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CBS Radio Mystery Theater (a.k.a. Radio Mystery Theater and Mystery Theater, sometimes abbreviated as CBSRMT) is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, and later in the early 2000s was repeated by the NPR satellite feed.
The format was similar to that of classic old time radio shows like The Mysterious Traveler and The Whistler, in that the episodes were introduced by a host (E. G. Marshall) who provided pithy wisdom and commentary throughout. Unlike the hosts of those earlier programs, Marshall is fully mortal, merely someone whose heightened insight and erudition plunge the listener into the world of the macabre (in a manner similar to that of "The Man in Black" on yet another old time radio program, Suspense).
As with Himan Brown's prior Inner Sanctum Mysteries, each episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater opened and closed with the ominous sound of a creaking crypt door, accompanied by Marshall's disturbing utterance, "Come in!? Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall." This was followed by one of Marshall's other catchphrases, usually either "The sound of suspense" or "The fear you can hear." At the conclusion, the door would swing shut, preceded by Marshall's classic sign off, "Until next time, pleasant? dreams?" Marshall hosted the program from January 1974 until February 1982, when actress Tammy Grimes took over for the series' final season, maintaining the format.
CBSRMT was broadcast each weeknight, at first with a new program each night. Later in the run three or four episodes were new originals each week, and the remainder repeats. There were 1,399 original episodes. The total number of broadcasts, including repeats, was 2,969. Each episode was allotted a full hour of airtime, but after commercials and newscasts, episodes typically ran for around 45 minutes.
When repeats of the show were broadcast in the early 2000s, Himan Brown re-recorded E.G. Marshall's original host segments.
Target audience
The program was pitched, at least initially, to an audience old enough to remember classic radio; Brown was a legend amongst radio drama enthusiasts for his work on Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Adventures of Nero Wolfe and other shows dating back to the 1930s. Even young characters in early episodes of CBSRMT tended to have names popular a generation earlier, such as Jack, George, Phyllis and Mary. Many scripts, especially those by Ian Martin, showed a tin ear for 1970s youth slang ("Don't let her give you no run-around, dad!"; "I think bein' around here's gonna be kicks!"; "I dig a man who's far out!"). As late as 1981, Sam Dann's scripts included uncomfortable or skeptical references to "women's lib", a term that was by then around a decade out of date. In short, Brown made no attempt to broaden the program's appeal beyond the older generation that had been raised on radio.
The debut of CBSRMT, only a few months after the American Graffiti phenomenon, coincided with the wave of 1950s nostalgia that swept young America during the mid to late 1970s. The program quickly developed a very large fan base among teenage and young adult listeners, in addition to its older, target audience.
Music
Each show began with host E. G. Marshall intoning, "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents?", followed by the sound of a creaking door slowly opening, seeming to invite listeners in for the evening's adventure. Three descending notes from the double basses introduced Marshall's sinister intonation, "Come in? Welcome." A stopped horn sting and timpani roll, then: "I'm E.G. Marshall." A low, eerie theme played by the bass clarinet followed as Marshall introduced the program. At the end of each show, Marshall delivered his classic signoff, "? inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant?dreams?" The door then creaked and slammed shut, followed by a repeat of the show's ominous theme music.
The opening and closing themes for CBSRMT are derived from an abbreviated form of the music from the classic Twilight Zone episode "Two", composed by Nathan Van Cleave. Series listeners will immediately recognize the "RMT Theme" beginning about 1:35 on the "Two" soundtrack selection from the Twilight Zone CD boxed set. Other background tracks from the Twilight Zone music library, to which CBS owned full rights, were featured repeatedly in episodes of CBSRMT. The theme song and the other music was also previously used in the 1950s and 1960s in other CBS-owned radio and television dramas (Perry Mason; Rawhide; The Fugitive; Gunsmoke; Have Gun Will Travel; Suspense; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; etc.), in addition to Twilight Zone, as it was all owned by CBS.
Scope
Despite the show's title, Brown expanded its scope beyond mysteries to include horror, science fiction, historical drama, westerns and comedy, along with seasonal dramas at Christmas: A Christmas Carol, starring host Marshall as Scrooge, aired every Christmas Eve except 1974 and 1982.
In addition to original stories, there were adaptations of classic tales by such writers as O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, H. Rider Haggard, Oscar Wilde and others. Brown typically devoted the first full week of each January to a five- or seven-part series on a common theme. These included a full week of stories by an American writer, (Edgar Allan Poe in 1975, Mark Twain in 1976); week-long adaptations of classic novels (The Last Days of Pompeii in 1980, Les Miserables in 1982); and original dramas about historical figures (Nefertiti in 1979, Alexander the Great in 1981).
Radio historian John Dunning argued the CBSRMT scripts varied widely in quality and concept. Many of the hour-long scripts were padded with filler, Dunning suggested, and could have been worked better as 30-minute programs, while other episodes suffered due to having been written by scribes unfamiliar with the unique needs of radio drama.
Notable performers
Prominent actors from radio's heydey, TV and film performed on the series. Notable regulars included Mason Adams, Kevin McCarthy, Arnold Moss, John Beal, Howard Da Silva, Keir Dullea, Morgan Fairchild, Veleka Gray, Jack Grimes, Fred Gwynne, Larry Haines, Paul Hecht, Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, Mercedes McCambridge, Tony Roberts, Norman Rose, Alexander Scourby, Marian Seldes and Kristoffer Tabori, and a then-unknown John Lithgow.
