[HN Gopher] X Minus One: 1950s Science Fiction Radio Programs Av...
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X Minus One: 1950s Science Fiction Radio Programs Available to
Listen (2011)
Author : optimalsolver
Score : 149 points
Date : 2020-09-19 14:28 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (archive.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (archive.org)
| phreeza wrote:
| Love these, used to listen to them a lot. The Veldt is probably
| my favorite.
| jsemrau wrote:
| That comes at an amazing timing. In my opinion, this time period
| was a golden age of science fiction. And I agree with Peter Thiel
| that we are currently mostly viewing the future as too negative.
| JaimeThompson wrote:
| As a side a lot of us could view the future in a more positive
| way if people like Peter Thiel would use their immense power
| for good instead of just enriching themselves / helping others
| spy on us.
| jsemrau wrote:
| Valid point. Yet, the 50s and 60s had, from the viewpoint of
| now, a more exploratory and positive outlook on the future
| that is worth living and investing in. Currently, all future
| scenarios are dystopian nightmares. In my opinion, that needs
| to change.
| csours wrote:
| "Better Living Through Chemistry" - There was a feeling in the
| first half of the 20th century that man could do no wrong. Yes
| some chemicals may be destructive, but there's no way we could
| do permanent damage to something as big as the earth; yes some
| people may be hurt here or there, but it will be a temporary
| effect on the way to a bright and shining future. We may
| deplete some animal populations, but they'll bounce back.
| Things are getting better in so many ways, the ends justify the
| means!
|
| That bright shining feeling has been tarnished by cancer hot-
| spots, mutated frogs, depletion of the ozone layer, nervous
| system damage from ethyl lead.
|
| I grew up on science fiction and I still love it, but the easy
| science fiction of the 1950's looks pretty simpleminded
| sometimes.
|
| Note: I am not anti-chemistry or anti-science, but we do need
| to be careful and safe.
|
| 0.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Living_Through_Chemistr...
| xixixao wrote:
| Also a golden age of radio. Orchestra, cast, sound effects. Are
| shows like this ever produces nowadays?
| Igelau wrote:
| Mission to Zyxx, although a parody and not always great, has
| great sound effects and bits of score.
| flats wrote:
| The BBC & the CBC produce a lot of dramatic radio with full
| casts & music & sound effects, but not all that much science
| fiction - see BBC Radio 4 Extra, for example. CBC's Vanishing
| Point is the most recent dedicated speculative fiction show I'm
| aware of with that level of production values.
| bnralt wrote:
| There have actually been a lot of really good independent audio
| dramas in recent years. To name just a few:
|
| Edict Zero - A police procedural on a far flung colony planet.
|
| Orphans - A group of people with no memory crash land on a
| mysterious planet where they're being hunted.
|
| Archive 81 - Starts as a story about a guy investigating
| paranormal tapes, then eventually moves into more of a dark
| fantasy type setting.
|
| Theater of Tomorrow: A SciFi anthology series, with some
| relatively long multi-part stories.
|
| StarTripper!! - Lighthearted show about a desk clerk in the
| future who grows bored of his day job and buys a spaceship to
| travel around the galaxy.
|
| Our Fair City - Set in a futuristic city standing alone in a
| post apocalyptic wasteland, it's a bit of a screwball
| comedy/drama dealing with the various residents who reside
| there.
|
| MarsCorp - SciFi comedy about a woman who's been reassigned to
| assist the Martian colony effort and finds the entire project
| on the verge of collapse.
|
| As you can probably tell, I tend to listen to shows in the
| SciFi/Fantasy genre. There's a lot out there, but I picked ones
| that are relatively well written (in my opinion) and give the
| feeling of a big production (full cast and sound effects).
| em-bee wrote:
| here is a list of shows i have listened to so far:
|
| Broken
|
| Caalo Xan
|
| Deep Vault
|
| Earth Collective Story
|
| Edict Zero
|
| EOS 10
|
| Escape Velocity
|
| Exoplanetary
|
| Falcon Banner
|
| Foundation Series (BBC)
|
| Girl In Space
|
| In Darkness Vast
|
| Leviathan Chronicles
|
| Liberty
|
| Nova Star Hunters
|
| Our Fair City
|
| Project Stellar
|
| Ruby
|
| Starship Iris
|
| The Bridge
|
| The Bright Sessions
|
| The Fourth Ambit
|
| The Kingery
|
| The Orphans
|
| Tides
|
| Tin Can
|
| Transmissions From Colony One
|
| Vast Horizon
|
| Wolf 359
|
| if you like star trek, there is a list of fan audio drama here:
|
| http://startrekreviewed.blogspot.com/2009/06/247.html
| em-bee wrote:
| the Leviathan Chronicles is extremly well made. after years of
| hiatus currently the third season is airing.
