Created by Jim French
(1928-2017)
Not all radio detectives are available only in re-runs from sometimes dubious old-time radio outlets.
Here’s one radio detective still very much on the case. HARRY NILE, a fictional private detective in Los Angeles and Seattle during the 1940’s and 50’s, is the title character of a long-running and much loved new-time radio detective series, The Adventures of Harry Nile. This cult favourite started on January 1, 1976 and is still on the air — making it the longest running private detective audio series in the history of American broadcasting. The show’a s a defiant survivor — not even a 12-year hiatus (1978-1990) could stop it. It aired on three different radio stations in the Seattle area, and was also been syndicated both nationally and internationally.
Like many private eyes, Harry started out as a cop. As a rookie on the Chicago police force, Harry was recruited by the department’s Internal Affairs. We find out that Harry’s real last name is actually Niletti; he changed it before he joined the force to protect his family from potential coercion or retaliation by the Mob.
When his beautiful blues-singer wife is killed in a nightclub shooting, Harry goes into a major tailspin. He resigns from the police force after exposing corruption at a Chicago precinct. After piling up substantial gambling debts, he hits rock-bottom and agrees to travel to L.A. to do a “little favor” for the holder of his markers, a Windy City crime boss. The “little favor” involves the murder of a rival crime boss. He manages not to do the deed and ends up staying on the West Coast, working as a private eye, first in Los Angeles, and later, in Seattle.
Harry’s no a hard-boiled dick, though. He seldom uses his gun or gets into a fight, but he’s no wimp. This guy can be tough when he has to be. Here’s a detective who is a real human being. He’ll never be rich or have a fancy office; he often is just a step ahead of the bill collectors. Even after years in the business, he’s not cynical. He cares about his clients and his greatest strength is his humanity. If you get in a tight spot, you want a guy like Harry in your corner.
Harry started out without a partner. He’s now aided in his investigations by his associate Murphy, a red-haired, former librarian, who made her debut in the episode “The Twenty-Dollar Trackdown.” Murphy is not the stereotypical P.I.’s secretary — this lady is no dummy. She’s got photographic memory, knows a thing or two about the martial arts and possesses a complete mastery of grammar — just in case somebody tries to split an infinive or something, I guess. She was initially attracted to the supposed glamour of the P.I. business and sometimes accompanied Harry on his cases, working for several years as his unofficial (and unpaid) assistant. Now she’s basically Harry’s partner and great at finding important information in many of the cases. While she has always been infatuated with Harry, she’s smart enough not to push it.
Creator and writer Jim French used his knowledge of Los Angeles and Seattle as they were in the 1940’s and 50’s to paint rich period backgrounds that are historically accurate and add interest and flavor to his stories.
In a 1998 interview with Phil Harper, the actor who originally played Harry, mentioned that he drew on his remembrances of some of the great radio detectives as inspiration for his portrayal. “I drew some of my character’s rumbly voice from Howard Duff who played Sam Spade and from an actor who played Johnny Dollar, possibly Edmond O’Brien, on the radio.”
Recurring characters were an important part of any long-running series, and The Adventures of Harry Nile was no exception. They include Manny the Tailor (Harry’s L.A. landlord), Lieutenant Dutcher (a L.A. and later Seattle Police detective), Marvin Asher (a fast-talking lawyer from Harry’s L.A. days), Lou Butterfield (a Seattle police detective), Mr. Osterman (Murphy’s Seattle landlord), Bill Barnett (a Seattle beat cop), Vinnie Niletti (Harry’s younger brother) and Lieutenant Bartolo (a Columbo-type Seattle Police detective).
Seattle-area actors have had the majority of roles on the series, but several nationally-known television stars also appeared over the years, including: Bill Macy of Maude, Peg Wood and Cynthia Geary of Northern Exposure, Harry Anderson of Night Court and Dave’s World, Richard Sanders of WKRP In Cincinnati, Russell Johnson of Gilligan’s Island, and John Ratzenberger of Cheers. Several actors from “The Golden Age of Radio Drama” also appeared, including Parley Baer, Hans Conried, Jerry Hausner, Tyler McVey, Douglas Young, Rhoda Williams, Merrill Mael, Ginny Tyler, Richard Beals, and Gil Stratton Jr.
