The Chronic Rift Network

I like to start off the new year with these adaptations by "The Lux Radio Theater."   We're going to get a little spooky this year.   "Rebecca" was first a great psychological thriller novel by Daphne de Maurier in 1938, then a great film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, and eventually this great, though a little shorter, radio adaptation for "Lux."   Though the Hitchcock film is visually stu...

It's Episode 201 of "Presenting the Transcription Feature" and time for some more Christmas Old Time Radio. First off, on "Fibber McGee and Molly," the McGees are working at a local department store a few weeks before Christmas. They run the returns department where "the customer is always right." Then on "The Jack Benny Program," Jack is hosting a big Christmas Eve bash at his place, Thanksgiving...

It's Episode 200 of "Presenting the Transcription Feature" and Christmas in the land of Old Time Radio.   On "The Jack Benny Program," Jack and company are visiting New York in December.   This allows him to try shopping in a Manhattan department store, which provides a little variety.   Then, on "The Great Gildersleeve," will the members of the Jolly Boys Club turn a charitable project into an ex...

It's been a long time since we checked in with that loveable con man Harry Lime, in the person of Orson Welles.   Not quite the psychopathic murderer he was in the movie "The Third Man," where he originated the role, radio's Harry was more of a ne'er-do-well criminal.   In this episode, of "The Lives of Harry Lime," Harry is on the Orient Express, hoping to work a counterfeit scam when someone tri...

We start off tonight with another episode of that great quiz show, "Information Please."   Are you up on babies and their guardians, military insignia, and devils in literature?   Then, since it's almost time for Easter, here's the Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble of OTR: Phil Harris and Elliot Lewis.   "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show" starred actual married couple, Phil Harris, who was the band...

We start off tonight with an episode of "The Bob Hope Show."   It's December of 1945, and the war is over.   Hope had spent much of it broadcasting from military bases, but now he is back at the NBC studios in Hollywood.   His guest, Jimmy Durante, promises to take Bob to a swanky party, but is Bob ready for Society, and vice-versa?   Then, time for that excellent quiz show, "Information Please."...

For our New Year's treat, here's "The Lux Radio Theater" adaptation of the classic 1947 film "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."   The film is an unconventional romance of sorts starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney as the title characters.   She's a vibrant young widow, and he's the ghost of a rollicking sea captain.   The captain isn't French, so I'm not sure why they cast Charles Boyer in the role, exc...

More Christmas here on "Presenting the Transcription Feature."   "Author's Playhouse" was an anthology radio drama that ran from 1941 to 1945 on various networks.   It featured adaptations of popular short stories by authors like James Thurber, W.W. Jacobs, and, in this case, O. Henry.   The story you are about to hear first appeared in his 1907 collection "Heart of the West," a collection of west...

Welcome to December on "Presenting the Transcription Feature."   That means Christmas-themed episodes all month.   We'll start off with George Burns and Gracie Allen in the eponymous "The Burns and Allen Show."   Christmas is fast approaching, and George has no idea what to get his wife.   Then "The Great Gildersleeve" himself is in a very good mood as he goes holiday shopping and plans a party fo...

"The Couple Next Door" was one of the many 15-minutes-a day, five-days a week programs that used to fill the airwaves.   It was, like "Vic and Sade" a show about "nothing."   It lacks the absurdism of "Vic and Sade," and that may have made it easier for its audience to relate to.   The show was the creation of one woman, Peg Lynch, who wrote and co-starred in every episode.   Tonight, we present t...

It's Halloween, and what says spooky goings-on more than … Jack Benny.   Tonight, we have two episodes of very different shows, but both starring Jack Benny. We start off with "The Jack Benny Program."   Everyone is invited to Jack's house for a Halloween party.   There's crazy costumes, disappointing food and drink, and lots of jokes about the bygone days of vaudeville.   Then Jack takes a dramat...

It's back-to-school time on this episode of "Presenting the Transcription Feature."   And we all need to laugh, so here's two comedy episodes.   First, we'll visit Ivy College, where the mellifluous British actor Ronald Colman and his real-life wife, the equally mellifluous Benita Hume, star as "The Halls of Ivy."   He is the president of one of those small Midwestern colleges that predominated in...

"HORNET, SAVE THYSELF" AIRED: MARCH 3, 1967 Britt is accused of murder after he kills a former employee in a room full of witnesses.  Now, he must break ranks with Scanlon and go rogue as the Hornet in order to prove his innocence.    John and Jim use this episode as an example of a point they've been making since the very beginning of the podcast, the missed potential in only making these episode...

