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Ye Olde Tyme Radio shows. I looked in RGD and didn't see anything obviously for the olde tymey radio shows so heres a thread for it. What the hell are radio "shows"? Is that like a podcast? Not exactly. Before TV was wide spread, radio was the main form of mass entertainment in the developed world. And as such there were all sorts of programs. These days most radio is music, sports, religion and news. Back in ye olden dayes there was a whole lot of other content on the radio. Dramas, mystery, comedy, westerns, action, sci-fi, adventures and a whole gang of other poo poo that I probably can't even think of. I guess in a way, the old radio shows could be likened to Audio books. But rather than being an entire novel they were more like short stories. Most of the ones that I've heard range from about 15 minutes to half an hour. I'm sure there are some that were longer, and maybe even some shorter ones. I feel like some of the comedies may have ranged up to an hour, but I'm not as familiar with them. My personal favorites are a western and a Mystery type show. First: Frontier Gentleman, this series didn't last very long, only about 40-50 episodes. Starring John Dehner as J B Kendall its the tales of an English newspaper reporter on assignment in the American Frontier. The task is to travel around the "west" and send stories back to his employer, the (probably fictitious) newspaper, the London Times. In his travels he met William Bonnie Aka Billy The Kid, Wild Bill Hicock, Calamity Jane, and Jesse James, as well as numerous fictional personalities. The other one, a mystery type show: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. This one had a couple different incarnations. The first one as a private detective. The second one, the one I'm familiar with, and also the most well known incarnation the main character, played by Bob Bailey is "the insurance investigator with the action packed expense account". Episodes were usually about 15 minutes long and broadcast 5 days a week. Monday to Friday I'd assume. Each day was fifteen minutes of the story, and each story was typically 5 parts, thus the Monday to Friday format. Episodes were usually called "The ______ Matter" For example "The Todd Matter" or "The Lansing Fraud Matter". Most stories would start Dollar recieving a phone call from an insurance company outlining a claim that they needed investigated. Stolen Jewelry, a suspicious death, or some other type of suspected fraud that the insurance company would want investigated. From then on Johnny Dollar travels to various locales in the U.S. and beyond to investigate. Every so often you would hear him add to his list of expenses "Item 1 XXdollars, plane/train/taxi fare to (location)" for example Or later on "Item 10 XX dollars, hotel room in (city where investigation takes place)" and so on. Stories would conclude with closing remarks from Dollar himself as the narrator to wrap everything up. These are the two series that I'm most familiar with but there are a ton of other ones ranging from sci-fi to comedy, drama, adventure and more. Gunsmoke: Another western starring William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon of "Dodge". I haven't gotten too many episodes in to this one yet, but it ran from 1952-1961. There was ofcourse the long running TV series as well of the same name with Matt Dillon telling people to "get the motherfuck out of Dodge ya fucker", or something along those lines..... Where can I listen to some of these stories/shows? Well, Sirius/XM radio has the Radio Classics channel. Thats where I was introduced to these shows but for those of you who don't have that, you can try looking at some local AM radio station programming schedules and see what they're playing for an actual authentic "listening to it on the radio" experience. In my area I've found that the following stations play some of the old shows: AM 900 CHML Hamilton Ont. AM 740 CFZM Toronto Ont. AM 1540 CHIN Toronto Ont. Of course, just about anything can be found on youtube these days and there is a wide selection of shows to choose from. Some of it is even free to download if you look in the right place. A lot of it is probably public domain these days, but some may not be. I'm not sure if its considered  to point people to where these things can be downloaded, so I won't post any links. Suffice it to say they aren't hard to find....Goons, feel free to post up any that you like. I know a couple mentioned in another thread they were fans of some of the comedies, others, the sci-fi and so on. Ya'll are welcome to add anything you like here. wesleywillis fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Oct 11, 2020 |
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Oct 11, 2020 00:58
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The 5 part Bob Bailey episodes of Johnny Dollar are a masterclass in radio drama writing and pacing. Like I genuinely don’t think there’s a bad one, but I still recommend folks listen to the Open Town Matter and the Invincible Mike Matter. fake edit: oh and the Clinton Matter, I love the whole corrupt town scapegoat story.
