HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL, western adventure. BROADCAST HISTORY: (Originated on TV: Sept. 14, 1957–Sept. 21, 1963, CBS.) Radio: Nov. 23, 1958–Nov. 27, 1960, CBS. 30m, Sundays at 6. Multiple sponsorship. C...
Bowes collected many honorary titles in his life: his real title, major, was often suspected of being a trump-up, but it was genuine enough—he had held that rank in the U.S. Army Reserve during World...
The camaraderie of the trail was a constant. To Cisco, Pancho was Chico, and their allegiances were first and foremost to each other. Though Cisco would often scold his partner for stupidity, no other...
The appearance of Destination Moon in movie houses helped make 1950 the year of S-F on radio. Dimension X rose to the task, proving that radio and science fiction were ideally compatible. The series d...
MR. AND MRS. NORTH, mystery melodrama, based on the novels by Frances and Richard Lockridge.
And go look and see the book was missing from that back room.
These shows have all been in circulation more than 20 years. Since then: almost nothing. Connoisseurs of the Hollywood run generally disdain the New York shows as inferior product. But as William Faul...
Kenny Baker, brought another dimension of comedy to the singer’s role, the addled young man with the voice of gold. His tenure was solid, four full seasons. He was almost, but not quite, the answer in...
John’s Other Wife was such a perfect title for a soap opera that it was lampooned by Fred Allen (as Duncan’s Other Fife, etc.) and other comics for years. The main point of contention was the romantic...
It should have run that summer of 1947 and disappeared, if the track records of other such programs are indicative. It came late in radio’s history, a fact that may have contributed in a strange way t...
It seems strange that George Burns and Gracie Allen would be discovered, as radio properties, by the British. They were doing a vaudeville tour in England, playing to packed houses everywhere. The Bri...
In the late ’40s, the listener was tantalized by three questions: Worried about the United Nations? … Anxious about those bills piling up? … Want to get away from it all? We offer you … ESCAPE!
In the initial NBC series, Greenwood played a neophyte reporter on a small newspaper, who aspired to Hollywood stardom. In the regular season, she lived in the little town of Lake-view, where she took...
In his four months in England, wrote Corwin, I did not once interview a high government official. The main objective of the series was to establish the character of the British people and not dissemin...
Guedel had set out to be a writer but had been frustrated by rejections. He had worked for Hal Roach on some of the Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascals film shorts, and had gravitated into radio. Link...
Gang Busters was the noisiest show on the air. The sharp blast of a policeman’s whistle. Shuffling feet. Gunshots. A broken window. The stark metallic voice of a burglar alarm, and the forlorn answer...
Calling All Cars was one of the earliest police shows on the air. It dramatized true crime stories introduced by officers of the Los Angeles and other police departments. The show was a crude forerunn...
At CBS, it was pursued by William S. Paley himself, who scheduled a demonstration of sound quality for Met chairman Otto Kahn. Paley recalled (in his memoir) that Kahn was inspired as he listened. Jus...
And like any good newspaper, the show had severe critics. It was damned left and right. Real newsmen condemned it for hamming up the news. Communists called it fascistic. William Randolph Hearst label...
The show was one of radio’s most consistent until 1950, when Harold Peary announced that he was quitting his starring role. Rumor had it that Peary had held out for more money. His series was still ca...