Created by J. Donald Wilson (1904-84) There were actually two separate version of the radio series The Adventures of Bill Lance, a radio show detailing the exploits of a wealthy, Los Angeles-based musical composer and behavioral criminologist whose cases took him all over the globe. An expert on the arts and sciences, he was often … Continue reading Bill Lance (The Adventures of Bill Lance)
Tag: OTR
Richard Rogue (Rogue’s Gallery/Radio)
Created by Ray Buffum Dashing RICHARD ROGUE was a hard-nosed, if not quite hard-boiled, private eye with a certain flair for solving crimes before the police do in Rogue's Gallery, a NBC radio show that premiered in 1945, and ran for six or so years, under various titles, with different leads, on various networks. It … Continue reading Richard Rogue (Rogue’s Gallery/Radio)
Escape!
Radio Anthology Series (1947-54) "Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... ESCAPE!" ESCAPE! was American radio's most popular and acclaimed anthology series, offering "high-adventure" thrillers and mysteries, airing on the CBS network from 1947 until 1954. It aired over 230 … Continue reading Escape!
Mike McCoy (The McCoy)
Created by David Friedkin I don't know much about this short-lived series--or was it even a series? It looks like it only made it as far as an audition tape that never aired. Still, it starred Howard Duff as Los Angeles gumshoe MIKE McCOY, who talked tough in his typical, breezy manner, swapped banter with his … Continue reading Mike McCoy (The McCoy)
Peter Salem
Created by Louis Vittes The Mutual radio network aired The Affairs of Peter Salem from New York City from May 1949 to April 1953, but despite this large number of broadcasts, not a single complete episode has apparently survived. Until, that is, November 2003, when a fragment of one episode, the first five minutes of … Continue reading Peter Salem
Jeff Regan
Created by Jack Webb "I get ten a day and expenses...they call me the Lyon's Eye. The last of the three detective shows Jack Webb did before Dragnet made him a superstar was Jeff Regan, Investigator followed the adventures of JEFF REGAN. Regan (played by Webb, of course) was a rough-and-tumble private eye working for the International Detective … Continue reading Jeff Regan
Kitty Keene
Created by Walter K. Norman Kitty Keene, Inc. was the only soap opera to have a private eye in the leading role (unless you want to count radio's Perry Mason which came out a few years later). The series ran for four years, beginning in September 1937. It was sponsored by Dreft and was on … Continue reading Kitty Keene
Mathew Slade
Created by Robert Frederick & Brian Adams How can we miss you if you don't go away? It's hard to believe, but Mathew Slade, Private Investigator, which initially aired in 1964, was billed as a sort of revival of the glory days of Old Time Radio detectives right from the get-go. Despite the fact that … Continue reading Mathew Slade
Johnny Madero (Johnny Madero, Pier 23)
Created by Jack Webb (1920-82) Richard L. Breen (1918-67) and William P. Rousseau (1915-72) Johnny Madero, Pier 23 was the second of three short-lived detective radio shows that Jack Webb starred in before he launched the Dragnet on radio in 1949 (see also Jeff Regan, Investigator and Pat Novak For Hire). It's essentially a rip-off, in fact, of the latter, … Continue reading Johnny Madero (Johnny Madero, Pier 23)
Pat Novak (Pat Novak for Hire)
Created by Jack Webb (1920-82) Richard L. Breen (1918-67) and William P. Rousseau (1915-72) "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky—like a furnace full of marshmallows." Pat Novak For Hire was the most successful of three short-lived radio shows that actor actor/writer Jack Webb played a hard-boiled … Continue reading Pat Novak (Pat Novak for Hire)