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Your Imagination -- On a Shiny Platter!
For years, radio enthusiasts could only enjoy favorite programs like The Shadow, The Jack Benny Program, or Fibber McGee and Molly as they were broadcast live. An enterprising few managed to make home recordings, and as magnetized tape became a popular medium of recorded entertainment, broadcasters began to unlock their vaults of recordings to let users listen anew at home. That trend grew stronger with the advent of the Compact Laser Platter, still a favorite for musical recordings, but it’s positively exploded thanks to the growing popularity of DAD, the Digital Audio Discording format.
Modern-day digital wizardry allows just one of these marvelous little dishes to hold an entire season of studio-quality entertainment, along with behind-the-scenes interviews with stars, writers, and technicians; excerpted scenarios trimmed from prerecorded broadcasts; and audio documentaries on the making of these fine programs. Best of all, the DAD format has breathed new life into criticially beloved but little-heralded programs of the recent past:
TASER Theater, featuring Veronica Marshall, Girl Detective!: Mr. Robert Thomas previously produced Radiot favorite The Love God for the NBC Blue Network, followed by the even shorter-lived Nosy Dames. He found greater success on the youth-focused Columbia/Warner Network with this deceptively sophisticated serial. The titular sleuth (Ms. Christine Bell, lovely star of Broadway and Hollywood) is a fast-talking modern girl solving high-society crimes in the posh seaside hamlet of Neptune, California. Whenever this little lady gets in over her head with blackmailers, cat burglars, and stickup men, she can always rely on the wisdom of her pop the sheriff (Mr. Ernest Cole), the sturdy fists of her movie-star sweetheart Logan Edwards (Mr. Jason Dorian), or the endearing comic relief of her bookish pal Cindy (Ms. Tina Majors), butler Wallace (Mr. Percy Dagwood) and gardener Eli (Mr. Francis Capra III). In a unique twist, Mr. Thomas incorporated the sponsor’s product directly into the plots of his episodes, providing numerous demonstrations of the usefulness of a TASER electrical defense appliance in protecting a young lady’s virtue. Though initially reminiscent of Columbia/Warner’s earlier success, Buffy Summers, Vampire Hunter, Girl Detective! ultimately stands on its own with snappy patter and brain-teasing whodunits. The DAD edition of Girl Detective! includes Mr. Thomas’s revelation that sponsors pulled out after learning of his cockamamie plans to send his girl heroine to G-Man academy.
The Bluths of Sudden Valley: Mr. Michael Hart’s rib-tickling comedy examines the misadventures of a family of upper-crust ne’er-do-wells by cleverly aping the style of a Murrow-esque radio documentary. With the paterfamilias packed off to the hoosegow for cooking the books, these swells and snobs must turn to humble, hard-working Michael (Mr. Jason Bates) to keep them all out of the gutter to which they are destined. Mr. Hart and his writer cleverly construct farcical plots, and reward loyal listeners with repeating snippets of dialogue and music that reference earlier installments and gags. The DAD edition notably contains the mercifully censored japery of supporting player Mr. David Cross, as he delivers a mock-indignant rebuke of his supposedly unsupportive broadcaster, its top executives, and their assorted and colorful parentage.
Stagecoach to the Starways: After his successes with Buffy Summers, Vampire Hunter and DracuL.A., Mr. John Whedon stretched perhaps too far with this ingenious fusion of John Ford-style Western action and scientifictional speculation. A loyal core of fans, dubbing themselves “brownshirts” after the garb of the serial’s heroes, embraced the adventures of Marshall Malcolm Reynolds (Mr. Nathan Phillips) and his motley band of flying cowboys as they deal out justice in the Wild Western Milky Way, and attempt to protect a mysterious halfwit and her doctor brother from pursuing desperadoes. Alas, Mr. and Mrs. America tuned out en masse, baffled by the series’ florid dialogue and its occasional smatterings of heathen Chinese. The DAD edition includes three installments recorded but never broadcast, along with a selection of Mr. Whedon’s philosophical musings and self-deprecating wit.
All these programs and more, including listener favorites such as The Family Man, Delivery Boy 3000, Duff Beer Presents Homer Loves Marge, and The Cussin’ Children of Colorado, are now available for your listening pleasure as DAD albums. Why not enjoy an old favorite — or a new one — today? This marvelous new format is like a memory for your very ears!