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Year Four in Review!
February 1, 2025
Another calendar year, another trip around the sun. Which means it’s time for a look back on the episodes from Year Four. Quite the ride!
EPISODE 40: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”– The Lux Radio Theater. There’s no denying, I love the Lux Radio Theater for access to these classic films in radio play format. I always try to think of something grand to do for our anniversary episode, and when I saw this script was available, it sounded like a ton of fun. (Original script HERE) It was great to make Madison a “Disney Princess” especially in a story that established the trope of a beautiful innocent girl who needs saving from her (literal) Prince Charming. We all remember the movie, but when you really revisit it, oof. And then the trope of strong women being evil. We all know Walt Disney had mommy-issues. Check out our other Musings breaking down exactly how much we had to tackle in Snow White HERE
EPISODE 41: “Archie Andrews” I have said it so many times, I don’t like to do the comedies. But this was recommended by a long-time fan and great guy, David Gallaher, so I decided to see how I could make it work. My concern always is Madison’s style of comedy will appear “mean” next to the goofy comedy of OTR. What worked with this episode is using Archie’s (now Madison’s) father as the foil. Making him the bad guy allowed Madison to be Madison and on the side of the other teenage characters. Although Madison and Veronica, two peas in a pod, definitely Mean-Girl on Betty. The joy of this episode is David sent it to the head of Archie Comics! He loved it! That was definitely a warm fuzzy for me! (“Wallpapering” original episode HERE)
EPISODE 42: “The Green Lama” This episode was recommended by Jim and Christine Maslak, two huge OTR fans. This more obscure superhero wasn’t on air very long, and they recommended specifically “The Last Dinosaur” episode which was such a good choice! I do enjoy the shows set in Hollywood, since I’ve got a lot of personal experiences to pull on for Madison. I loved making her a caterer trying to get close to Hollywood bigwigs at a glitzy party. This superhero is very stiff and pretty two-dimensional, so a lot of fun to bounce off of Madison who I had sort of taking the role of his (very unPC) Asian sidekick, as well as just general hanger-on as Madison is known to do. The SFX for the dinosaur were a fun, too. (original episode HERE)
EPISODE 43: “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” Back to Sherlock for our fourth installment! I had been looking for an episode with Moriarty but found most of them will mention the nemesis as a figment, but he never appears in the episode. That’s when I ran across this later episode (after Basil Rathbone had left the series). So I was able to get Karim Kronfli as my Moriarty and off to Scotland we went! I have mentioned in the past my lamenting the “Dimension X” episode for having to deal with a parade SFX. Well, I think the bagpipes have that beat! That was a lot of work trying to create realistic sounding bagpipes and then not damaging the ears of the audience. That and the umpteen different types of rain Scotland required! But if you’ve been following the Sherlock sagas, you know the B-Story is the one to watch here… the first installment of the three story arc of “Sponsor Dude.” (“The Case of the Haunted Bagpipes” original episode HERE)
EPISODE 44: “The Casebook of Gregory Hood” This episode was suggested by Twitter/X fan, Setalia. She’d pointed out that the real-life Sherlock announcer, Harry Bartell, (who plays “himself” in Sherlock) also was the announcer for “The Casebook of Gregory Hood” which I had never heard of before. Upon researching it, I learned that Gregory Hood was the fill-in series for Sherlock when it went on hiatus, so naturally it made sense Bartell and sponsor Petri Wine also sponsored that series. So wouldn’t it be fun if “Sponsor Dude,” continuously tortured by Madison in Sherlock, showed up unaware that Madison would be in his other series, too? I picked this specific episode because of the “time traveler” element and how excited that would make Madison to feel like she’s not alone. But her torture of Harry leads him down a path of excessive drinking and our only episode cliffhanger!! (“The Derringer Society” original episode HERE)
EPISODE 45: “Inner Sanctum” Now our third part of what I call, “The Sponsor Dude Trilogy.” I’d wanted to do one of the horror anthology series but it’s been a tough fit for Madison. The lead ends up either being the killer, or being killed. But this episode had hung in my memory for a while. Then, when I put the idea together that the “married couple” would be Madison and Harry leaping together, well, it was a ton of fun. Under the stress and strain of murder and being hunted, Madison and Harry are actually able to get to know each other and both become a little vulnerable together. I kinda think it’s sweet! Which was a nice parallel to “Inner Sanctum’s” host and sponsor which is a darling part of this tongue-in-cheek horror show. (“Till Death Do Us Part” original episode HERE)