The series was originally produced in his Bellevue, Washington studio by French, and airs as part of Imagination Theatre on KNWX in Seattle, and was syndicated internationally under the same title on about 150 radio stations in the United States, Canada, and Australia; via satellite to South Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Previously, it was heard locally in the Seattle area on The PEMCO Imagination Theatre on KNWX, KIRO Mystery Playhouse, and Theater of the Mind on KVI.
While most new Jim French shows were recorded at his Bellevue studio, Jim currently tried to record at least a couple of new radio dramas, often an episode of The Adventures of Harry Nile,every three months or so before a live audience at the Kirkland Performance Center in nearby Kirkland, Washington. The first Imagination Theatre recording session was held there — in June 2000 — was sold out two weeks in advance.
In January 2017, French announced that due to age and health issues, he was intending to shut down his office Word Processor for the final time in March of that year, but before that could happen, his wife Pat, who had co-starred in several of French’s productions (including playing Murphy in the Harry Nile stories), passed away in February. French himself would passed away later that year, but he left behind an amazing body of work. Besides the Harry Nile series, French is also the creator of several other early 1970’s series: the anthology series, Tower Playhouse, the early seventies P.I. radio drama, Dameron, featuring a globe trotting trouble-shooter, and Crisis, the series on which Harry Nile got its start. In the 1990’s, French has also created three new series, Kincaid, The Strange Seeker, about an investigative reporter; and new adventures of the world’s first consulting detective, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
But Harry marches on…
RADIO
- THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY NILE
(1977 to present, Transmedia Syndicate)
143 episodes (and counting)
Created by Jim French
Writers: Jim French, Gordy Donnell, Larry Buck, M.J. Elliott, Larry Albert, Sable Jak, Mike Murphy
Directors: Pat French, Jim French
Producer: Jim French
Theme: “Farewell, My Lovely” written by David Shire from the 1975 Raymond Chandler movie of the same name.
Incidental music by Michael Lynch
Sound Effects: Stew Conway, Cheryl Jacobs, Scott Anderson, Sean O’Meara, David Fried, David Persson, Ben Peterson, and others.
Engineers: Karney Barton, Bob Schoy, Ed Gately, Peggy Stokes and Jason Chevy
Announcers: Jack Spencer, Jay Green, Terry Rose, and Jim French
Starring Phil Harper as HARRY NILE
(later replaced by Larry Albert)
and Pat French as Murphy
(later replace by Mary Ann Dorward, Mary Kae Irvin)
Recurring Characters include:
Jay Green as Marvin Asher
Larry Buck and Doug Young as Lieutenant Dutcher
Sheldon Jacobs as Lou Butterfield
Wayne Shannon, Norm Bobrow, and Lee Corrigan as Manny the Tailor
Bill Brooks as Bill Barnett
Terry Rose as Mr. Osterman
Derek Turner as Vinnie Nilleti
and Larry Albert as Lieutenant Bartolo and Det. Nick Bolano
Guest Stars: Larry Albert, John Amandola, Harry Anderson, Richard Arnold, Parley Baer, Katrina Baxter Hodiak (daughter of motion picture actors John Hodiak and Anne Baxter), Richard Beals, Norm Bobrow, Bill Brooks, Larry Buck, Frank Buxton, Charles Canada, Karen Kay Cody, Art Conn, Hans Conried, Lee Corrigan, Ray Cort, Mary Ann Dorward, Michael Morgan Dunne, Diane Felty, David Freed, Cynthia Geary, John Gilbert, Jay Green, Demene Hall, Jerry Hausner, Andy Hellman, Ilona Herlinger, Paul Herlinger, Steve Hillyard, Susan Hutchinson, Sheldon Jacobs, Russell Johnson, Peggy Jordan (granddaughter of radio’s “Fibber McGee & Molly”), Gil Stratton Jr., Bill Macy, Merrill Mael, Valerie Mamches, Terry McManus, Tyler McVey, Catherine Odegaard, Sean O’Meara, Lee Paache, Brad Perkins, Marlene Phillips, John Ratzenberger, Joy Rinaldi, Marv Rosand, Terry Rose, Richard Sanders, Wayne Shannon, Katherine Shield, Dean Smith, Derek Turner, Ginny Tyler, Paul Walsh, Veronica Weikel, Stephen Weyte, Rhoda Williams, Peg Wood, Douglas Young, Jay Green, Jeffrey Hitchin, Christine Mosere, Rachel Pate, Dave Selvig- Note: The first four episodes first aired on Crisis, an anthology series.