"Bubi, Bubi, Who's Got the Ruby?" & "1001 Faces of the Riddler" Aired October 12, 1968 Catwoman and Penguin are at odds over a priceless ruby and the Terrific Trio are caught in the middle in our two-part story review.  Next, Riddler is back in town and he's using disguises to throw the Dynamic Duo off his trail even more so than his riddles. ​ ​ In addition, John and Dan Greenfield, creator and a...

Episode 44 Jack C. Harris   With the conclusion of our reviews of DC Comics' 1977 run of The Mighty Isis comic series, we're proud to present our interview with The Mighty Isis writer Jack C. Harris. Harris talks with us about how he got the assignment to write the book, the abrupt cancellation, and his plans with the series had it moved forward. Plus, we talk Kamandi and Captain Marvel in this al...

We'll start off tonight with The One, The Only, Groucho! on "You Bet Your Life."   Tonight, Groucho Marx interviews the usual assortment of unusual high school students, assistant district attorneys, housewives, and are dog trainers that different from piano teachers?   Then on Old Time Radio's premier science fiction anthology program, "X Minus One," comes an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "C-Chute...

For the Fourth of July, we're going to present two Independence Day-themed episodes of classic old time radio.   First drama then comedy.   "Family Theater" was a family-friendly anthology show featuring a mix of original stories and adaptations of literary classics, usually starring big names from Hollywood.   This week's program is a dramatization of a particular moment in history -- the writing...

It's summer time, and I want to present a couple of summer-themed and summer-adjacent radio shows.   We'll start off with real American politician, writer, and newspaper publisher Will Rogers, Jr playing a fictional Will Rogers, Jr who runs the fictional small-town newspaper, the "Illyria Weekly Gazette."   What else says summer more than a county fair, with lots of people partaking in various com...

The character of A.J. Raffles was created by E.W. Hornung in 1898.   Hornung was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law, and he was inspired to write about a sort of anti-Sherlock Holmes.   His Raffles is thief, to be sure, but one who was charming.   Raffles an "an amateur cracksman," who lives the life of a gentleman.   But if you don't actually have an independent income, you have to be able t...

We begin with the "College Quiz Bowl," as students from Tulane go up against their counterparts from Northwestern.   As always, some of the topics are very specific to the day, but we 21 st Century residents should still be able to answer quite a lot.   Are you up on the names of pop culture family members, Winston Churchill's writings, and tea in the news?   Then, we return to the contemporary (1...

"Forecast" was a radio show specifically designed to try out new shows.   Both "Suspense" and "Duffy's Tavern" got their starts there.   Tonight, we present the pilot for a show I would have absolutely loved had it gone to series, but alas it did not.   "Leave It To Jeeves," was inspired by the P.G. Wodehouse tales of young man-about-town Bertie Wooster and his personal gentleman's gentleman, Jeev...

Tonight, we return to Orson Welles' "The Mercury Theatre on the Air."   In this adaptation of Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days," Welles plays British gentleman adventurer Phileas Fogg, who has wagered his personal fortune that he can circumnavigate the globe in just that time.   Filled with fantastic music by Bernard Herrmann, top-notch sound effects, and a great supporting cast, Welles...

Nero Wolfe, the brilliant, but lazy, detective created by Rex Stout, famously almost never left his house.   One of the few things that could stir him was his love of orchids.   In tonight's episode of "The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe," starring Sydney Greenstreet, it is indeed some of those lovely plants that draw him into a murder at a flower shop.   Then on "The Jack Benny Program," Jack and t...

We start off tonight with an episode of "Suspense" that isn't all that suspenseful, i.e. spooky.   But it's a lot of fun.   "The Lost Special" is based on a non-Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which first appeared in " The Strand Magazine "  in August, 1898.   Orson Welles narrates .   This is an Armed Forces Radio rebroadcast, which means the ads have been taken out.   It was pla...

We start off tonight with a murder as investigated by those charming amateur sleuths, "Mr. and Mrs. North."   Then we get seasonal with "Fibber McGee and Molly," as Fibber attempts to celebrate Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday, aka Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras) by serving his wife a pancake breakfast in bed. Episodes Mr. and Mrs. North September 1, 1953 "No Vacation From Murder" 1:35 Fibber McGee and Moll...