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Oct 11, 2020 02:17
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That's probably why I like Johnny dollar so much. The episodes don't really drag. They're trying to tell so much in each segment but not to the point of ramming everything down your throat in rapid succession. It's fast but not too fast.
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Oct 11, 2020 02:35
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Thanks to a thread like this I found shows like Lights Out, Quiet Please, Suspense, Strange Tales and some other proto-Twilight Zone type material. Don't know how well they would necessarily hold up on their own for story-telling/effects but the format alone kind of makes it work. Something about the old timey cracks, pops, and static that just adds to the creepy factor I guess.
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Oct 11, 2020 16:37
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perfect timing! https://soundcloud.com/ballin-out-super/theater-of-delights-episode-1
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Oct 11, 2020 19:13
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Lumbermouth posted:The 5 part Bob Bailey episodes of Johnny Dollar are a masterclass in radio drama writing and pacing. Like I genuinely don’t think there’s a bad one, but I still recommend folks listen to the Open Town Matter and the Invincible Mike Matter. I specifically checked out the Clinton Matter on youtube and of course one of the comments was: Patrick Lee Patrick Lee 4 months ago Pretty ironic that the town of Clinton is corrupt! 5 REPLY
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Oct 12, 2020 13:27
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WAMU, the DC NPR station, runs the Big Broadcast every Sunday night at 7pm Eastern. They start off with two episodes of Johnny Dollar, an episode of Dragnet, an episode of Gunsmoke, and then fill up the remaining 2.5 hours with an assortment of other olde tymey radio shows and specials. A few years back they even replayed the news broadcasts from D-Day. You can catch the past few episodes online at https://wamu.org/show/the-big-broadcast/
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Oct 13, 2020 02:13
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The internet archive has a lot of Old Time Radio programs available. I’m currently re-listening to Gunsmoke and I can’t recommend it enough. The John Meston-written episodes quickly set the tone for a distinctive series at the twilight of the golden age of radio and radio dramas. The five (?) hour retrospective on the series, which I think was done in the ‘70s, is actually a great introduction, since it has recordings of some of the great episodes like “The Guitar,” “Cow Doctor,” and “Bloody Hands” and describes the production and changes to the production of radio dramas. E: Also, as far as I know, the recordings that are available are generally considered public domain although you couldn’t produce an episode of Gunsmoke yourself. King Hong Kong fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 03:10
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this thread is extremely my poo poo. The go-to I listen to is The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio - it's at over 3200 episodes. http://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/ There's also Down These Mean Streets https://downthesemeanstreetspodcast.libsyn.com and all the shows, horror through sci-fi, at Relic Radio https://www.relicradio.com/otr/
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Oct 14, 2020 00:45
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Not in the same vein as radio dramas, but still old time radio related, Orson Welles' 1946 Commentaries should be required listening https://archive.org/details/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries/ Especially The Affadavit of Isaac Woodward, holy poo poo that hits hard even by 2020 standards. I know that's missing some of his commentaries but I can't seem to find them on Archive.org.
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Oct 14, 2020 03:05
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Youth Decay posted:Not in the same vein as radio dramas, but still old time radio related, Orson Welles' 1946 Commentaries should be required listening https://archive.org/details/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries/ Especially The Affadavit of Isaac Woodward, holy poo poo that hits hard even by 2020 standards. I'll check that poo poo out this weekend if I get the chance. Or some of it anyway. Speaking of Orson Welles I downloaded war of the worlds a while back. Iirc it was broadcast on the night before Halloween in whatever year. I'm saving it to listen to on the 30th this month.
