Radio Recap: Forecast

Forecast was an anthology program created by CBS that ran for 2 seasons in the summers of 1940 and 1941. It was a very unusual program for old-time radio in that it was designed to showcase new ideas for programs. Each episode was essentially a proposed pilot for a new series. We have only a few examples of radio auditions and pilots and they're mostly post-war programs. Forecast is interesting, therefore, as a record of "what might have been."

CBS is easily, to my mind, the greatest producer of dramatic radio shows. They were also the network that was most willing to experiment with new ideas. Perhaps that's because until post-World War II, CBS was perenially the 2nd place network behind NBC. NBC didn't have to experiment - their offerings were almost always the most popular programs on the air. CBS then had the freedom to try out different ideas.

Kudos, then, to CBS for making Forecast. One problem, however, is that it is very similar to another CBS program: the Columbia Workshop. That series was already a proving-ground for new and unusual ideas where writers, directors and performers tried out new material; the Columbia Workshop helped influence later programs who took lessons from their innovations.

Forecast, however, was trying to drum up audience interest in new shows. They would invite listeners to tell them what they thought of the program, since as a network-sponsored series, Forecast's ratings weren't being traced.

Forecast was produced simulataneously in New York and Hollywood. During the first season, most episodes featured a half-hour broadcast from each of the two studios. This meant Forecast could draw from the best talents of both coasts.

Let's look at the first season of Forecast:

1. July 15, 1940: "The Battle of Music" and "The American Theatre" (featuring "The Gentleman from Indiana") by director John Houseman
2. July 22, 1940: "When You Were 21" starring Danny Kaye and "Suspense" (featuring "the Lodger") by director Alfred Hitchcock
3. July 29, 1940: "Angel" starring Loretta Young and "Duffy's Tavern" starring Ed Gardner
4. August 5, 1940: "Of Stars and States" directed by Charles Vanda
5. August 12, 1940: "The Life of the Party" and "Leave It to Jeeves" starring Edward Everett Horton
6. August 19, 1940: "Back Where I Come From" starring Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives; "Ever After" starring Edna Best and "To Tim at Twenty" directed by Norman Corwin
7. August 26, 1940: "All God's Children" starring Paul Robeson and "Bethel Merriday" starring Margaret Sullavan.
8. September 2, 1940: "The Birth of a Nation" starring Burgess Meredith

I first learned of Forecast because of the premiere broadcast of Suspense. Although when the series arrived it was a somewhat different program, the pilot is interesting because of Alfred Hitchcock's involvement - but it's ultimately a failure because they couldn't fit their adaptation of "the Lodger" into the half-hour timeslot. If you wanted your pilot to demonstrate what listeners could expect each week, you should have produced a complete broadcast; the lack of a climax to the story leaves the listeners unsatisfied and feeling like they've experienced a preview of the series, not an actual program.

On the other hand, they also featured the debut of Duffy's Tavern in this season and it's a very good example of the series; it's a bit rough around the edges but features the same type of humour the series would have. Otherwise, none of these programs went on to become proper series.

Still, there are interesting ideas among the other episodes of Forecast. "The Battle of Music" featured a classical musician and jazz musician competing against each other with banter between sets. It's breezy and fun but would have probably been tedious as a weekly program. "Leave It to Jeeves" is about as good a radio adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse as you could hope for. "All God's Children" has some great singing by Paul Robeson and "Bethel Merriday" is a charming adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel.

Some of the shows are real odd ducks that I can't imagine ever succeeding. "When You Were 21" should have been a hit - Danny Kaye was always game - but the odd concept was to look back in time at a past year (1919 in this instance) in which members of the audience were aged 21... that's too elusive as a concept, it takes too long to explain and makes assumptions about the listening audience that you can't really back up.

Even odder is "The Life of the Party" which features party tricks performed by famous people. It's interesting enough for a half-hour, but there's just no way it could have endured as a series. And the Double Feature program with "Ever After" and "To Tim at Twenty" starts off on the wrong note with a very unfunny sketch about Prince Charming and Snow White having an unhappy marriage - it hits every obvious joke.

On to season 2:

1. July 14, 1941: "Arabian Nights" starring Marlene Dietrich
2. July 21, 1941: "51 East 51" starring Kay Thompson and "Memoirs of Mischa the Magnificent" starring Mischa Auer
3. July 28, 1941: "Pibby and the Houlihans" starring Dudley Digges and "Deductions Deluxe" starring Adolphe Menjou and Verree Teasdale
4. August 4, 1941: "Song without End" starring Burgess Meredith
5. August 11, 1941: "Class of '41" and "Hopalong Cassidy" starring Lou Merrill
6. August 18, 1941: "Country Lawyer" starring Knox Manning
7. August 25, 1941: "Three Wishes" starring Alexander Woolcott and "A Tour of Hollywood" starring Tony Martin and Bert Lahr.
8. September 1, 1941: "Tree of Hope" and "Jubilee" starring Ethel Waters and Duke Ellington.

The big hit of this season was Jubilee, which went on to a successful run this preview is very much representative of the show (for that matter, "Tree of Hope" fits in very well as both programs feature all-black casts). Hopalong Cassidy eventually became a radio show, but not on CBS and not with the cast used on Forecast.

Otherwise, Marlene Dietrich was very entertaining in "Arabian Nights." "Country Lawyer" was a strong dramatic program and "The Memoirs of Mischa the Magnificent" was pretty funny. "A Tour of Hollywood" is a mix of stand-up comedy and music that holds up fine, although it's not really any different than any other comedy-music show of the time.

But a few episodes of the 2nd season really did not impress me. "Pibby and the Houlihans" is a blue collar Irish comedy that hits every Irish stereotype you can imagine; it's embarrassing. "Deductions Deluxe" was an attempt to create a Thin Man-style detective comedy with a romantic couple who solve crimes but the humour is too obvious. And my single least-favourite episode of Forecast is "Song without End," a biography of Claude Debussy; it uses a repeated high-pitched note that very quickly irritated my eardrums. I don't plan to revisit that one any time soon!

Forecast is an oddity; there are dramatic programs, comedy programs, variety programs; it's an interesting example of what radio sounded like at the start of World War II; it would be very different post-war.

You can hear Forecast at the Old-Time Radio Researchers' Library.