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The Madison and Sponsor-Dude Saga

With our July episode of “Inner Sanctum,” the Sponsor-Dude saga has reached its climax. BUT! It by no means is the end. However, with this being the only continuing storyline our show has featured, I thought it would be fun to talk about how we got here.

In the first season, especially the earliest episodes, I was relying on finding the scripts for these series online from Generic Radio. They had 13 of  the “New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” episodes in their collection, so, wanting to do an episode with the world renown sleuth, I picked “A Scandal in Bohemia.” I hadn’t listened to a lot of the original series, so this was my first introduction to them having the sponsor, Harry Bartell, bookend the story by talking to Dr. Watson in “modern” day. So since Madison was stepping in for Watson in the Sherlock story, I decided to have her housesit for Watson and be the one to tell Harry the story.  For that first Sherlock episode, I didn’t even use Harry’s name and he was just “Announcer-Dude.” I went with the gimmick that Madison had run across a London cafe serving Italian espresso. With her passion for coffee, and her self indulgent tendencies, I started the episode with her having overdone it on the caffeine. It gave contrast to her voice and actions in the “flashbacks” of the Sherlock adventure, as well as a parallel to the story. Sherlock was trying to navigate a female nemesis, and Announcer-Dude was trying to do his job with a severely caffeinated woman bouncing off the walls.

After our Sherlock episode got such a great response, I broke my rule of “Madison never repeats a series” and exactly one year later, brought Madison back for another Sherlock mystery. (May being the birth month of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, if you didn’t realize!) This time around I played on the character background of Dr. Watson having dogs. What fun to have Harry (still “Announcer-Dude”) trying to deal with crazy barking and growling dogs as Madison spun the story.

Year Three I was thrilled to find an episode where Sherlock and Madison would be in the casinos of the French Riviera. I do enjoy unique settings when I find them on these OTR shows. So with Madison gambling at the roulette tables in France, what better action to have as she tells Harry (now Sponsor-Dude) the adventure than playing poker. But since Madison had years in the Greek system in college, well, naturally it had to be strip poker.  And, for her own survival playing against countless horny frat boys, Madison learned to be an excellent player.  Sponsor-Dude never had a chance.

Both Year Two and Year Three, Madison’s torture was turning up the heat. So by Year Four she had to go for the gusto.  I’d been looking for a Moriarty episode to do and found “The Adventure of the Haunted Bagpipes.”  Scotland? Bagpipes? Moriarty? Yes, please. So to keep in the theme of her trip to Edinburgh, out came the golf clubs!  Then gave it a rainy day in London to match the rain of Scotland, forcing the game to be played indoors.  Oh, yes, and with the dogs. After a rather painful (and personal) injury as a result of Madison, Sponsor-Dude hides away in the bathroom and openly weeps.  He has his moment at the end when he dumps a pitcher of ice water on her, but you know he has reached his limit.

I think it should be noted at this time that if you go back to the first Sherlock episode, Harry is really dismissive of Madison.  He is sexist and condescending.  Just so you know that Madison didn’t initiate her behavior towards him out of some thrill like a cat playing with a mouse. Harry brought this upon himself.  Madison has never set out to be truly mean to him. But after a while… watching him lose it, well… it became a perk.

Then, thanks to a recommendation from a “Madison on the Air” listener, it was brought to my attention that Harry Bartell also lent his spokesman talents to “The Casebook of Gregory Hood.”  I hadn’t heard of this one, and learned it had been the summer replacement when Sherlock was on hiatus. So OMG what fun to have Harry (now officially Harry) wander innocently into the other show he works on only to find Madison there, too!  I picked this particular episode because of the character who claims to see into the future, which I thought would be fun for Madison to explore. Each “Gregory Hood” episode, Harry meets Greg at a different location to hear the newest story. This one happened to be set at restaurant in a fancy hotel.  So I went with it.  Let’s get Harry drunk at the bar!  And being set in San Francisco, loved the image of Harry pushing her in front of the speeding streetcar. Perfect!

Now “Inner Sanctum.”  I have been wanting to do one of the horror anthology shows but the trouble is the leads are usually either the murderers of the victims.  Where can I put in Madison? But when the idea formulated to do Sherlock/Gregory Hood, I thought about the “Inner Sanctum” episode “Till Death Do Us Part.” I liked that one for Madison because the newlywed leads not only don’t die, but weren’t the killers. And the idea of zapping Harry in there with her was just perfect! Have them scrabble and fight with the backdrop of a murderer after them to heighten the stakes.  In the original, it was a completely unrelated couple who were the victim/murderer. Joe and Nancy Paige were innocent witnesses.  So it was a fun twist to have Madison and Harry mistaken for the Paiges, but the real Joe and Nancy were actually the victim/murderer.

Of course my favorite part of “Inner Sanctum” was being able to flesh out Madison and Harry.  We learn a bit more about how Madison feels about her being stuck in OTR because someone is finally willing to believe her and listen.  Harry softens his attitude towards Madison when he realizes what she’s been going through and that she bears him no ill will. In fact, she likes him! I enjoyed their softer, sweet moments to contrast their usual arguing. And yes, like the original “Inner Sanctum,” the host is upset there’s a happy ending!

Moving forward don’t expect to see Harry until Sherlock rolls around again next May.  While there are some fun avenues I could continue to explore with the two of them, I am making the conscious choice to return to the regular “stand-alone episodes” format for Madison.  I have based the brand of the show on saying anyone can listen to any episode, they don’t need to be in order.  “See a title you like? Jump in anywhere!”  Which is something I, personally, deeply miss from television shows.  I know we’re in the age of streaming and binging and that certainly permeates audio drama as well, but it’s not something I want to develop. To me, that’s changing the very basis of Madison.  And the one thing that has caused me to bail on TV shows time and time again, is when the writers “shake it up” and change the premise of the show in later seasons.  They take it in such a different direction that it no longer resembles the show that drew me in in the first place.  Especially when those shows were sold to me as procedural and now have sweeping storylines.  Nope, that’s not my plans for Madison.  Plus, I am still cultivating new audience. Pushing the indie slow-grow.  I don’t want any new listeners to feel obligated to listen in a certain order or they won’t understand what’s going on.  If they only like superhero shows, they can listen to all the superhero episodes and not be get lost with portions of a larger Madison story arc. Just like the OTR episodes themselves. The conflict is resolved at the end of the episode, see you next week, folks!

And… shhh… I have a fun Sherlock episode planned for May 2025. I promise it’ll be worth the wait to see Harry again…

-Chrisi (aka Madison)

Check out other Madison’s Musings!