Radio Dramas
 

You know, sometimes I feel like listening to something that isn't music or talk radio, and don't want to watch TV. If only there were something to fill in that void. Oh, wait, there is!

Radio dramas! And, well, stand-up routines, but that's for another time, as we're focusing on radio dramas now. Anyway, what are some good ones you've come across? Know where one might be able to find some? Etc., etc., etc., yadda?

Anyway, I've got a couple to drop on you.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Yes, the original incarnation of one of our favorite books! Well, the later episodes did come after the later books did, but the first ones were before the first ones, that much is true! Does there really need to be anything extra proclaiming these? I didn't think so.

The Shadow. My dad used to have a lot of records with The Shadow on them, and I loved listening to them when I was a kid. It was pretty awesome stuff. Alas, I can't realy find stuff for The Shadow around anymore. Which makes me eternal sad.

Mov'd!

I don't suppose you've heard the Goon Show, have you? Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Seacombe, being surreal all over the place in a fashion that quickly became wildly popular and inspired quite a number of comics that went after them (like the writers who would become Monty Python, for instance). I think they made at least one film (Running, Jumping and Standing Still Edit: Several, actually, according to the all-knowing Wiki), but their primary outlet was the radio. I suppose it might be considered more "radio sketch comedy", however. Still, it's not at all bad.

I used to have a link to a site where (among other things) you could download a new episode each month, but I appear to have lost it. Pity.

What Time Is It, Edit: Found it. But I'm not sure if it's entirely all right to post a link to that sort of thing, considering as it is a sort of file-sharing and all. (However, I guess I could point out that it hardly takes a Google-fu master to find it for themselves.)

Superman, Fibber McGee & Molly, and Sam Spade continue to rock my world.

Also of not is the NPR Star Wars radio dramas. They're pretty good, plus they really expand on the original stories with a lot of extra scenes. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) are in it (though, Hamill isn't in the 6 episodes for Return of the Jedi).

I always like City of Dreams. The pages take a while to load, but I think you can still listen to the episodes. Haven't tried yet...

SWB

I put on a Family Guy DVD, and just listen to the commentary. I lay in bed, with my head on the pillow and listen to whoever. It's fun, if you know the episode.

I think that DVD commentaries don't quite count as radio dramas/comedies. Unless they're in character and perhaps have a plot. Then it might.

Wow, Bob, you weren't kidding when you said it takes a while to load.

Yeah, I think its because the page is attempting to pull ads & whatnot that have long since been inactive, after you load one page I found the others loaded more quickly. Or maybe it was because I loaded a specific episode.

I haven't had time to check if the files are still there. If not, you might be able to find them on the internets somewhere.

Also, the Sci-Fi channel used to do something called Seeing Ear Theater, and a good number of fun radio drama like stories...

http://www.sffaudio.com/SET.html

SWB

I personally enjoyed a radio drama called "The Smiling Man and related stories" spoken by that one guy who played Monk.

I listened to old Shadow stories, and enjoyed a history documentary about a mormon cult that got high, saw angels, and maybe killed a few people on a trip to Florida, after stopping at the border to get free juice.

My mother loves the Green Hornet, as she was before television. Or was too poor for television. I forget which.