- “West For My Health” (January 1, 1976, Crisis)
- “Seattle Blues” (December 2, 1976, Crisis)
- “The Neptune Trading Company” (February 17, 1977, Crisis)
- “Malibu” (May 19, 1977, Crisis)
- “The Case of the Dead Ringer” (December 27, 1977)
- “For This I Bought A New Suit?” (January 3, 1978)
- “The Eddy Mayhew Matter” (January 10, 1978)
- “Avalon” (January 17, 1978)
- “A Vacation With Bullets” (January 24, 1978; AKA “And What Did You Do on Your Vacation, Officer?” and “How Was Your Vacation, Officer?”)
- “The Case of The Nasty Niece” (January 31, 1978; AKA “The Case of The Not So Nice Niece”)
- “Photo Finish” (February 7, 1978)
- “Harry Dabbles in Oil” (February 14, 1978; AKA “Tale of the Two Texans”)
- “Dooms Day Book” (February 21, 1978)
- “Figueroa Street” (February 28, 1978)
- “A Little Out of Town Job” (March 7, 1978)
- “The Case of The Matinee Murder” (March 14, 1978)
- “The Lonely Ghost Matter” (March 21, 1978)
- “The Twenty-Three Pound Clue” (March 28, 1978)
- “Stand-In for Murder” (April 4, 1978)
- “Calendar Girl” (May 9, 1978)
- “The Twenty Dollar Trackdown” (May 16, 1978)
- “The Wandering Wife Matter” (May 30, 1978)
- “Angel’s Flight” (June 6, 1978)
- “The Case of The Lisping Lover” (June 13, 1978)
- “Favor For A Friend” (December 16, 1990)
- “Black Widow” (June 23, 1991)
- “Heat Goes to Cold” (July 14, 1991)
- “Maybe There Is A Santa Claus” (December 22, 1991)
- “Hair of the Dog” (January 5, 1992)
- “S.L.O.B.” (February 2, 1992)
- “The Case of The Fatal Fall” (March 1, 1992)
- “The Case of The Puzzling Puzzler” (April 5, 1992)
- “Blood Ties” (June 7, 1992)
- “The Case of The Midnight Caller” (July 5, 1992)
- “The Lady in the Green Hat” (August 2, 1992)
- “It Pays To Advertise” (September 6, 1992)
- “Mister Fixer” (October 11, 1992)
- “Floater” (November 1, 1992)
- “Sob Sisters” (November 29, 1992)
- “Sticky Fingers” (December 20, 1992)
- “Unhappy Birthday” (January 3, 1993)
- “The Trianon Kid” (February 7, 1993)
- “Crime In A Bottle” (April 4, 1993)
- “The Key” (May 2, 1993)
- “The Case of The Hot Yacht” (June 6, 1993)
- “The Case of The Exeter Audition” (July 4, 1993)
- “Deadline For Murder” (August 1, 1993)
- “Aloha Means Goodbye” (September 5, 1993)
- “The Case of The Sinister Scavengers” (October 3, 1993)
- “Almost As Good As New” (November 7, 1993)
- “Murphy: Wanted For Murder” (January 9, 1994)
- “The Case of The Ten-Story Tombstone” (February 6, 1994)
- “The McLaughlin Matter” (March 6, 1994)
- “The Hour of My Death” (April 10, 1994)
- “Funeral At Midnight” (May 8, 1994)
- “Solitaire Sam” (June 5, 1994)
- “The Case of The Fisheye Murders” (July 31, 1994)
- “The Case of The Sinister Minister” (August 7, 1994)
- “The Case of The Sands of Time” (October 9, 1994)
- “The Meatloaf Matter” (November 6, 1994)
- “The Case of The Baffled Ballerina” (December 4, 1994)
- “The Case of The Dominant Seventh” (January 1, 1995)
- “Osterman’s Dreams” (February 5, 1995)
- “Third Floor Rear” (March 5, 1995)
- “Harry Goes Underground” (April 2, 1995)
- “The Sam Navolla Matter” (May 5, 1995)
- “Blues for Maggie Brown” (June 4, 1995)
- “My Kid The Cop” (July 2, 1995)
- “The Case Of The Missing Matisse” (August 6, 1995)
- “The Dollar Value of Death” (September 3, 1995)
- “Field of Screams” (October 1, 1995)
- “Harry and The Homework” (October 15, 1995)
- “West Bay Road” (November 5, 1995)