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Oct 15, 2020 01:42
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King Hong Kong posted:The internet archive has a lot of Old Time Radio programs available. Yeah Gunsmoke is really good, and surprisingly dark a lot of times. You might recognize the voice of Doc Adams and Howard McNear, best known for playing Howard the Barber on the Andy Griffith show. I his version of Doc is kind of fun, there's a slightly morbid/ghoulish quality to him that's pretty different from the TV version. If you've seen the early version of the TV series, when the episodes were 30 minutes, they adapted a lot of the radio scripts pretty faithfully. For a fresh recommendation, The Lives of Harry Lime is pretty good from the few episodes I've listened to. It follows Orson Welles' character from The Third Man, prior to the events of that movie. Orson Welles reprises his role.
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Oct 15, 2020 19:27
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I haven't listened to too many episodes of gun smoke yet but I have noticed that Matt Dillon can kinda be a bit of a dick to Chester. I guess that's why it was a drama rather than a comedy.......
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Oct 15, 2020 19:44
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Are we talking exclusively old timey or things that are still done in that tradition included? Marvel has done some high production radio show podcast series that are must listen.
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Oct 17, 2020 08:03
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Are you talking like they're podcasts where people are talking about stuff or actual "episodes" with scripts/story lines and whatnot? If they're stories in a similar vein to the oldies, then yeah bring them on.
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Oct 17, 2020 17:12
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wesleywillis posted:Are you talking like they're podcasts where people are talking about stuff or actual "episodes" with scripts/story lines and whatnot? guessing they mean, among others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(podcast) I personally think that's more suited for the Serialized Fiction Podcast thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3826110 seems like this is thread is more for stuff that was on the radio from the 1930s-1970s and is usually now consumed in podcast form
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Oct 17, 2020 17:15
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Ok. If theres a thread for the "new" stuff already, then yeah maybe keep the new with the new and the old with the old. I didn't know there was the "podcast drama" thread, but that sounds a bit more appropriate for the new stuff.
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Oct 17, 2020 17:31
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the one I linked itt fits because it's meant to be like the old shows
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Oct 17, 2020 17:56
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gently caress. I don't want to be thread hitler because I just don't want to be a meanie. How about we just use our own discretion to decide what to post and not to post in here. Like say if its a Podcast type dealie with a more modern feel/sound to it, then post up in the serialized podcast thread, but if its done "in the spirit/style of" an old time radio program then put it here? What say you goons?
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Oct 17, 2020 21:42
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Yeah I was talking about Wolverine and recently Marvels. Didn't realize there was a narrative podcast thread.
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Oct 17, 2020 21:48
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Does anyone know this one? I want to say it was an episode of X minus one, but maybe not. Maybe that was more of a space Sci-fi vs Earth Sci-Fi. I heard it a couple times back in the spring, around the anniversary of Lincoln getting capped. It was some sort of sci-fi program, with the episode taking place in whatever year the show was produced, probably the 40s or 50s. Some scientist guy built a time machine of sorts wherein the user went back in time and assumed the body of a person at or near where they were at the time of their arrival in the past The caveat being, I guess, that if the person who's body you assume had a weak mind/personality, you could control that body and do whatever, but if they had a strong mind/personality, you could only basically go along for the ride, and if you died while in that body, then there was no way for you to come back to the present. So to experiment, science guy sends another guy (guy #2) back in time to a very specific date in about 1918 or so. The place, and date where his (guy #2) father met his mother. As it turns out, guy #2 assumes the body of his father, and in order to not gently caress things up he goes inside and asks his mom out on a date, just the way his parents told him it happened back on (date), 1918. Science guy's ultimate goal was to prevent the assassination of Lincoln. When guy #2 gets back to the present, science guy convinces him to go back in time to try and prevent it from happening. So they go to Ford's theatre, and science guy activates the time machine. Guy #2 is transported back in time and inhabits the body of "someone" who was in Ford's Theatre near the time of the assassination. The script turns to Guy#2, now in 1865 talking to a couple ushers or employees (I forget exactly) at the theatre and at one point, just before the end of the show he asks them something like "Have y'all motherfucks seen John Wilkes Booth around"? They chuckle and Guy#2 walks away and the two theatre employees are all like "well that was a weird thing for John to ask". Implying of course that he took over the body of John Wilkes Booth. The episode ends right about there. Anyone know which show that was from?
