Showing results by author "Original Radio Broadcast" in All Categories

By the 1956-57 season, Gunsmoke had reached the peak of its dramatic power as radio’s foremost adult western, with its powerful scripts and careful characterizations. William Conrad leads the cast as Marshal Matt Dillon, along with Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty. The citizens of Dodge City, Kansas emerged as living, breathing embodiments of frontier America in radio dramas that represent the medium at its most potent. Experience 27 hard-hitting adventures from this landmark season in this collection!

From the imaginative radio mind of writer/producer Jim French comes the tough-but-thoughtful private eye who roams the rain-swept streets of the Pacific Coast in search of crime, adventure, and enough dough to keep the office lights on for another month - Harry Nile! It's modern radio drama produced in the classic style, with stories set in the golden age of private-eye drama. Phil Harper stars as Harry in high-powered, hard-luck radio adventures! The 21 episodes featured here include the last show of the character's 1970s run, and the first 20 episodes of his glorious return in 1990.

The game's afoot once more—in the classic radio style! Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson roam the fog-shrouded streets of London in new adventures produced by Jim French, fully authorized by the Conan Doyle estate. John Gilbert stars as Holmes, with Larry Albert as Watson, in tales of international intrigue, priceless jewels, bank robberies, and beheadings. Listen in as the World's Only Consulting Detective puts his powers of deduction to the test!

Imagine radio noir in the grand tradition - the mystery, excitement, and adventure of the medium's Golden Age. Now imagine that this has been combined with all of the technical polish that 21st century audio theatre techniques have to offer. That's The Adventures of Harry Nile. Produced by modern-radio legend Jim French, this collection features cases set in the 1940s. A hard-boiled but gentle-souled private investigator takes to the rain-swept streets of the Pacific Northwest.

She's like Sherlock Holmes with a sassy 1930s attitude! She's Hilary Caine, staff investigator for a British tabloid who knows her way around London…and around every murder case that comes her way!

You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, we're telling you why! Great Radio Christmas is coming to town! Pour yourself an egg nog, break out the ribbon candy, and tune in for a whole stocking-full of radio favorites celebrating the holiday season.

Head to distant worlds and alternate futures! Explore the limitless potential for twists and turns when stories are fueled by the infinite power of imagination! Here are twenty-four thought-provoking tales as up-to-date as tomorrow. It's new-time radio in the classic old-time-radio manner, from the mind of producer Jim French.

It's a rainy night in postwar Seattle. There's a crime to be solved, and an investigator is needed. But it's a dangerous profession! Sometimes the source of a scream is elusive, sometimes a surveillance job goes south, and sometimes someone's got their gun sight set on you! From out of the Pacific Northwest come 24 more adventures produced by Jim French. Phil Harper stars as Harry Nile, with Pat French as his all-knowing assistant Murphy. It's new-time radio drama produced in the classic style.

The ultra-realistic crime dramas of Dragnet were tight, tense, and always on target. Guided by Jack Webb from its radio premiere in 1949 right through to the series' end, the medium's most memorable police procedural never cut corners in its meticulous recreation of crime, investigation, and punishment. Follow LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday and his partners, Sgts. Ben Romero and Frank Smith, in 20 real-life cases from both the early weeks of the program's run and its later years!

For over 40 years, Seattle-based radio personality Jim French kept the flame of radio drama alive with Imagination Theatre! Noir-ish private eye Harry Nile, globetrotting adventurer Dameron, Kincaid the Strangeseeker, the methodical investigator Mr. Darnborough - plus fresh new takes on Raffles the Gentleman Thief, and even Sherlock Holmes himself - all had compelling stories to tell.

Dragnet was radio's most successful police procedural series, and by far its most influential, shaping an entire generation's view of law enforcement, and bringing police work to life in carefully-documented detail. Never sensationalistic, but always a gripping listening experience, Jack Webb's signature creation remains the standard against which crime dramas are judged. Webb, who produced and directed the series, stars as Sergeant Joe Friday in gritty dramas of unprecedented realism.

Sergeant Joe Friday of the LAPD was arguably the most pivotal figure in radio drama's postwar shift toward ultra-realism. Just an ordinary plainclothes cop doing his job, and doing it with a meticulous attention to detail that revolutionized the way radio told its stories. Jack Webb stars Friday, with Barton Yarborough as Ben Romero, Barney Phillips as Ed Jacobs, and Ben Alexander as Frank Smith in this collection of 20 absorbing crime dramas!

Follow Jack Benny and his gang around the calendar in this 16-episode collection that takes you from week to week, from season to season, from holiday to holiday, and from laugh to laugh! And you never know who might pop up to join in the fun. It might be Barbara Stanwyck, or Claude Rains, or Jack's real life daughter, Joan.

Lum and Abner meet Buster V. Davenport of Toledo, Ohio…but, he sure looks a lot like our old friend Grandpappy Spears of Pine Ridge! And, that's just one of the problems facing the proprietors of the Jot 'Em Down Store in this collection. There's a war on! The town's truck line is in trouble, "little" Pearl is leaving town to become a nurse, and the boys' secret recipe for making synthetic rubber is lost. Can the Golden Era Discussion Club study up a way to get things back to normal? Here are 36 serialized episodes from the winter of 1943!

Crime, mystery, and just a touch of the supernatural - they're all on display in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills! Join your host, The Man in Black, for 20 gripping installments of Suspense (including the first ever broadcast of "Sorry, Wrong Number"). Legends like Cary Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Orson Welles, and Gene Kelly star in stories by thriller greats like Agatha Christie, Lucille Fletcher, John Dickson Carr, and Cornell Woolrich. Enjoy these tales well calculated to keep you in…Suspense!

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar takes a turn towards the hardboiled as film-noir favorite Edmond O'Brien takes over the role of America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigator. His gritty, driven performance is well worth rediscovering. O'Brien's harder, more cynical Dollar brought him harder and more cynical clients…and adversaries. In this collection of original radio episodes from 1950-52, Johnny finds more than his quota of murder, mystery, and malfeasance.

The fog is thick, the atmosphere is heavy, and the game's afoot once again! World famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted aide Dr. Watson roam the streets of Victorian London in search of the vital clues that will bring malefactors to justice! Adapted from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and produced by Jim French, The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is radio drama at its 21st-century best! John Patrick Lowrie stars as Holmes, with Lawrence Albert as Watson, in 16 immortal adventures in sparkling up-to-the-minute audio!

Dodge City and frontier Kansas come to life on the limitless plain of your imagination in 20 intense western dramas. In these gritty and poignant stories, originally broadcast in 1955, making a wrong call about whether or not to trust a man could cost you your fortune…or your life.

Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was one of the best loved of all radio shows, and often one of the most listened to programs on the airwaves. The public loved the caring, fatherly sleuth who could resolve any problem and knew just how to handle any situation. Bennett Kilpack and Philip Clarke star as "The Kindly Old Tracer," in 20 digitally remastered tales of the missing and the murdered. James Kelly co-stars as Mike Clancy, the Irish former cop who not only assists the sleuth, but considers himself the old gentleman's bodyguard.

Ronald and Benita Colman made 20 guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program, including some of the most hilarious entries in the series. The Colmans' refined personaes played an excellent "grand opera" to the "ragtime" of Jack's mercenary enterprises. In this set, you'll hear the dashing Ronald read the winning entry of the "I Can't Stand Jack Benny" contest. You will also hear Benita receive the third longest laugh ever on the Benny radio program. It's no wonder that The Colmans' visits to Benny's radio series have become listener classics.