Friday, August 30, 2024

Radio Recap: The Planet Man

The Planet Man was a juvenile adventure serial with a science fiction setting. It aired as a 15-minute daily syndicated program from 1953.
"This is the fascinating story of Dantro, The Planet Man, troubleshooter for the League of Planets organization, the law enforcement body for peace and justice in the celestial world - whose headquarters and center of operations are situated on the capital of all the planets, Planeria Rex. From Mercury to Pluto, wherever danger threatens the universe, you will find Dantro the Planet Man fighting for fair play."

When I say that Planet Man was juvenile, I mean juvenile. It's high camp, and there's an audience for that. If you're the sort who giggles their way through the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, then Planet Man will live up to your expectations.

The writing on Planet Man is so simplistic that I'm not even certain the creators knew what a "planet" is. I mean, why is our hero Dantro "the Planet Man?" He works for the League of Planets, not a singular planet. Why not "Interplanetary Man?" I mean, anyone from Earth could also claim to be a "Planet Man," just from a different planet than Dantro. But this is a show where the dictator of Mars is named "Marston!" And he has vicious "Marlions!"

Dantro isn't much of hero - he usually manages to get himself captured by the bad guy, leaving it up to one of his many sidekicks (a scientist, scientist's daughter, Texan engineer and two kids) to get him out of hot water. The announcer frequently had difficulty coming up with an appropriate cliffhanger at the end of an episode. Each time he'd spout off a series of questions to engage the listener, but some of them were as lame as, "did Slats set the circuits correctly?" If the question won't even be raised in the succeeding episode, maybe don't bring it up?

You can hear all the surviving episodes of Planet Man in the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library collection on the Internet Archive.

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