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Oct 24, 2020 04:15
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^^^^ I figured it out. The Mysterious Traveller It was called "The Man Who Tried To Save Lincoln" A link for anyone who wants to listen: https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/mysterious-traveler-the/mysterious-traveler-50-02-07-241-the-man-who-tried-to-save-lincoln Listened to War Of The Worlds last night. I think I might have been a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it was GOOD, but perhaps having heard about it and the surrounding hype maybe I was expecting too much. I think my favorite part was in the last third or so of the story, when its being narrated from a few days later and one guy (Orson Welles) was thinking he was the only man left alive until he comes across some guy who was all like "We 'gon take back o'er them marshinz and then we gon' take over the res' of the world", and dude (narrator) was all kinda like  and GTFO only to make it to New York City and see a whole bunch of the Martian Spaceships in Central Park.
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Oct 31, 2020 19:04
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The first thing that got me listening to these older shows was a Shoutcast stream I found over 10 years ago called Cult Radio A Go Go. Its a mixture of music, commercials and OTR but I loved it, and appropriately enough their website still looks like its from another decade. It's bad, but in an endearing way. They even still have a Realplayer link. http://www.cultradioagogo.com/
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Nov 1, 2020 14:47
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Goddam, I just took a quick glance at that page and holy gently caress is it ever........ 20 years ago looking. They just needed a hit counter for the authentic 1998-2004 internet experience.
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Nov 1, 2020 17:38
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grew up listening to a poo poo load of Our Miss Brooks and also Lights Out. my grandpa had almost the entire Miss Brooks series on cassette so that's what I spent a lot of time listening to (need some of that Palmolive Lustre-Cream shampoo after hearing all those ads)
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Nov 1, 2020 17:55
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wesleywillis posted:Goddam, I just took a quick glance at that page and holy gently caress is it ever........ 20 years ago looking. Reminds me of this guy’s website: http://www.jimramsburg.com It has a wealth of interesting information but it is a nightmare to navigate. I am thinking of posting some reviews of the Gunsmoke episodes I’ve listened to most recently but I left my book with production details elsewhere so I am going to get that before going ahead.
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Nov 2, 2020 02:59
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Last night I listened to two episodes of Frontier Gentleman that I thought were both pretty good. I don't want to give away too much of the plots, so I'll try to only give a few details. "The Cat Man" About an Irish dude who is a "cat salesman" And "The Wonder Boy" who is fast as gently caress with a gun, but only when he's not under pressure. Worthwhile listens. THe first one is kinda funny, while the second one seems more of a morality tale.
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Dec 6, 2020 20:00
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Sirius XM has a channel that's just old radio dramas 24/7, and first I heard this while taking a long night drive. I was loving rivited. https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/chase-the/long-distance-1952-11-02
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Dec 8, 2020 17:34
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Man, if y'all are going John Dehner then how can you skip Have Gun, Will Travel where he plays the errant knight gunslinger Paladin, working out of his San Francisco hotel replete with racist-rear end bellhop Hey Boy. It's absolutely scenerey-chewing radio of the highest caliber. I've also grown to appreciate Dragnet as this weird post-war snapshot of Los Angeles and the mundane nature of police work. Jack Benny's show is absolutely delightful and his self-effacing jokes are really well written and delivered. One of the things that strikes me is, given the "golden age" coincides with wartime, how the language of shared sacrifice works into the commercial bits... and how that absolutely is foreign to today. I'm fairly sure that Sirius XM station sources its content from recovered military broadcast records and tapes. Like all that poo poo would have been lost to time if we didn't have to ship poo poo overseas.
