Making the Jump

[dhermann1]

Lizzie, this is for you. I know you'll have lots of answers. I just stumbled across a website dedicated to Sky King, that great flying cowboy of the '50's. http://members.cox.net/skykingtv/skyking.html
They mention the fact that the show started on th radio in 1946, then moved to TV in 1951. It ran on both TV and radio for a couple of years. That reminded me that there were a LOT of shows that did that. Some moved from radio to TV, such as Superman, Gunsmoke, etc., and some ran simultaneously on both radio and TV. I believe Jack Benny did that as well. So how many other shows that we think of as TV icons started as radio shows?

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were tons of radio programs that made the transition, almost too many to list. A few off the top of my head --

Lux Video Theatre
The Jack Benny Program
The Goldbergs
Amos 'n' Andy
Our Miss Brooks
Life of Riley
The Great Gildersleeve
Duffy's Tavern
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Suspense
Lights Out
The Guiding Light
Meet The Press
The Bob Hope Show
Art Linkletter's House Party
You Bet Your Life
People Are Funny
The Abbott and Costello Show
The Lone Ranger
The Milton Berle Show
Arthur Godfrey Time
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
The Original Amateur Hour
Beat The Clock
Truth or Consequences
Queen For A Day
See It Now (Hear It Now)
Dragnet

This is by no means an exhaustive list - just what I was able to think of before having my tea this morning. In addition to specific programs, there were many program formats that were lifted bodily from radio predecessors -- Ed Sullivan's long-running variety show, for example, was nothing more than a straight lift from the format Rudy Vallee had pioneered in the early thirties, so much so that Vallee himself had at one point been asked to host it.

Even to this day there are no television program formats that can't be traced directly back to radio. Radio in the thirties even had its share of cheap reality shows -- "Do You Want To Be An Actor," "The Goodwill Court," "Gateway to Hollywood," etc. etc. etc. Even "American Idol" is little more than "Major Bowes Amateur Hour" without the Major's sense of good taste.