Old time radio blog.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Modern OTR

If you crave more modern takes on the classic old time radio style, try Nightfall and CBS Mystery Workshop. The former is a Canadian anthology series from the early 1980's. A lot of the focus was on science fiction and a fair amount of horror. One notable effort was dramatizing British sf writer John Wyndham's dystopian future tale, The Chrysalids, in a three-episode arc; the result was pretty good although I'd rather it be made into a film. CMW ran from 1974 to 1982 and featured various stars -- many from Broadway -- of the day: E.G. Marshall, Agnes Moorehead, Tony Roberts, Tammy Grimes, Mason Adams, Ruby Dee, and others. Similar to Suspense, the hour-long (or 42 minutes minus the commercials) episodes were based on macabre stories from Poe and the like, or were written on commission with varying success.

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