| lostcolony wrote:
| Yes, but it's more novelty stuff. I know the Atlanta Radio
| Theater Company does it ( https://artc.org/) and of course, The
| Thrilling Adventure Hour ( http://thrillingadventurehour.com/ )
| hcrisp wrote:
| Lamplighter Theatre produces many quality classic and
| Christian-themed dramas, hosted by John Rhys Davies.
|
| https://lamplighter.net/c/lamplighter-theatre/
| csours wrote:
| See also Science Fiction Theater. Here's the episode that played
| the night of the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance that George
| McFly would have seen in Back to the Future:
|
| The Hastings Secret
| https://archive.org/details/ScienceFictionTheatre1956TheOthe...
| msla wrote:
| The Internet Archive has a whole section of Old Time Radio:
|
| https://archive.org/details/oldtimeradio
|
| I've always liked "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar":
|
| https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Sing...
|
| And there's Bob and Ray episodes:
|
| https://archive.org/details/bobandraytoaster?tab=collection
|
| "The Damon Runyon Theater" is good:
|
| https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Damon_Runyon_Singles
| sqlacid wrote:
| I highly recommend NIGHTFALL from CBC.
| https://archive.org/details/Nightfall-cbc-oldTimeRadio
|
| Newer vintage, 80's, excellent productions
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| There's also the OTR Network Library: http://www.otr.net
| tzs wrote:
| This reminds me of something I've wondered about and been irked
| by recently.
|
| Audio without video works well for storytelling. Video without
| audio doesn't work nearly as well.
|
| There are a few over the air TV channels I can get but not strong
| enough to avoid fairly frequent dropouts. A dropout causes up to
| a couple seconds or so of parts of the picture frozen and parts
| replace with assorted colored blocks, and audio to be completely
| lost.
|
| It makes the program pretty much unwatchable.
|
| If they had just allocated more bandwidth to ECC on the audio,
| even if that meant less on the video and so more frequent video
| dropouts, most of those channels would become watchable, because
| for most programs missing a little video doesn't make you lose
| the story as long as the audio is uninterrupted.
| em-bee wrote:
| i made a similar experience with the star trek fan films i have
| been watching. you can find anything from the most ridiculous
| to professional productions. there is a huge range.
|
| on the other hand star trek audio drama (and any scifi audio
| drama i have listened to) all sound most excellent. there is
| hardly any that doesn't. as long as you have some decent voice
| acting and a few sound effects, you are good.
| giantrobot wrote:
| On SiriusXM there's an old time radio channel that plays this
| show and tons of others (Ch 148 Radio Classics). I love X Minus
| One, Dimension X, Suspense, and Escape. You can also find them on
| The Internet Archive.
| flats wrote:
| X Minus One was the best of the full-cast science fiction radio
| shows of the 50s (episodes like "Star Bright", "The Parade", and
| "Field Study" are forever etched in my memory) but there were
| several others - I recommend the Relic Radio Science Fiction
| podcast (https://www.relicradio.com/otr/home-2/science-fiction/)
| for a sampling of them.
|
| My favorite science fiction radio, though, is Michael Hanson's
| Mind Webs. You can listen to all of the episodes at the Internet
| Archive (https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_201410) & I
| compiled a list of my favorite episodes to guide you on your
| journey at https://blog.robador.com/2015/04/the-best-of-mind-
| webs/. Not full cast, but great stories told well with good
| music. They even made some new episodes a couple years ago before
| Michael Hanson died.
| mintplant wrote:
| _Mind Webs_ is excellent! I would also recommend _Quiet Please_
| , which has a similar feel and quality but a more
| horror/speculative fiction focus.
|
| https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/
|
| The episode _The Thing On The Fourble Board_ is widely regarded
| as a classic of that era of radio.
|
| https://www.quietplease.org/episodes/the-thing-on-the-fourbl...
|
| While I'm at it, I'll point to Erik Bauersfeld's _Black Mass_
| as well, another high-quality horror-fantasy radio show that
| was produced locally in the Bay Area. The adaptation of _The
| Outsider_ always gives me chills.
|
| https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/black-mass/th...
| CarbonJ wrote:
| X Minus One is great! A friend of mine runs "Retrostrange" - a
| radio station that plays old sci-fi shows and often features it.
| I find it really relaxing to throw it on in the background while
| I work.
|
| http://retrostrange.com/
| bilater wrote:
| I want to know when exactly did people stop talking like this or
| was this only a Shakesperean thing for media and gradually went
| out of fashion?
| oh_sigh wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent
| nescioquid wrote:
| I share your curiosity. I've marveled at people's diction in
| man-on-the-street interviews from the 30s, 40, 50s. Maybe the
| effect of an editorial filter or change in acculturation, or
| more likely co-determined by things I haven't guessed at.
