''CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' (a.k.a. ''Radio Mystery Theater'' and ''Mystery Theater'', sometimes abbreviated as ''CBSRMT'') is a

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

affiliates from 1974 to 1982, and later in the early 2000s was repeated by the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

satellite feed. The format was similar to that of classic old time radio shows like ''

The Mysterious Traveler ''The Mysterious Traveler'' was an anthology radio series, a magazine, and a comic book. All three featured stories which ran the gamut from fantasy and science fiction to straight crime dramas of mystery and suspense. Radio Written and direct ...

'' and '' The Whistler'', in that the episodes were introduced by host

E. G. Marshall E. G. Marshall (born Everett Eugene Grunz;Everett Eugene Grunz in Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934, Ancestry.comEverett Eugene Grunz in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, accessed via Ancestry.com June 18, ...

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. 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 door. This

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

is accompanied by Marshall's greeting, "Come in!… Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall." At each show's conclusion, the door swings shut, and Marshall signs off with: "Until next time, pleasant… dreams?" This is followed by an extended variation of the show's theme music. ''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, each episode typically ran for around 45 minutes.

Hosts

E. G. Marshall hosted the program from January 1974 until February 1, 1982, when actress Tammy Grimes took over for the remainder of the series' final season, maintaining the format. Himan Brown re-recorded E. G. Marshall's original host segments for NPR's broadcast of the show in the 2000s.

Music

The series' theme music features three descending notes from double basses, a stopped horn sting and timpani roll, then a low, eerie theme played by the

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave ...

. The opening and closing themes for ''CBSRMT'' are excerpted from the music from the score for '' Twilight Zone'' episode "Two", composed by

Nathan Van Cleave Van Cleave (born Nathan Lang Van Cleave, May 8, 1910 – July 3, 1970) was a composer and orchestrator for film, television, and radio. Biography Born in Bayfield, Wisconsin, he played with big bands, including Doc Fenton and his Sooners ...

. 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 ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central chara ...

''; '' Have Gun Will Travel''; ''

Suspense Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being Decision-making, undecided, or being Doubt, doubtful. In a Drama, dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the wikt:outcome, outcome of a plot (narrative), plot or of the solution t ...

''; ''

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ''Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar'' is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962. The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama, with Charles Russell, Edmond O'B ...

''; 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 Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and s ...

, westerns and

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

, along with seasonal dramas during the Christmas season: An adaptation of ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas ...

'', starring host E.G. Marshall as Scrooge, was broadcast every Christmas Eve with the exception of 1974 and 1982. In addition to original stories, there were adaptations of classic tales by such writers as

O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the ...

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary crit ...

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for '' The Woman in White'' (1859), a mystery novel and early "sensation novel", and for '' The Moonstone'' (1868), which has b ...

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

H. Rider Haggard Sir Henry Rider Haggard (; 22 June 1856 – 14 May 1925) was an English writer of adventure fiction romances set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a pioneer of the lost world literary genre. He was also involved in land reform t ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form, as well as a representative of the Naturalist school, who depicted human lives, destin ...

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

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 Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

in 1975,

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

in 1976); week-long adaptations of classic novels ('' The Last Days of Pompeii'' in 1980, ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its origin ...

'' in 1982); and original dramas about historical figures (

Nefertiti Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in which ...

in 1979,

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

in 1981). The works of Russian writers, including

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

and Tolstoy, were also adapted.

Criticism

Radio historian John Dunning has criticized the quality of the show's script writing, arguing that Brown used writers for many scripts "who were by their nature performers" rather than writers.

Notable performers

Prominent actors from the stage, radio, film and television performed on the series. Notable regulars included

Mason Adams Mason Adams (February 26, 1919 – April 26, 2005) was an American character actor and voiceover artist. From the late 1940s until the early 1970s, he was heard in numerous radio programs and voiceovers for countless television commercials, t ...

Lloyd Battista Lloyd McAteer Battista (born May 14, 1937, in Cleveland, Ohio) is a retired American actor and screenwriter. Biography Battista studied acting at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He was active on Broadway and off-Broadway stages, appearing in ...

, John Beal,Robert Dryden, Ralph Bell,

Howard Da Silva Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...

Keir Dullea Keir Atwood Dullea (; born May 30, 1936) is an American actor. He played astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and its 1984 sequel, '' 2010: The Year We Make Contact''. His other film roles include ''David and Lisa' ...

, Patricia Elliot,

Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild (born Patsy Ann McClenny; February 3, 1950) is an American actress. She began acting in the early 1970s and has had roles in several television series since. Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera ''Search for T ...

, Bernard Grant,

Veleka Gray Veleka Gray (born March 22, 1951), sometimes credited as Velekka Gray, is an American actress, best known for her roles as department store executive Vicki Paisley Cannell on ''Somerset'', and as Mia Marriott on ''Love of Life'' from 1977 to ...

