My favorites are Rocky Fortune, Box 13, and Escape.
It would be great to find an Old Time Radio show that had a continuing plot or theme that would carry over from episode to episode. I was wondering if there were any shows like that.
Asked by:Cal F
Suggestions for an old time radio show (detective, suspense, or adventure)?
As nearly as I can remember from my OTR collection, there’s little continuity between the types of shows you describe. Superman adventures carried on for a few episodes, but for the most part, the characters came and went, except for the main characters or ensemble In the current genre, Imagination Theater, The Adventures of Harry Nile is cumulative, but each episode stands alone.
There is one other possibility, if you get ahold of the Canadian radio (CBC) Mystery Project series, there were two, called Midnight Cab and Clean Sweep. Each of these were continuing series throughout its life.
Outside of that, you might look at the soapies
Although it is Audio Drama and not OTR, I think you might like The Red Panda
The episodes are fine on their own but have longer themes too
sounds like you might like WormWood
I always liked “Yours truly, Johnny Dollar”.
I Love A Mystery. There aren’t a lot of complete “story arcs” that exist in circulation today, but there are enough to make me wish they were ALL available. For a listen, try here:
There are also the five-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar episodes from 1955-56. Each episode in those was only 15 minutes long (they were broadcast every weekday), so it’s not quite what you’re looking for. On the other hand, I think YTJD is at or near the top of the list of OTR series and those episodes in particular were among the series’ best. Most other series that had multi-episode story lines were the juvenile series, such as Superman, Buck Rogers, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, etc. Some comedy series (Lum and Abner comes to mind) also kept a story line going as well.
another vote for “yours truly johnny dollar”