The series introduced a new generation of listeners to many of the great old time radio voices, including such distinctive performers as Joan Banks, Jackson Beck, Virginia Gregg, Victor Jory, Roberta Maxwell, Marvin Miller, Santos Ortega, William Redfield, Alan Reed, Rosemary Rice, Anne Seymour, Les Tremayne, Lurene Tuttle and Janet Waldo.
A number of well-known veteran and future stars made guest appearances, including
- Theodore Bikel ("Just One More Day," first aired May 29, 1975)
- Richard Crenna ("Ghost Plane," September 12, 1975)
- Joan Hackett ("The Eye of Death," March 7, 1975)
- Margaret Hamilton ("Triptych for a Witch," October 30, 1975)
- Casey Kasem ("The Headless Hessian," September 23, 1975)
- Agnes Moorehead (appeared in the first broadcast, "The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill"; and "The Ring of Truth," January 26, 1974)
- Jerry Orbach ("The Follower," January 25, 1975)
- Sarah Jessica Parker ("The Child Cat's Paw", May 17, 1977)
- Mandy Patinkin ("Lost Dog," January 9, 1974)
- Kathleen Quinlan ("Ring of Evil," April 16, 1979)
- Jerry Stiller ("The Frontiers of Fear," August 13, 1974)
- Roy Thinnes ("Journey Into Terror," August 14, 1974)
- John Lithgow ("The Deserter," February 6, 1980)
Actors were paid union scale at around $73.92 per show. Writers earned a flat rate of $350 per show. Production took place with assembly-line precision. Brown met with actors at 9:00 a.m. for the first script reading. After he assigned roles, recording began. By noon, the recording of the actors was complete, and Brown handed everyone checks. Post-production was done in the afternoon. The program was taped at the CBS Studio Building, 49 East 52nd Street in Studio G, formerly Studio 27 (renamed in honor of Arthur Godfrey whose programs originated in the building for decades).
Episodes
Below are lists of episodes for each of the nine seasons of CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
Awards
In 1974, CBSRMT won a Peabody Award, and in 1990 it was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. On May 6, 1979, Himan Brown was presented a Broadcast Preceptor Award by San Francisco State University for his contributions with the CBSRMT.
Continuing popularity
From June 3 to November 27, 1998, CBSRMT was rebroadcast over CBS radio affiliates and, in 2000, on some NPR stations, in both cases, Himan Brown replaced the original introduction and narrations of E. G. Marshall.
CBSRMT remains perennially popular with collectors to this day, with numerous websites, discussion forums and a Usenet newsgroup devoted to trading MP3 files of episodes. Many of the episodes were taped with original local and network news and commercials embedded, providing an interesting insight into the period when the show first aired. While some may judge CBSRMT as inferior to similar shows from the past such as Inner Sanctum Mysteries, The Mysterious Traveler, and Suspense, which were produced in a 30-minute format, such comparisons must take into account the sheer prodigiousness of production by Brown and his players. At the rate of one program per day, it would take nearly four years to listen to each of the 1,399 hour-long episodes of CBSRMT.
Books
The episode "Children of Death", broadcast February 5, 1976, written by Sam Dann, served as the basis for Dann's 1979 novel The Third Body, published by Popular Library. Another of his stories for Mystery Theater, "Goodbye Carl Erich" from the 1975 season, was also turned into a novel by the same name, first published in 1985.
In 1976, a paperback anthology with three short stories adapted from the series' radio scripts was published by Pocket Library, Strange Tales from the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, edited and with a foreword by Himan Brown.
In January 1999, McFarland & Company, Inc. published The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, a book documenting the history of the program, including an episode guide. Fully indexed, the 475-page book was authored by Gordon Payton and Martin Grams, Jr. It was published in both hardcover and trade paperback.
In October 2006, Stahl Consolidated Manufacturing Corporation published a third book about Mystery Theater, examining the series' value today in education and instruction, The CBS Radio Mystery Theater As An Educational Degree, authored by Michael Anthony Stahl of Huntsville, AL. 180 pages, the hardcover was also selected for inclusion into the libraries of The University of Georgia,(one of the few venues with a complete collection of the series from the CBS vaults) as well as included into their Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection of the Film and Television Library in Summer, 2009.
All three books were reviewed in an article by Roger Sobin in Old-Time Detection Magazine in the Spring 2008 issue.
See also
- The Zero Hour, a weekday anthology radio series from 1973-74, created and hosted by Rod Serling over syndication and the Mutual Broadcasting System
- Sears Radio Theater/Mutual Radio Theater, an hour-long weekday anthology series on CBS Radio which followed CBSRMT during much of its run before moving to the Mutual Broadcasting System.
References
External links
- Himan Brown's Audio Theater
- CBS Radio Mystery Theater Complete collection posted in internet archive
- CBSRMT.info is a fan forum
- OTR Plot Spot: CBS Radio Mystery Theater - plot summaries and reviews.
- "CBS Radio Mystery Theater". RadioEchoes. 1974-1982.CS1 maint: Date format (link) 1399 episodes.
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