, Jack Grimes, Fred Gwynne, Marian Hailey,

Larry Haines Larry Haines (born Larry Hecht; August 3, 1918 – July 17, 2008) was an American actor. Early years Haines was born on August 3, 1918 in Mount Vernon, New York. (Some sources say August 18, 1918, in the same city). He had been active in dramati ...

Paul Hecht Paul Hecht (born August 16, 1941) is an English-born Canadian stage, film, and television actor known for playing radio newsman Ross Buckingham in Howard Stern's ''Private Parts''. Life and career Born in London, England, Hecht graduated from ...

Celeste Holm Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in ''Come to ...

, Russell Horton,

Kim Hunter Kim Hunter (born Janet Cole; November 11, 1922 – September 11, 2002) was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' ''A Streetcar ...

John Lithgow John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...

Roberta Maxwell Roberta Farnham Maxwell (born June 17, 1941) is a Canadian stage, film, and television actress. Biography Maxwell began studying for the stage in her early teens. She joined John Clark for two years as the child co-host of his '' Junior Magaz ...

, Mercedes McCambridge, Kevin McCarthy, Arnold Moss, William Redfield, Tony Roberts, Norman Rose,

Alexander Scourby Alexander Scourby (; November 13, 1913 – February 22, 1985) was an American film, television, and voice actor known for his deep and resonant voice and Mid-Atlantic accent. He is best known for his film role as the ruthless mob boss Mike L ...

Marian Seldes Marian Hall Seldes (August 23, 1928 – October 6, 2014) was an American actress. A five-time Tony Award nominee, she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' A Delicate Balance'' in 1967, and received subsequent nomination ...

Kristoffer Tabori Kristoffer Tabori (also known as K.T. Donaldson, born Christopher Donald Siegel; August 4, 1952) is an American actor and television director. Early life Tabori was born in Malibu, California, the son of American film director Don Siegel and S ...

and

Michael Tolan Michael Tolan (born Seymour Tuchow, November 27, 1925 – January 31, 2011) was an American actor. Early life and education The son of Morris Tuchow, Tolan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Central High School and Wayne State Un ...

. The series introduced a new generation of listeners to many of the great radio voices, including

Joan Banks Joan Banks (October 30, 1918 – January 18, 1998) was an American film, television, stage, and radio actress (described as "a soapbox queen"), who often appeared in dramas with her husband, Frank Lovejoy. Early life Banks attended a school of ...

Jackson Beck Jackson Beck (July 23, 1912 – July 28, 2004) was an American actor best known as the announcer on radio's '' The Adventures of Superman''Dunning, John. (1998). ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''. Oxford University Press. . Pp. 1 ...

Virginia Gregg Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

, Victor Jory, Mandel Kramer,

Marvin Miller Marvin Julian Miller (April 14, 1917 – November 27, 2012) was an American baseball executive who served as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from 1966 to 1982. Under Miller's direction, the players ...

, Dan Ocko,

Santos Ortega Santos Edward Ortega (June 30, 1899 – April 10, 1976) was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for playing Will Hughes in ''As the World Turns'', taking over from Will Lee, who had played the role from the first episode on April 2, ...

, Alan Reed, Rosemary Rice, Anne Seymour, Arnold Stang, Les Tremayne,

Lurene Tuttle Lurene Tuttle (August 29, 1907 – May 28, 1986) was an American actress and acting coach, who made the transition from vaudeville to radio, and later films and television. Her most enduring impact was as one of network radio's more versatile a ...

and

Janet Waldo Janet Waldo (born Jeanette Marie Waldo; February 4, 1919 – June 12, 2016) was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in ''Shazzan'', Penelope Pitstop, Princess from '' ...

. A number of well-known veteran and future stars of stage, film and TV made appearances, including * Diane Baker ("Picture on a Wall," October 15, 1974; "The Little Old Lady Killer," September 15, 1975)) * Theodore Bikel ("Just One More Day," May 29, 1975) *

Joseph Campanella Joseph Anthony Campanella (November 21, 1924 – May 16, 2018) was an American character actor. He appeared in more than 200 television and film roles from the early 1950s to 2009. Campanella was best remembered for his roles as Joe Turino on ' ...

("Murder to Perfection," September 30, 1974) * Len Cariou ("The Man of Two Centuries," April 29, 1981; "The Headhunters," May 22, 1981) * Ralph Carter ("Accounts Receivable", January 16, 1974) * Hans Conried *

Richard Crenna Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor. Crenna starred in such motion pictures as '' The Sand Pebbles'', ''Wait Until Dark'', ''Un Flic'', '' Body Heat'', the first three ...

("Ghost Plane," September 12, 1975) *

Ruby Dee Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist. She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (1 ...

* Sandy Dennis ("Snake in the Grass," July 14, 1975) * Nina Foch * John Forsythe ("The Golden Blood of the Sun," October 3, 1974) * Vincent Gardenia *

Jack Gilford Jack Gilford (born Jacob Aaron Gellman; July 25, 1908 – June 4, 1990) was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Save the Tiger'' (1973). Early life Gilf ...

