CBS Radio Workshop — 1956
48 episodes broadcast in 1956.
The series-opening landmark: Aldous Huxley himself narrates Part 1 of his dystopian 'Brave New World,' in a production CBS engineers spent five hours building from scratch.
Aldous Huxley continues narrating Part 2 of his own 'Brave New World' -- the two-part adaptation that launched the Workshop and is still cited among radio's greatest broadcasts.
Ray Bradbury narrates two of his own stories -- 'Season of Disbelief' and 'Hail and Farewell' -- lending his distinctive voice to his own fantasy and nostalgia.
A satirical imaginary press conference: the Workshop summons William Shakespeare and interviews him about the modern world, narrated by scholar Dr. Frank Baxter.
The Workshop's first broadcast from New York -- Clifton Fadiman narrates a sound portrait of the city, marking the show's expansion to bicoastal production.
William Conrad, one of the Workshop's most frequent narrators, tells the tale behind the broadcast's title, "The Legend of Jimmy Blue Eyes."
CBS News correspondent Eric Sevareid narrates a comic look at city dwellers fleeing to the country suburbs.
Vincent Price and Lurene Tuttle headline this Workshop take on the Cinderella story, referenced in the broadcast's own title, "Speaking of Cinderella -- If the Shoe Fits."
John Dehner hosts this broadcast built around record collecting, with singer Margaret Whiting and Lynn Murray as his guests.
A full radio opera -- 'The Toledo War' -- one of several chamber and operatic productions the Workshop mounted as engineers' showcases.
William Conrad narrates John Cheever's eerie tale of a New York couple whose new radio picks up the unguarded secrets of every neighbor in their building.
The Helen Hayes Drama Group performs this anthology piece, whose title promises exactly what it delivers -- lovers, villains, and fools.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's beloved fable 'The Little Prince' brought to radio, with Raymond Burr in the cast.
William Conrad stars in "A Matter of Logic," with Antony Ellis -- one of the Workshop's own writer-directors -- also appearing on the broadcast.
A sardonic look at organized religion drawn from the private notes of H.L. Mencken.
A chamber opera in one act -- one of the Workshop's most ambitious format experiments.
A dramatic retelling of the life of Joan of Arc.
A sound-portrait of the French capital, credited to writer David Shornburn.
Sarah Churchill -- daughter of Winston -- lends her voice to this portrait of London.
A story by Henry Shelby, broadcast under the title "Subways Are for Sleeping."
Narrator Joseph Julian leads a large ensemble -- Jackson Beck, Catherine Anderson, Ian Martin, Sarah Fussell, Ed Prentiss and Lawson Zerbe -- through "Only Johnny Knows," one of the few 1956 broadcasts with a fully credited supporting cast in the surviving log.
Dr. Frank Baxter returns for the Workshop's second 'Colloquy' -- this one a learned comic treatise on the nature of love.
Stan Freberg headlines the Workshop's comedy hour: a Colloquy dissecting the art of satire, with June Foray, Daws Butler, and an all-star comic cast.
Robert Nathan narrates his own whimsical story 'A Pride of Carrots' -- a rare case of an author lending his voice to the Workshop's adaptation of his work.
An adaptation of Mark Twain's irreverent frontier memoir 'Roughing It,' drawn from the rich vein of American humor.
A profile of writer Hector Chevigny (the Haendiges log renders the name "Chevieny"), credited in the log as the writer behind the long-running CBS daytime serial "The Second Mrs. Burton."
William Conrad narrates "The Legend of Annie Christmas" as a story ballad -- one of several American folk-legend broadcasts the Workshop produced this season.
An adaptation of an unnamed French novel -- the surviving log identifies neither the author nor an English-language title.
A sound-and-drama documentary tracing the history of the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The fourth installment of the Workshop's recurring "Colloquy" discussion series, built around Joe Miller's classic jestbook -- and the broadcast the log marks as the show's move to a Sunday timeslot.
A comic ensemble -- Hans Conried, Jay Novello, Joe DeSantis, Joseph Kearns, June Foray, Daws Butler and Byron Kane -- stars in "Report on the We-Uns," with author-narrator Robert Nathan returning to the cast two months after voicing his own "A Pride of Carrots."
The story of the United States told entirely through sound effects -- one of the Workshop's purest exercises in the 'theater of the mind.'
A dark folk fantasy by Stephen Vincent Benet -- the poet who gave radio 'The Devil and Daniel Webster.'
A production the log marks simply 'X-rated' -- a striking label for a 1956 CBS sustaining program.
Ralph Bell stars in "The Big Event," billed under its alternate title, "The Law of Averages."
The Workshop's Christmas program: a dramatized account of the origin of 'Silent Night.'
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Other seasons: 1957