20 Great Years of Radio, Part 16: 1953

1. Escape (CBS): This was an amazing year for Escape with many strong original scripts like the nightmarish I Saw Myself Running, the terrifying cabin fever story A Study in Wax and the spy drama Classified Secret. But there was so much more, from Stephen Crane's Open Boat to an adaptation of The Voyages of Sinbad! Escape had a pretty loose theme yet somehow it felt consistently great despite the differences in content.
2. Suspense (CBS): This period is not my favourite of Suspense as I feel producer Elliott Lewis was trying too hard to prove himself. Still, some episodes in the classic Suspense format broke through like Pigeon in a Cage, the story of a man caught in an elevator. And Jack Benny made another good appearance with the funny sci-fi story Plan X.
3. The Jack Benny Program (CBS): Benny had a pretty funny year with a funny parody of Road to Bali with Bob Hope. This year's Christmas shopping episode had Jack buying dates for Don Wilson.
4. The Whistler (CBS): Anther good year for this venerable mystery program.
5. The Hall of Fantasy (Mutual): This series has a reputation for being a horror program with many dark endings in which the protagonists fail. By this time the other horror shows were all off the air and The Hall of Fantasy pushed the supernatural a bit stronger than its predecessors had. Some good episodes include The Dance of the Devil Dolls, The Night the Fog Came and The Marquise of Death.
6. Lux Radio Theater (CBS): By this time Lux was beginning to wind down but there were still good film adaptations here and there such as The Bishop's Wife. There were also more episodes which weren't based on films, such as The Birds, a decade before Hitchcock's film!
7. Our Miss Brooks (CBS): This was another fun year for this light-hearted sitcom.
8. Gunsmoke (CBS): This year had one of my favourite episodes, The Round-Up, in which Marshall Dillon makes a tragic mistake. The program willingness to have the hero fail makes it much more interesting than any other western program.
9. The Six-Shooter (NBC): Speaking of other western programs, here's James Stewart's western show. This was a very well-written and well-performed show that would have gone a long way if only it had started a few years earlier, before advertisers moved their money into television.
10. Dragnet (NBC): And this was a good year for Dragnet with one of their best Christmas epides, The Big Little Jesus.