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Dec 11, 2020 16:55
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RandomFerret posted:Sirius XM has a channel that's just old radio dramas 24/7, and first I heard this while taking a long night drive. I was loving rivited. FilthyImp posted:Man, if y'all are going John Dehner then how can you skip Have Gun, Will Travel where he plays the errant knight gunslinger Paladin, working out of his San Francisco hotel replete with racist-rear end bellhop Hey Boy. I haven't listened to much of the dramas lately, but thats on my list of things to get to, I downloaded about 100ish episodes of HGWT a while back, and thats coming up when I finish with the aforementioned Frontier Gent, and get further through my collection of Johnny Dollar. I'm trying to not listen to more than two series at a time so I don't confuse things too badly. "FG" only had about 50ish episodes and I'm nearly done them.
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Dec 12, 2020 17:30
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wesleywillis posted:"FG" only had about 50ish episodes and I'm nearly done them. I had no idea Jimmy Stewart did radio until I randomly heard The Six Shooter. It's not real strong, mostly an oddity given the star. Oddly enough, I haven't the heart to go through and listen to series in their entirety. I like the surprise of a random episode popping up. The real tragedy is they pulled The Shadow from SiriusXM due to licensing 
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Dec 12, 2020 18:13
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FilthyImp posted:Some of the smaller series are real interesting. ^^^ I just heard him on the Six Shooter a day or two ago On Sirius. Also saw him in the movie Its a Wonderful Life last night. And the radio version of that movie on my drive today. The Angel, or the wannabe Angel sounded like Elmer Fudd. Speaking of that, anyone catch any christmasy Olde Tymey shows? Like I mentioned, I heard Jimmy Stewart in the radio version of Its A Wonderful Life. Also heard a few different versions of A Christmas Carol. Including one reading that I swear has Captain Picard doing it. I know, not "old" but still it was good. This version was more of a reading of the book with Picard doing everything vs some of the other versions I've heard with multiple people doing characters and voices. Also pretty sure one of the Christmas Carol versions was narrated by Orson Welles. Miracle On 34th Street wasn't bad either.
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Dec 26, 2020 05:04
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wesleywillis posted:Speaking of that, anyone catch any christmasy Olde Tymey shows?
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Dec 26, 2020 05:10
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My favorite thing about listening to Dragnet is the Fatima ads. Anyone know any good books on the history of OTR?
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Feb 23, 2021 16:42
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drat! I never really thought about checking out any books about it. A quick google doesn't really bring much up but websites. There are a few books for sale here, but I think they might be more like transcriptions of shows more so than a history of Radio shows. http://www.radiospirits.com/P2Brows...books&selSort=0
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Feb 23, 2021 22:58
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The Nero Wolfe radio show with Sydney Greenstreet is an amusing little detective series.
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Mar 1, 2021 17:46
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Not lately, but I've heard a few episodes of this show on Satellite radio. It was pretty good.
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Mar 1, 2021 19:18
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Haven't been listening to much lately, but I'm home sick from work today, so I've been listening to a few episodes of Frontier Gentleman. Almost finished the series as there were only about 40 episodes. Heard one that was kinda  in a way. Episode was called "nasty people". Link to youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsX7PAwSv2o
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Mar 1, 2021 20:50
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Another series that I remember listening to and thinking the characters had great chemistry together (though I didn't listen to ALL of it, so who know, maybe I just got lucky) was the... strangely named 'I Love a Mystery'.
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Mar 2, 2021 08:29
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Bringing this thread back from the dead(OOOOOOOOOO SPOOKY!!!) on Halloween. Currently listening to The Mercury Theater's production of Dracula on Satellite Radio. Missed the first half of the first part, and now on part 2. I've read the book, and seen the movie with Bela Lugosi, and they were both good but very different. From what I've heard thus far, this production follows the book closer than the movie did. Though it's been several years since I read the book so maybe its not that close at all. None the less, very interesting show thus far. Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mercury_Theatre_on_the_Air#Episodes Looks like you can listen to it here: https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/1961 E: Apparently Frankenstein is up next. wesleywillis fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Nov 1, 2021 01:47
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