Sunday, December 9, 2018

OTR Holiday Month Day 9: Truth or Consequences

Setting aside Information Please I'm not terribly interested in old radio game shows; winners and losers of 70 year old contests don't really matter to me. I'm not especially fond of Truth or Consequences either. It was a game show where the contestants were usually doomed to answer host Ralph Edwards' questions wrong and then perform some humiliating stunt. I really cannot stand Edwards' histrionic performance as the host. The series does nothing for me.

Except for one episode! On December 22, 1947, Edwards hosted a special Christmas program where he welcomed a bedridden veteran over the radio. In an excellent use of radio's ability to engage the listener's imagination, Edwards proceeds to whisk the veteran to his hometown as they had set up remote broadcast stations throughout the town in preparation. It's an immensely heartwarming program and one of the best ideas for a Christmas show in the history of radio.

You can hear the episode at archive.org here.

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