20 Great Years of Radio, Part 7: 1944

1. Suspense (CBS): This was another terrific year for Suspense! The two-part adaptation of Donovan's Brain with Orson Welles was a particular highlight. Some other phenomenal episodes included Dime a Dance, Narrative About Clarence and The Man Who Knew How.
2. The Jack Benny Program (NBC): For me, this year represents a turning point for Benny. On the plus side, Dennis Day returned to the show. On the minus, Jack took Lucky Strike as his new sponsor. The Lucky Strike commercials are so irritating and consume so much time from each episode that I find they really drag down the quality of the show. Nevertheless, this was still a great year which included an apperance by Groucho Marx and a memorable parody of Bob Hope's program.
3. Inner Sanctum Mysteries (CBS): At this point, Inner Sanctum had found the style which they would maintain to the end of their series. This year had what I think were the first really good episodes, including The Walking Skull, Death Is a Joker and The Color-Blind Formula.
4. The Whistler (CBS): The Whistler was similarly on a very solid course with perfectly-executed twist endings. My favourite episode of the year is Christmas Bonus, which has an appropriately gentle twist for the holiday season.
5. The Mysterious Traveler (Mutual): The Mysterious Traveler never attained the quality of Inner Sanctum, but it was willing to indulge in plenty of supernatural or science fiction storytelling elements, so it's certainly still an interesting show - unfortunately, most of the series has been lost. The best of this year was Beware of Tomorrow and Queen of the Cats. I realize I might be alone in standing up for Queen of the Cats!
6. Information Please (NBC): Another great year for this quiz show which featured another good guest appearance from Fred Allen.
7. Creeps By Night (ABC): This series' failure is a shame - it was a quality horror series with some stories drawn from contemporary authors and performances from the likes of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The only surviving episodes are Those Who Walk in Darkness, The Final Reckoning, The Hunt, The Walking Dead and The Six Who Wouldn't Die.
8. This Is My Best (CBS): This was something of an attempt by Orson Welles to recapture his Mercury heyday but he wasn't in every episode. This year included a great turn by Robert Benchley in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and a new production of Norman Corwin's The Plot to Overthrow Christmas.
9. The Life of Riley (Blue): The Life of Riley practically invented the family sitcom. The show's pacing and format was figured out very quickly. The show can seem rather predictable, but it succeeds for me because of William Bendix's great comedic performance as Chester Riley (not to mention John Brown's great supporting work). For me, this is as good as radio family sitcoms get!
10. The Shadow (Mutual): Another fairly standard year of Shadow programs, my favourite of which is Death to the Shadow.