I don't remember a description of the columns and torches. Maybe the version I saw was edited. Given how long the second commercial break ran, I suppose it must've been.
The 1940s Superman radio serial, and why Radio Batman is terrible
- Thread starter Christopher
- Start date
Huh...I was watching it on Me-TV myself and it leaped out at me. Should be the same, I'd think.
But who knows? My cable preempts some of their late night and morning lineup for paid programming.
But who knows? My cable preempts some of their late night and morning lineup for paid programming.
Well, maybe I was just distracted for a moment.
Christopher, have you read George Lowther's Superman novel from 1942? That has Superman's first case involving a lighthouse and a fake haunting, too, though reading a synopsis of the episode(s), I don't see many other similarities.
BTW, another seemingly radioesque touch on Hopalong Cassidy that I'd forgotten to mention...little "public service" messages to the young members of the audience at the ends of episodes. "Remember, kids, be sure to wear your raincoats and overshoes, and don't leave them at school!"
I haven't read it, but Lowther was the original head writer (and narrator!) on the radio series, so I'd imagine his novel was adapted from his radio stories. The original "Lighthouse Point Smugglers" serial was from 1940, so the book would've been the second version of that story, not the first. And it looks like the story was redone on radio in 1944. (They did a lot of stories two or three times, since the young audience kept aging out and the new listeners wouldn't remember the old stories. Although they rewrote and re-performed the stories anew each time.)
Early TV had a lot in common with radio, since of course it was radio that set the template for broadcast entertainment. So for a while, TV was just radio with pictures. It took a while to evolve into its own thing.
The first season episode "The Stolen Costume" was also adapted from the much longer "Mystery of the Stolen Costume" from the radio series, omitting Batman's part, and has (As far as I can remember) the only onscreen apearance of detective Candy Meyers. Curiously, Lois, Perry, and Jimmy don't appear in the TV version.
^I talked about the two different radio versions of the "Stolen Costume" story back in post #29 of this thread. Actually it seems there were three versions on radio -- the original "Mystery of the Stolen Costume" serial in early 1948, the half-hour version called "Dead Men Tell No Tales" in 1950 (actually Bud Collyer's final radio episode as Superman), and another half-hour version with the original title in early 1951, during the final season of the radio show with Michael Fitzmaurice in the role. What with the presence of Candy Meyers and the fate of the villains, the TV version is clearly a remake of the half-hour "Dead Men" version (assuming that the Fitzmaurice "Mystery" was the same script under a different name).
Came across this today:
http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-221-superman-takes-down-the-clan-of-the-fiery-cross/
http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-221-superman-takes-down-the-clan-of-the-fiery-cross/
"Sponsored by the makers of Force?" So it was sponsored by mass and acceleration?
They're in error about the radio show introducing Krypton. It was originally named in the first panel of Superman #1 in 1939. What the radio show introduced was kryptonite, as well as Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and Superman's familiar catchphrases and opening narration.
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