("It's Simply Murder," March 27, 1974) * Joan Hackett ("The Eye of Death," March 7, 1975) * Margaret Hamilton ("Triptych for a Witch," October 30, 1975) *

Mariette Hartley Mary Loretta Hartley (born June 21, 1940) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for work with Bill Bixby on ''The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series), The Incredible Hulk'' (1978) and ''Goodnight, Beantown'' (1983–1984), ...

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

("The Headless Hessian," September 23, 1975) *

Joanne Linville Beverly Joanne Linville (January 15, 1928 – June 20, 2021) was an American actress. She later taught at the Stella Adler Academy, Los Angeles. She is best known as a Romulan Commander on ''Star Trek: The Original Series''. Biography Early li ...

("The Deserter," February 6, 1980) * Anne Meara ("The Killer Inside," April 1, 1975) *

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...

("The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill" (January 6, 1974; "The Ring of Truth," January 26, 1974) * Julie Newmar ("Ordeal by Fire," March 21, 1974) * Patrick O'Neal *

Jerry Orbach Jerome Bernard Orbach (October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004) was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last'' bona fide'' leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a " ...

("The Follower," January 25, 1975) *

Sarah Jessica Parker Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

("The Child Cat's Paw", May 17, 1977) *

Mandy Patinkin Mandel Bruce Patinkin (; born November 30, 1952) is an American actor and singer, known for his work in musical theatre, television and film. He is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received three Tony Award nominations, winning ...

("Lost Dog," January 9, 1974) *

Brock Peters Brock Peters (born George Fisher; July 2, 1927 – August 23, 2005) was an American actor and singer, best known for playing the villainous "Crown" in the 1959 film version of ''Porgy and Bess'', and the wrongfully convicted Tom Robinson in t ...

("The Black Whale," September 25, 1975) *

Kathleen Quinlan Kathleen Denise Quinlan Abbott (born November 19, 1954) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel '' I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,'' and her Golde ...

("Ring of Evil," April 16, 1979) * Stephan Schnabel *

Frances Sternhagen Frances Hussey Sternhagen (born January 13, 1930) is an American actress; she has appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on TV since the 1950s.Joy, Car"Frances Sternhagen in Talks to Join Company of Broadway Magnolias" Broadway.com, Nov ...

* Jerry Stiller ("The Frontiers of Fear," August 13, 1974) * Beatrice Straight * Holland Taylor * Roy Thinnes ("Journey Into Terror," August 14, 1974) * Ruth Warrick ("Conspiracy to Defraud," February 8, 1974) When the program began in 1974, actors were paid union scale; at the time around $73.92 per episode. Writers earned a flat rate of $350 per episode. Production took place with assembly-line precision. Brown met with actors at 9:00 a.m. for the first script reading. After roles were assigned, recording began. By noon, the recording of the actors was complete, and Brown handed everyone checks. The program was taped in New York at the CBS Studio Building, 49 East 52nd Street in Studio G, formerly Studio 27 (renamed Studio 'G' in honor of

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

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 The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, and in 1990 it was inducted into the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

. On May 6, 1979, Himan Brown was presented a Broadcast Preceptor Award by

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

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

stations, in both cases, Himan Brown re-recorded the original introduction and narrations of E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes. ''CBSRMT'' remains popular with collectors, with numerous websites, discussion forums and a

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

newsgroup devoted to trading

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

files of episodes. Most episodes are available for listening on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. Many of these episodes were recorded with original network and local news and commercials intact, providing an interesting insight into the period when the episodes were originally broadcast.

Related publications

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 Karl 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 A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the ...

by Himan Brown. In January 1999, McFarland & Company, Inc. published ''The CBS Radio Mystery Theater''. The book, by Gordon Payton and

Martin Grams, Jr. Martin Grams Jr. (born April 19, 1977) is an American popular culture historian who wrote and co-wrote over thirty books about network broadcasting and motion-pictures. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Grams is the son of a magician, Martin Grams Sr. ...

, includes a brief history of the program and an episode guide. In October 2006, Michael Anthony Stahl published ''The CBS Radio Mystery Theater As An Educational Degree''.

References

External links

Himan Brown's Audio Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Complete collection posted in internet archive
CBSRMT.info – defunct fan forum

– plot summaries and reviews. * {{cite web , url=http://www.radioechoes.com/?page=series&genre=OTR-Mystery&series=CBS%20Radio%20Mystery%20Theater , title=CBS Radio Mystery Theater , publisher=RadioEchoes , date=1974–1982 1399 episodes.
Fielden Farrington scripts
at the

University of Maryland libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an o ...

. Contains scripts and proposals from Radio Mystery Theater 1974–1976. 1974 radio dramas 1970s American radio programs 1980s American radio programs American radio dramas Anthology radio series CBS Radio programs Peabody Award-winning radio programs