- “The Mary Christmas Caper” (December 24, 1995)
- “The Case Of The Blue Leather Chair” (December 31, 1995)
The only show (so far) to be broadcast live. - “The Case Of The Ruptured Duck” (January 7, 1996)
- “The Russian Cut” (February 4, 1996)
- “Target: Harry Nile” (March 3, 1996)
- “Hush Money” (April 7, 1996)
- “Murder on a Rainy Night” (May 5, 1996)
- “The Case Of The Flatted Fifth” (June 2, 1996)
- “The Counter-Balance Case” (July 7, 1996)
- “Don’t Be A Stranger” (August 4, 1996)
- “The Case Of The Feline Fee” (September 1, 1996)
- “The Verdict on Hannah Bayliss” (October 6, 1996)
- “What’s In A Name” (November 3, 1996)
- “Metaphor For Murder” (December 8, 1996)
- “The Jake Burley Matter” (January 12, 1997)
- “Murphy’s Outlaw” (February 2, 1997)
- “Find Ben Stagg” (March 2, 1997)
- “Body of Work” (April 6, 1997)
- “Slant City” (May 4, 1997)
- “Family Secret” (June 1, 1997)
- “Comeback” (June 22, 1997)
- “The Case of The Spectral Wife” (August 3, 1997)
- “The Case of The Mauritius Orange” (September 7, 1997)
- “The Borsendorfer Matter” (October 5, 1997)
- “Murder At Hidden Lake” (November 1, 1997)
- “Finding Portland” (November 9, 1997)
- “The Case of The Bitter Banker” (December 21, 1997)
- “The Case of The Sleeping Witness” (January 4, 1998)
- “The No More No-Mo Matter” (February 22, 1998)
- “Ten Percent of Nothing” (March 22, 1998?)
- “Always Leave ‘Em Wanting More” (April 5, 1998)
- “The Two Freddies” (May 3, 1998)
- “Voice From the Lake” (June 7, 1998)
- “Toni Parsons Story” (August 16, 1998)
- “The John Doe Murders” (September 16, 1998)
- “Rich Little Poor Girl” (October 4, 1998)
- “The Case Of The Compromised Cop” (November 1, 1998)
- “Murder By The Book” (December 6, 1998)
- “Model 386-A” (January 17, 1999)
- “Bullet-Proof” (February 7, 1999)
- “Rachel’s Dream” (April 4, 1999)
- “The Fighter And The Phantom” (April 25, 1999)
- “Cold Reading” (June 6, 1999)
- “The Case Of The Desperate Dealer” (July 8, 1999)
- “Who Killed Harry Nile?” (August 1, 1999)
- “The Ivor Lindman Matter” (September 5, 1999)
- “The Suitcase” (September 19, 1999)
- “Keys Louise” (October 3, 1999)
- “The Value of Details” (November 7, 1999)
- “The Lady in the Hudson” (December 26, 1999)
- “Little Boy Lost” (January 2, 2000)
A new production with slightly changed plot line, different location, and new cast of “The Case of the Midnight Caller,” originally aired July 5, 1992. - “Elsa’s Pool” (February 13, 2000)
- “The Set-up” (May 7, 2000)
- “Seeking Sarah Banks” (July 30, 2000)
- “The Old Masters Murder Case” (August 13, 2000)
- “Murder in Miniature” (September 24, 2000)
- “Christmas in Paradise” (December 24, 2000)
- “Rachel’s Dream” (January 14, 2001)
- “The Friends of Jules Riskin” (February 25, 2001)
- “Submarine Warfare” (June 10, 2001)
- “The Case of the Feline Fee” (August 12, 2001)
A new production with a new cast of the episode that originally aired September 1, 1996. The first production, with the exception of Harry and Murphy, was done with amateurs who’d won their parts at a society auction. - “The Southern Double Cross” (November 11, 2001)
- “The Pete Lambert Case” (January 20, 2002)
A new production of the Dameron episode, “Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Guy Like Pete?,” which was originally broadcast on 12/05/1972. - “The Skip Trace” (May 12, 2002)
- “Dutcher’s Beat” (July 21, 2002)
