Escape [radio]
Entry updated 4 April 2017. Tagged: Radio.
Radio drama series (1947-1954). CBS Radio network. Produced by Norman MacDonnell (1916-1979). Directors included MacDonnell and William N Robson (1906-1995). Writers included Les Crutchfield, John Dunkel, Antony Ellis, Kathleen Hite, John Meston and Robert Tallman. Announcers: William Conrad and Paul Frees, often with Roy Rowan as a secondary announcer/narrator. 228 30-minute episodes.
Escape was primarily an adventure-mystery programme, but included much sf, Fantasy, and Horror among its offerings. Genre authors who had stories adapted for the series included Nelson S Bond, Algernon Blackwood, Ray Bradbury, H Rider Haggard, Edgar Allan Poe and – several times – H G Wells. Some examples of adapted sf stories are: "Mars is Heaven!" (Fall 1948 Planet Stories; vt "The Third Expedition") by Ray Bradbury (2 June 1950); The Time Machine (1895) by H G Wells (5 September 1948; remade 22 October 1950); "The Country of the Blind" (April 1904 Strand) by H G Wells (20 June 1948); She: A History of Adventure (2 October 1886-8 January 1887 The Graphic; cut 1886; full text 1887) by H Rider Haggard, in abbreviated form (7 November 1948); "The Scarlet Plague" (June 1912 London Magazine; 1914) by Jack London; Earth Abides (1949) by George R Stewart as a two-part serial (12 and 19 November 1950); and "The Adaptive Ultimate" (November 1935 Astounding as by John Jessel) by Stanley G Weinbaum (26 March 1949). Some original sf radio plays by Antony Ellis and Irving Reis also featured. Almost all episodes of the series survive. [GSt]
previous versions of this entry