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

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 ...

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 ...

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of short stories and novels based on the character. Mulford portrayed the character as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking.He was shot in the leg during a gun fight which caused him to walk with a little "hop", hence the nickname.From the 1930s to the 1950s, the character became indelibly associated with actor William Boyd, who portrayed Cassidy first in a series of sixty-six films from 1935 to 1948, then in children-oriented radio and TV series, both of which lasted until...

The Red Skelton Show is an American television comedy/variety show that aired from 1951 to 1971. In the decade prior to hosting the show, Richard "Red" Skelton had a successful career as a radio and motion pictures star.[1] Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than sixteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC.During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961. In 1959 Skelton also received a Golden ...

The Red Skelton Show is an American television comedy/variety show that aired from 1951 to 1971. In the decade prior to hosting the show, Richard "Red" Skelton had a successful career as a radio and motion pictures star.[1] Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for more than sixteen years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1961. In 1959 Skelton also received a Golden ...

The Cinnamon Bear is an old-time radio program produced by Transco (Transcription Company of America), based in Hollywood, California. The series comprised 26 episodes, and was specifically designed to be listened to six days a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas.[1]The series was first broadcast between Friday, November 26 and Saturday December 25, 1937. Some markets like Portland, Oregon, jumped the gun, debuting the program on November 25, Thanksgiving Day. In the first season, Portland broadcast the program on two stations, KALE at 6:00pm and KXL at 7:00pm.When syndication ...

The First Nighter Program was a long-running radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from November 27, 1930, to September 27, 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter (Charles P. Hughes, Macdonald Carey, Bret Morrison, Marvin Miller, Don Briggs and Rye Billsbury (later known as Michael Rye).An article in a 1939 newspaper observed, "First Nighter was the first show to present complete and separate original plays each week."The show's opening recreated the aural atmosphere of a Broadway opening. Before each week's drama began, Mr. First Nighter was first heard walking on Broadway, ...

The Horatio Hornblower series is based upon the novels by C. S. Forester. They were admired by many fans, including Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemmingway who is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know."The adventures follow the rising career from a young, unpromising, and seasick midshipman who eventually becomes Admiral of The Fleet of the Britain's Royal Navy. The storyline occurs during the Napoleonic era. Although many great naval leaders inspired Hornblower, Forester was careful to place the plots far enough away from actual battles so as not to interfere ...

In the fall of 1933, NBC writer Wyllis Cooper conceived the idea of "a midnight mystery serial to catch the attention of the listeners at the witching hour." The idea was to offer listeners a dramatic program late at night, at a time when the competition was mostly airing music. At some point, the serial concept was dropped in favor of an anthology format emphasizing crime thrillers and the supernatural. The first series of shows (each 15 minutes long) ran on a local NBC station, WENR, at midnight Wednesdays, starting in January 1934. By April, the series proved successful enough to ...

Following on the heels of the 1951 movie by the same name, Dana Andrews brought the show to radio in 1952. The show was a patriotic vehicle to warn against the evils of communism at a time when the tensions of the Cold War with the Soviet Union were ever-present. The show aired for a little over a year, and all but four episodes appear to have survived and are included here.

The fictional Commonwealth Space Project (CSP), based in Woomera, South Australia, is working to build a space station orbiting a thousand miles above the Earth's surface: Orbiter X. Planned to be a refuelling station for further space exploration, along with laboratories and other services, the CSP has launched the various components for the space station into orbit. But before construction can begin, the first assembly ship, Orbiter 1, is seemingly attacked and loses contact with CSP Control.A second ship, Orbiter 2, piloted by Captain Bob Britton (John Carson), sent to rescue the ...

This series consisted of 15 minute shows, similar in format to Ripley's Believe It Or Not that had aired from 1930 to 1948. It was hosted/narrated by Ken Nordine and was produced by Unusual Features Syndicate.This syndicated series was heard on the Mutual network during 1950 and 1951 on various days and at various times. For example, according to "The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide To All Circulating Shows" by Jay Hickerson, it aired on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 PM from April 17, 1950 through June 5, 1951 and on Saturdays at 5:15 PM from June 30, 1951 through ...

Edgar John (Berggren) Bergen was an American actor & radio performer, born to Swedish family, in Decatur, Michigan. He lived there until he was 16 (when his father died), then went to Chicago, where he attended Lake View High School and worked n a silent movie house.He taught himself ventriloquism from a pamphlet when he was 11 and a few years later, commissioned as a woodcarver to make a likeness of a rascally Irish newspaper boy he knew. The head went on a puppet named Charlie McCarthy, who became Bergen's lifelong sidekick.In 1938, Bergen was presented an Honorary Oscar (in the form of a ...

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium.

Comic Weekly Man aired from 1947 to 1954 and was a show where the Comic Weekly Man would read the Sunday comics in a dramatic fashion, complete with music and sound effects as well. Adults and children of all ages would tune in to hear the show and to enjoy the antics of the Comic Weekly Man. He read from such strips as Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, and many, many others.

Bright Star (also known as The Irene Dunne-Fred MacMurray Show) was a 30-minute, 52 episode radio comedy-drama broadcast in 1952-53 and syndicated by Ziv. The storyline followed the misadventures of Hillsdale Morning Star editor Susan Armstrong (Irene Dunne) and her idealistic ace reporter George Harvey (Fred MacMurray) as they attempted to keep the struggling newspaper in business despite continual financial problems

The Halls of Ivy featured Ronald Colman as William Todhunter Hall, the president of small, Midwestern Ivy College, and Benita Hume as his wife, Victoria, a former British musical comedy star who sometimes feels the tug of her former profession, and followed their interactions with students, friends, and college trustees. Others in the cast included Herb Butterfield as testy board chairman Clarence Wellman, Willard Waterman (then starring as Harold Peary's successor as The Great Gildersleeve) as board member John Merriweather, and Bea Benaderet, Elizabeth Patterson, and Gloria Gordon...

The Mystery Project was produced by CBC Radio (Canada). It aired every Saturday night on CBC Radio One (6:30 p.m. for most of Canada, 7:30 p.m. Maritimes, 8:00 p.m. Nfld.), and was repeated at 3:30 p.m. the following Mondays on The Roundup, also on Radio One.The series ran from 1992 until 2002. Each week, casual listeners got to puzzle through a fully dramatized radio-play with a resolved plot, while regular listeners had the added fun of following familiar characters' further adventures. The series was created by the Executive Producer, Bill Howell. Barry Morgan was the ...

Theater of Romance was a 30-minute old-time radio show that aired on CBS from 1943 to 1957 as a filler for other shows. The show featured classic romantic stories from movies and historical fiction, and often had a live audience. The content, directors, performers, and producers changed frequently, but the show maintained its theme. Some of the stars who appeared on the show include Gregory Peck, Ida Lupino, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Elliott and Kathy Lewis, Peter Leeds, Lurene Tuttle, Lou Merrill, and Gerald Mohr

Ripley's Believe It or Not! is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the Believe It or Not feature proved popular and was later adapted into a wide variety of formats, including radio, television, comic books, a chain of museums and a book series.The Ripley collection includes 20,000 photographs, 30,000 artifacts and more than 100,000 cartoon panels. With 80-plus attractions, the Orlando, Florida-based Ripley Entertainment, Inc., a division of the...