- “Miracle Mile” (August 11, 2002)
- “A Key To Murder” (September 8, 2002)
- “Harry And The Lost Art” (October 20, 2002)
- “Beacon Hill” (December 08, 2002)
- “Backfire” (December 22, 2002)
- “The Music Box Caper” (May 11, 2003)
- “Motive” (June 8, 2003)
- “The Worthington Collection” (July 20, 2003)
- “Twenty Grand” (September 21, 2003)
- “Iron Dust” (October 12, 2003)
- “The Gooey Duck Caper” (November 11, 2003)
- “A Number of Friends” (February 8, 2004)
- “The Handshake” (March 21, 2004)
- “Wired for Murder” (May 9, 2004)
- “The Rickman Matter ” (June 20, 2004)
- “Tony Macaroni Still Owes Me $600 ” (July 11, 2004)
- “The Fifth Letter ” (August 8, 2004)
- “The Case Of The Interstate Stalker” (September 19, 2004)
- “The Mobius Matter” (November 21, 2004)
- “This Corpus Ain’t Habeas Anymore ” (January 9, 2005)
Larry Albert takes over as Harry - “The Line Up ” (January 30, 2005)
- “The Mystery Of The Galena” (February 20, 2005)
- “The Scottie Scam” (March 13, 2005)
- “A Death At The King Neptune ” (April 17, 2005)
- “Silent Witness” (May 8, 2005)
- “The Judge From Whiskey Dick” (June 19, 2005)
- “A Season for Killing” (July 10, 2005)
- “A Bag of Money” (August 14, 2005)
- “The Case Of The Crying Corpse” (September 11, 2005)
- “The Nightmares Of Melinda Magee” (October 9, 2005)
- “A Scheduled Murder” (November 13, 2005)
- “The Unexpected Gift” (December 25, 2005)
- “Power Play” (January 29, 2006)
- “The Pink Bicycle” (February 19, 2006)
- “P.T. Barnum Was Right” (March 12, 2006)
- “The Case of the Bogus Bettor” (April 9, 2006)
- “Writing Wrongs” (May 14, 2006)
- “The Arsonist’s Letter” (June 25, 2006)
- “The Waitress And The Wheelman” (July 9, 2006)
- “The Dying Game” (August 13, 2006)
- “A Trail To A Corpse” (September 17, 2006)
- “The Strange Case Of Harvey Flax” (October 15, 2006)
- “Paid in Full” (November 19, 2006)
- “Harry’s Luck” January 7, 2007)
- “Evidence” (February 11, 2007)
- The Prisoner on 9th Avenue” (March 18, 2007)
- “Ed (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter One)” (April 22, 2007)
- “The Case Of The Goggled Girl ” (May 20, 2007)
- “Minute like an Hour” (June 10, 2007)
- “The Proximity Fuse (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Two)” (July 8, 2007)
- “A Night for Surprises” (August 12, 2007)
- “The Trouble with Harry” (September 9, 2007)
- “D-Day Minus One (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Three)” (October 14, 2007)
- “Dead Air” (November 18, 2007)
- “Two for the Price of None” (December 16, 2007)
- “Box 111” (February 10, 2008)
- “The Missing Pages (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Four)” (March 9, 2008)
- “Too Little, Too Late” (April 13, 2008)
- “Fool’s Gold” (May 11, 2008)
- “Source Alpha” (July 13, 2008)
- “The Funeral Of Fast Buck Feldman” (August 10, 2008)
- “Patience is a Vice” (September 14, 2008)
- “The Naked Soldier (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Five)” (October 12. 2008)
- “The Case of the Dueling Divas” (November 16, 2008)
- “The Christmas Cookie Caper” (December 21, 2008)
- “Knock on Wood” (January 18, 2009)
- “The Trophy Room” (February 8, 2009)
- “Marvin Always Makes A Buck (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Six )” (March 15, 2009)
- “The Trophy Room (Part Two)” (April 12, 2009)
- “Welcome Home, Jane Doe” (May 10, 2009)
- “Deadlier Than the Mail” (June 21, 2009)
