Radio Recap: Adventure Ahead

Adventure Ahead was a short-lived juvenile program that aired on NBC during the summer of 1944. However, unlike other juvenile shows, the writing was rather strong because it drew from famous pieces of literature. The series had a very obvious appeal towards boys - that is, to the possible exclusion of girls - and so featured stories with young male leads such as "The Story of a Bad Boy" and "Toby Tyler." But many of the stories featured on the program were the same kind of content being prepared for adult audiences, such as "Robinson Crusoe" and "Two Years Before the Mast."

For me, as a John Buchan fan, I was extremely delighted that the series featured an adaptation of his 2nd Richard Hannay novel, "Greenmantle." Like many Hannay fans, I actually consider "Greenmantle" to be superior to "The Thirty-Nine Steps" but it seldom receives the attention afforded the more famous entry. "Greenmantle" is a great little spy drama but it's a bit too complex for a half-hour radio program - at least a 1-hour show would have been better. I'm happy it exists in any form, though!

Adventure Ahead is not flashy radio but by the standards of juvenile programming it has above average writing and production values. The Old Time Radio Researchers Group have collected the surviving episodes to a page on the Internet Archive, here.