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

A half-hour TV series broadcast October 12, 1950 – September 22, 1958, on CBS, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was initially staged live and broadcast every other Thursday at 8 pm ET. In fall 1952, it became a weekly series filmed on the West Coast. From March 1953 through September 1958, The Burns and Allen Show aired Mondays at 8 pm ET.[1]: 280–281 The show was an immediate success. Six episodes were produced live from the Mansfield Theatre in New York, with the stage set as the Burns's living room.The show relocated to the CBS Columbia Square facilities in Hollywood ...

Frontier Town was an American radio adventure serial syndicated by Bruce Eells Productions. The 30-minute programme's first known broadcast was in 1949, and the show ran for 47 episodes. Because it was syndicated, it aired on different stations on different days. For instance, in New York City, the first episode ran on WINS on March 5, 1949.

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 ...

Vic and Sade was an American radio program created and written by Paul Rhymer. It was regularly broadcast on radio from 1932 to 1944, then intermittently until 1946, and was briefly adapted to television in 1949 and again in 1957.During its 14-year run on radio, Vic and Sade became one of the most popular series of its kind, earning critical and popular success: according to Time, Vic and Sade had 7,000,000 devoted listeners in 1943.For the majority of its span on the air, Vic and Sade was heard in 15-minute episodes without a continuing storyline. The central characters, known as...

Fort Laramie is a CBS Radio Western series starring Raymond Burr as Captain Lee Quince. It aired Sunday afternoons January 22–October 28, 1956, at 5:30 pm ET. Produced and directed by Norman Macdonnell, this Western drama depicted life at old Fort Laramie during the 19th Century. The 41 episodes starred Raymond Burr as Lee Quince, captain of the cavalry. One year later, Burr became a television star as Perry Mason. In the series, the fort had 400 troops in all but they had to keep their eye on a nearby Indian reservation with 4,000 Sioux camped there.Major Ned Daggart led the ...

Tales of the Texas Rangers is a 20th century Western old-time radio and television police procedural drama which originally aired on NBC Radio from 1950 to 1952 and later on CBS Television from 1955 to 1958.Film star Joel McCrea voiced the radio version as the fictitious Texas Ranger Jace Pearson, who uses the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals. His faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky"), helps Pearson to track down the culprits. The radio shows, some of which are available on the Internet, are reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.The television version was ...

The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also released promptbooks and phonographic recordings of four Shakespeare works for use in schools.After a series of acclaimed Broadway productions, the Mercury Theatre progressed into its most popular incarnation as The Mercury Theatre on the Air. The radio series included one of the most notable and infamous radio broadcasts of all time, "The ...

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 CBS Radio Workshop was an experimental dramatic radio anthology series that aired on CBS from January 27, 1956, until September 22, 1957. Subtitled “radio’s distinguished series to man’s imagination,” it was a revival of the earlier Columbia Experimental Laboratory (1931), Columbia Experimental Dramatic Laboratory (1932) and Columbia Workshop broadcasts by CBS from 1936 to 1943. The CBS Radio Workshop was one of American network radio's last attempts to hold on to, and perhaps recapture, some of the demographics they had lost to television in the post-World War II era.The ...

Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense (a sister program that often used the same actors and scripts), it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed on as a sponsor for five months in 1950.Despite these problems, Escape enthralled many listeners during its seven-year run.The series' well-remembered opening combined Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain with this introduction, as intoned by William Conrad and later Paul Frees:"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want ...

Sponsored by Pall Mall cigarettes, the program began on NBC Radio on April 2, 1947. With Lucky Strike cigarettes sponsoring the last two seasons, it was broadcast until March 23, 1955. The radio series was top rated, rivaling Bing Crosby's Philco Radio Time. Produced by Barnard J. Prockter, the shows were scripted by Gail Ingram, Arnold Pearl and Max Ehrlich. Tom Vietor and Harry Ingram directed the series. Gail and Harry Ingram were husband and wife. The theme was taken from Ein Heldenleben ("A Hero's Life"), a tone poem by Richard Strauss.Prockter was inspired to create the program ...

Jerry of the Circus was a 1937 syndicated radio serial broadcast for a juvenile audience. It was presented in 130 15-minute episodes of which 128 are in existence today. The series followed the adventures of Jerry Dougan and his dog Rags with the Randall Brothers Circus from the time of his father's death in the spring to the end of that year's performance season. Jerry Dougan's adventures continued in the 1937 serial Jerry at Fair Oaks.

On January 7, 1941, the Inner Sanctum radio program premiered, the name licensed by Simon & Schuster on condition that at the end of each broadcast the announcer would promote the latest book title published in the series. The anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as "Your host, Raymond" in a mockingly sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score (played by Lew White) ...

Frank Lovejoy starred as Randy Stone, a reporter who covered the night beat for the Chicago Star, encountering criminals, eccentrics, and troubled souls. Listeners were invited to join Stone as he "searches through the city for the strange stories waiting for him in the darkness." Most episodes leaned towards suspense, crime and thriller themes, but Night Beat also featured occasional humorous or sentimental stories. Each episode ended with Stone at his desk as he finished typing a news story based on his latest exploits, and shouting for the copy boy to deliver his story to an ...

Ray Bradbury’s stories lend themselves well to radio, so it’s no surprise that there have been so many adaptations over the years — some adapted by Bradbury himself. Radio also played a pivotal role in Bradbury’s development as a writer early in his career.

Father Knows Best is an American sitcom starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons and 203 episodes. Created by Ed James, Father Knows Best follows the lives of the Andersons, a middle-class family living in the town of Springfield.The state in which Springfield is located is never specified, but it is generally accepted to be located in the Midwestern United States.[1]The television series debuted on CBS in October 1954. It ran for one season and was ...

The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio and television comedy series, which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.[1] He played one role throughout his radio and television career, a caricature of himself as a minimally talented musician and penny-pincher who was the butt of all the jokes. The show's producer, Hilliard Marks, was the brother of Benny's wife, Mary Livingstone.

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 ...

From the outset of the show, the series was billed in different listings under various titles including Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, and other titles. The most popularly remembered title is The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.On occasion, the title of a radio episode differs from that of its original story – for example, the radio adaption of "The Adventure of the Red Circle" is entitled "Mrs. Warren's Lodger".From 1939 until 1943, episodes were adapted or written by Edith Meiser who had written the earlier series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which aired from ...

The Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his clever, laconic Indian sidekick,Tonto. Departing on his white horse Silver, the Ranger would famously say "Hi-yo, Silver, away!" as the horse galloped toward the setting sun.The theme music was the "cavalry charge" finale of Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture, now inseparably associated with the ...