- “Twisting The Past (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Seven)” (August 9, 2009)
- “The Collector” (September 13, 2009)
- “Trouble is My Beeswax” (October 11, 2009)
- “The Killing House (Part One)” (November 15, 2009)
- “The Killing House (Part Two)” (December 27, 2009)
- “Harry’s Game” (January 21, 2010)
- “Dead Drop (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Eight)” (February 21, 2010)
- “Is Anyone There” (March 21, 2010)
- “The Case of the Mad Millionaire” (May 9, 2010)
- “The Fatal Felines of Phinney Ridge” (June 13, 2010)
- “The Leave Her To Heaven Killing” (July 11, 2010)
- “The Body In Mystery Bay” (September 12, 2010)
- “The Case Of The Busy Body” (October 10, 2010)
- “The Durwood Case” (November 14, 2010)
- “No Worries” (December 12, 2010)
- “A Weekend in Heaven (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter 9)” (January 30, 2011)
- “I Witness” (February 20, 2011)
- “A Dangerous Game” (March 13, 2011)
- “Fifteen Years Later (War Comes To Harry: Nile Chapter 10)” (April 10, 2012)
- “Poetic Justice” (May 8, 2011)
- “Saturday Night Special”(June 19, 2011)
- “A Calculated Risk” (July 17, 2011)
- “Don’t Forget to Write” (September 11, 2011)
Mary Ann Dorward takes over as Murphy - “The Deed” (October 9, 2011)
- “What’s In Grandma’s Piano” (November 13, 2011; aka “The ‘What’s In Mama’s Piano’ Matter”)
- “Secret Mission (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Eleven)” (December 18, 2011)
- “The Case Of The Golden Cavalry (Part One)” (January 15, 2012)
- “The Case Of The Golden Cavalry (Part Two)” (January 22, 2012)
- “What Would Harry Do?” (February 12, 2012)
- “A Minor Detail (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Twelve)” (March 18, 2012)
- “The Effect: (War Comes To Harry Nile: Chapter Thirteen)” (April 29, 2012)
- “Five Feet Under” (May 20, 2012)
- “The Case Of The Bronze Horse” (June 10, 2012)
- “The Big Kiss Off” (July 15, 2012)
- “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” (September 9, 2012; aka “It’s a Funny Kind of Story)
- “The Nazi Next Door (War Comes to Harry Nile: Chapter Fourteen)” (October 14, 2012)
- “Bad Blood” (November 11, 2012)
- “Harry, a Kid and a Tree” (December 16, 2012)
- “The Moxie Sisters” (January 27, 2013)
- “Vendetta” (February 17, 2012)
- “Eighty Miles Of Bad Road” (March 10, 2012)
- “It’s Complicated” (April 21, 2013)
- “Blood on the Snow” (May 19, 2013)
- “Ghost” (June 9, 2013)
- “It’s More Complicated Than You Think” (July 14, 2013)
- “A Thief’s Duty” (August 8, 2013)
- “The Day After (War Comes to Harry Nile: Chapter Fifteen)” (October 13, 2013)
- “And Your Little Dog Too” (November 10, 2013)
- “Christmas on the Cheap (War Comes to Harry Nile: Chapter Sixteen)” (December 8, 2013)
- “Full Moon” (January 19, 2014)
- “The Greenwood Shooting” (February 9, 2014)
- “The Out-Of-Towners” (March 23, 2014)
- “The Hardest Working Corpse in Show Business (Part One)” (May 25, 2014)
- “Remy’s Regret” (July 13, 2014)
- “What Would The Neighbors Say” (September 14, 2014)
- “Rosie Rides Again” (October 12, 2014)
- “It’s Not That Complicated” (November 19, 2014)
- “Just to See Her Smile (War Comes to Harry Nile: Chapter Seventeen)” (December 14, 2014)
- “Nothing Says Goodbye Like A Bullet” (January 18, 2015)
- “The Trip Back” (February 8, 2015)
- “Harry and the Hobos” (March 15, 2015)