EPISODE 46: “Forbidden Planet” – The Caltex Theater. Well! It seemed like time for another sci-fi show and Jeremy, my sound engineer and husband, found this production from the Australian version of “Lux Radio Theater.” The misogyny alone screamed needing the Madison Treatment! Besides listening to the radio version, we did watch the original film again. It was very easy to shout at the TV with all the crazy stuff going on. But I will say, for its era, the special effects hold up. It’s a good watch. Obviously I had fun with the innocent Alta. If 1955 wanted to turn her into a subservient woman who needs to be taught how to behave around men, Madison was going to guide her into discovering her own womanhood. And if that means Alta discovers she enjoys female companionship over male… well… 😉 While most fans of our series gave this episode a glowing review (as did the guys on “Science Fiction Remnant” if you’d like to hear our bonus episode!) this one did garner backlash from entitled white dudes who didn’t want the overt misogyny of a 70 year old film to be challenged by some girl. I got the mild version: “This production clearly doesn’t know anything about the movie or old time radio” to the extreme of “Madison should die and I’ll be the one how does it to her.” Awww… our first death threat. (Original episode HERE)
EPISODE 47: “The Adventures of Maisie” Julie Hoverson, one of our regular cast and also big fan of OTR, recommended this show with this specific episode, “The ACME Surplus Truck Driver.” This is another of the OTR comedies I’d avoided for some time. But on the heels of Archie, thought, okay, let’s give it a go. Maisie was sassy like Madison, so an easy fit for her. And while the original didn’t exactly have the female lumberjack as a lesbian, come on! How can you avoid all of those signals! As far as I was concerned, the 1940s just couldn’t take the character where I could. I did a bit of rewriting to allow Lumber-Jane, Helen, to call more of the shots. They’d written her as this woman actively choosing a men’s career but then faints like some little delicate flower? Nah. And they had Maisie being the one who fixes the army surplus radio. We all know that wouldn’t be Madison, and a better fit for Helen. Overall it was a fun one to push gender boundaries of the 40s and really get a glimpse into what norms the original show was testing. And the other lesbians coming in to save the day was also to flip the original which had the male cops saving the poor little girls. (Original episode HERE)
EPISODE 48: “The Tell-Tale Heart” – Halloween Special! And back to “Inner Sanctum.” That horror series has several Poe titles and I picked TTH because I liked their telling of the classic short story. I looked at this episode like a Simpson’s Halloween Special where Madison is taking on the role of the “narrator” character from the story, and it isn’t actually Madison doing these things. Edward October of “OctoberPod AM” and I had been chatting for some time about a project to do together. So this one seemed like a natural fit for his love of the macabre! (and I did his Halloween special, his telling of “Frankenstein”). I love when I can bring the show’s narrator in as a character. It’s just a favorite device of mine! So this one was a ton of fun to write. (Original episode HERE)
EPISODE 49: “Have Gun-Will Travel” Western time! It’d been far too long since we’d done a Western, and this one was recommended to me from several listeners. I hate to admit it, but I had never heard the series before, not in radio or TV (my cousin later told me he dressed up like Paladin for Halloween as a kid!) Well, I absolutely fell in love with this series. I picked “The Road to Wickenberg” episode pretty quickly. It was one of the first episodes of the radio series. With the saloon girl trying to get a ride with Paladin and manipulating him (while also saving his life, so she has some spunk) I couldn’t find a better Madison episode. However, that said, I got a backlash from a diehard HGWT TV fan. In our script, Paladin gets slipped a mickey by the bad guys and passes out. I was told I should “watch at least one episode of the series before I try to do it.” Well, hey! That was their plot point, not mine! I guess on TV he would never have fallen for that trick, and that it made him look “goofy.” I can only adapt what I’m given! Yeesh. (Original episode HERE)
EPISODE 50: “It’s a Wonderful Life” Lux Radio Theater for the win! I’d been sitting on this gem. Not entirely sure Madison’s place in the story. But when I saw how they adapted the film to radio, Madison as Clarance the wingless angel was the perfect fit. I am a huge fan of this film for all the reasons. But that doesn’t mean I can’t look at it through Madison’s eyes. It became very clear that we all accept George Bailey’s faults because they are portrayed by Hollywood nice-guy, Jimmy Stewart. Because the more I lifted the veil of the beloved movie, the more I realized he was kinda a jerk! Well, layered anyway. Scott R. McKinley just rocked it as Jimmy. I have heard far too many bad and overly done impersonations of James Stewart as George. But Scotty gave it a nice, a genuine performance, without going into caricature. I’m entering this one in the Atlanta Fridge Audio Festival. I’m that proud of it! (original script HERE)
EPISODE 51: “Hot Copy” I’ve been podcast-friends with Jim Goodluck since I started Madison. He’d recommended “Candy Matson” to me in year one, and also mentioned this little known series following a female reporter, “Hot Copy.” But with no episodes available to listen to, I went a different direction. Then Jim took it upon himself to recreate the original series from the scripts. Fans of his show and Madison asked when we were going to do a crossover! (Our shows also share a lot of cast, including me) and that’s when Jim gave me this “Reefer Madness” PSA episode of the show. His cast thought it was too silly for them to do straight (it is in many ways a departure from the usual tone of the show) but it was ripe for Madison! His leads agreed to join us, and we had a fabulous 1940’s scared straight episode! (original script on our webpage)
What will Year Five bring? I’m hoping to continue to reach new audience. It’s a marathon, as everyone says. In the meantime, I will continue to challenge myself to keep it creative and fresh, and I hope you all stick around for our new adventures!