| dyates wrote:
| It's called the Mid-Atlantic or Transatlantic accent and was
| designed as a way to blend the American accent with British
| Received Pronunciation. It was deliberately cultivated by the
| upper class and actors in the early 20th century; there was a
| book called Speak With Distinction that taught people how to
| speak like this.
|
| It started dying after WWII and was basically gone from the
| media by the late 60s. Maybe because post-WWII America was less
| dependent on ties with Britain for its national identity, or
| maybe because people decided it sounded silly and fake. No-one
| spoke with the accent naturally, so it really only took a
| fashion change for it to disappear.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent
|
| https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-fake-british-acc...
| tzs wrote:
| Wikipedia has a handy list of X Minus One episodes based on
| stories by famous writers [1], and a list of all the episodes
| [2]. These might come in handy since the Archive.org listing just
| lists the episode titles.
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Minus_One#Episodes_based_on_...
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X_Minus_One_episodes
| sn41 wrote:
| I absolutely love science fiction of the 1950s and early 1960s.
| In my spare time, I try reading "Galaxy science fiction" from
| archive.org. It is a pleasure to read classics like "The Fireman"
| by Ray Bradbury, which eventually became Fahrenheit 411, in their
| original versions. One, now largely forgotten, novel I enjoyed
| from that period is "Day of the Triffids".
| vmilner wrote:
| Is The Day of the Triffids really largely forgotten? Maybe I
| have a UK bias.
| WiseWeasel wrote:
| My exposure to it is only from the entertainingly campy movie
| adaptation, which I can recommend.
|
| https://youtu.be/0KUjE995IO4 (trailer, 1962)
|
| I hadn't considered following that one to the source; what did
| you like about the book?
| johnny_reilly wrote:
| Challenge that: Day of the Triffids is not largely forgotten!
| And nor is anything else by John Wyndham; Trouble with Lichen
| is also terrific.
| vmilner wrote:
| The BBC radio 1968 version of Triffids is excellent, with a
| pretty modern feel, (except for the music). The BBC 1981 TV
| version is also great.
| twic wrote:
| The UK had Journey Into Space:
|
| https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/sci-fi/journey-into-sp...
|
| That was an episodic space adventure, rather than unrelated short
| stories like X Minus One.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| They're played quite frequently on BBC Radio 4 Extra as well:
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00clkyv
| drdeadringer wrote:
| I was raised on re-runs of Dragnet, The Shadow, The Six Shooter,
| and The Whistler. Years later I got hands on X Minus One, CBS
| Radio Mystery Theatre, and others. For a spell there was the
| "modern era" 'Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre' too.
|
| Great times. I revisit from time to time. Buy Blue Coal --
| anthracite!
| dathanb82 wrote:
| I was very surprised to click on the llama icon and end up in a
| web-based port of Winamp.
| Igelau wrote:
| Retro AND vintage!
| Igelau wrote:
| There are hits and misses in here, but I love listening to these.
| A few big names in there too. I seem to recall there's an episode
| in there that's preceded by an announcement about the Korean War.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| When I was a kid there was a local radio station that would play
| all kinds of old radio programs. I fell asleep every night for
| years listening to them. They would play War of the Worlds on
| Halloween. I feel lucky to have stumbled on old radio as kid.
| cronix wrote:
| I did the same in Portland in the mid 80s. X-1, The Shadow, The
| Hall of Fantasy, Jack Benny, Lone Ranger and Fibber McGey and
| Molly, the Whisperer and The Whistler were some I remember
| fondly. I think The Shadow, X-1 and The Whistler were my favs
| though. I actually have a ton saved that I use in Industrial
| music that I make :)
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| I tell my kids their rooms are like Fibber McGey's closet and
| they just give me blank stares.
| mintplant wrote:
| Louisiana's WRBH - Reading Radio for the Blind and Print
| Handicapped [0] would air a block of old radio programs after
| midnight. As a kid I would try my best to stay awake late
| enough to listen them from my bed.
|
| [0] http://www.wrbh.org/
| mcbuilder wrote:
| Same! WHO 1040 AM. This was my favorite followed by Dimension
| X, Suspense, and the Burns and Allen Show. They dramas and sci-
| fi were pretty intense listens as a kid.
| annoyingnoob wrote:
| It still amazes me that many of those shows were done live on
| the air, not prerecorded. Sounds effects and all.
| lostcolony wrote:
| I was introduced to them by audio tape by my parents. Lots of
| the comedies, but eventually some of the dramas. Less sci-fi,
| but Suspense was a delight in October.
| optimalsolver wrote:
| Of possible interest: I made a Reddit bot [0] that searches
| YouTube for science fiction and fantasy audiobooks when their
| titles get mentioned in comments, and then replies with the link.
| It uses the Speculative Fiction Database for reference.
|
| [0] https://www.reddit.com/user/EmotionalField
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(page generated 2020-09-19 23:00 UTC)