- “Murder on the Empire Builder” (April26, 2015)
- “Harry and the Computer” (May 24, 2015)
- “The Case of the Thirty Year Wait” (June 14, 2015)
- “The Case of the Ambitious Corpse” (July 19, 2015)
- “The Bloody Bell Ringer” (September 13, 2015)
- “Missing Murphy” (November 8, 2015)
- “The Christmas Tree Caper” (December 13, 2015)
- “The Case of the Hobo’s New Year” (December 27, 2015)
- “The Fine Art of Murder” (February 14, 2016)
- “Saturday Night at the Movies” (March 13, 2016)
- “You Shouldn’t Detour off Route 66 (Part One)” (April 17, 2016)
- “You Shouldn’t Detour off Route 66 (Part Two)” (May 8, 2016)
- “You Shouldn’t Detour off Route 66 (Part Three)” (June 12, 2016)
- “You Shouldn’t Detour off Route 66 (Part Four)” (June 19, 2016)
- “You Shouldn’t Detour off Route 66 (Part Five)” (June 26, 2016)
- “Hidden in Plain Sight” (July 10, 2016)
- “The Other Side of the River” (September 11, 2016)
- “The ‘It’s a Casket Not a Coffin’ Caper” (aka “The Casket Caper”) (October 9, 2016)
- “Just My Type (War Comes to Harry Nile: Chapter Eighteen)” (November 20, 2016)
- “It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fat Man Sings” (December 18, 2016)
- “The Case Of Death In Small Doses” (February 12, 2017)
- “Harry and Murphy” (February 26, 2017)
- “Once More With Feeling” (October 28, 2017)
Mary Kae Irvin takes over as Murphy - “Murphy Christmas And A Harry New Year” (December 23, 2017)
- “A Guy Named Jim” (April 7, 2018)
- “The Mourning After the Night Before” (December 1, 2018)
- “One False Move” (December 8, 2018)
- “Present Tense” (December 15, 2018)
- “The Case of the Shrouded Library (Part One)” (December 29, 2018)
- “The Case of the Shrouded Library (Part Two)” (January 5, 2019)
- “Would I Lie to You?” (October 5, 2019)
- “The Big Day” (November 2, 2019)
COLLECTIONS
EDITOR’S NOTE: These are only the most recent collections I could find. Over the years the episodes have been available in an astounding number of combinations and compilations in (By episode! By season!) in a dizzying array of formats (Eight tracks! Cassettes! CDs! Streaming! Downloadable!) by a confounding number of retailers, both legit and otherwise. Listing them all would take approximately forever, but the following should give you a good place to start.
- The Adventures of Harry Nile: Seattle Blues (2018) | Buy the audio
Includes the first 23 episodes from the 70s. - The Adventures of Harry Nile: Black Widow & Other Mysteries (2019) | Buy the audio
Include the last show of the 970s run, and the first 20 episodes of his 1990 return. - The Adventures of Harry Nile: The Hour of My Death & Other Mysteries (2019) | Buy the audio
Includes 24 episodes from the 90s.
- The Adventures of Harry Nile: Paid in Full (2019) | Buy the audio
Includes 20 episodes from the Larry Albert years.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Talkin’ with Jim French and Phil Harper
Stewart Wright’s 1998 behind-the-scenes discussion with the creator and star of The Adventures of Harry Nile. - Warming Up the Crowd, with Jim French
Harry Nile creator Jim French warms up the crowd before a studio taping of a 1999 episode. Transcribed by Stewart Wright.
Copyrighted by Stewart Wright and Kevin Burton Smith (January 2003). Thanks to George W. Newman, Jr. for the update, and to Larry Albert who provided radio log information and some background on the recurring characters.
