Plays is a radio anthology series written, produced and directed by Arch Oboler. Minus a sponsor, it ran for one year, airing Saturday evenings on NBC from March 25, 1939, to March 23, 1940, and revived five years later on Mutual for a sustaining summer run from April 5, 1945, to October 11, 1945.Lewis Titterton, an executive at NBC, originated the program's title. Titterton was described as a man who "thought the future of radio depended on the vision of the writer." With the launching of Arch Oboler's Plays, Oboler became "the first writer accorded name-in-the-title ...

Sounds Of Darkness. This series was the replacement series for the long running Australian imported series “Nightbeat”. The story centred around Lee Masters, the blind FBI detective that solved crime in its own unique style. The series was one of many directed and produced by Gerrie van Wyk and was an original idea developed between Gerrie and Brian O'Shaughnessy.

Dick Barton – Special Agent is a radio thriller serial that was broadcast in the BBC Light Programme between 7 October 1946 and 30 March 1951. Produced and directed by Raymond Raikes, Neil Tuson, and Charles Lefaux, it was aired in 15-minute episodes at 6.45 (later 6.15) each weekday evening. From 11 January 1947 an additional "omnibus" edition repeated all of the week's programmes each Saturday morning between 11.00 and 12.00. In all, 711 episodes were produced and the serial achieved a peak audience of 20 million. Its end was marked by a leading article in The Times.The serial ...

Grand Central Station was an American anthology radio series that had a long run on the major networks from 1937 to 1954. Produced by Himan Brown, Martin Horrell and others, the story content ranged from romantic comedies to lightweight dramas.The program debuted on September 28, 1937, on NBC. Each program opened with an announcer intoning that Grand Central was "the crossroads of a million private lives, a gigantic stage on which are played a thousand dramas daily." Actors included Jim Ameche and Hume Cronyn.The announcers were George Baxter, Ken Roberts and Tom Shirley. The programs...

The initial radio Tarzan originated at WOR in New York City and was syndicated by the World Broadcasting System. Production later switched to Hollywood, California. The series was broadcast September 12, 1932 - March 3, 1934.Tarzan was played by James Pierce, who portrayed the title character in the film Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927). Jane was played by Joan Burroughs, daughter of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of the Tarzan stories. The program's writer prepared scripts using material from the original Tarzan books, and Burroughs himself revised each script as needed for accuracy.This ...

The Stories of Sherlock Holmes was a South African radio show series of 47 or 50 episodes, produced by Michael Silver and aired on Springbok Radio (Johannesburg, South Africa) between 1979/1980 and 1985, starring Graham Armitage as Sherlock Holmes and Kerry Jordan as Dr. Watson. The episodes were around 20-30 minutes each and broadcasted on Sunday evenings at 6pm.