Danger, Dr. Danfield
Also known as: Danger, Doctor Danfield
August 18, 1946 – February 9, 1947 · 26 broadcasts
Dr. Daniel Danfield is a doctor of criminal psychology with a talent for ending up inside the murders he studies. Every half-hour opens the same way -- Danfield in his office, dictating the case to his secretary Rusty Fairfax -- and the drama plays out between passages of that dictation, with Danfield laying out the solution to a woman who is openly in love with him and just as openly held at arm's length. Steve Dunne, billed here under his early professional name Michael Dunne, played the doctor; JoAnne Johnson played Rusty. Ralph Wilkinson wrote, Wally Ramsey produced, and Teleways Radio Productions cut the whole run to transcription discs for the Knox Company -- which is why all 26 circulating episodes still exist when far more famous series survive in fragments. Herb Butterfield turns up as Captain Otis of homicide and Jay Novello as Mario, the chauffeur, alongside a bench of West Coast regulars including Howard McNear, Parley Baer and Lurene Tuttle. Nobody has ever called it good. The Old Time Radio Researchers' own series summary is blunt, judging that the show offered "some of the worst acting and writing of any detective show to reach the airwaves" -- and Danfield's psychology is closer to confident guesswork than to science. What it is, though, is a clean and unusually complete specimen of a small 1940s subgenre -- the criminologist as detective, alongside Crime Doctor and The Crime Files of Flamond -- scored throughout on a lone organ, with almost no sound effects, and a running gag about a secretary who deserved better.
All 26 circulating episodes held (OTRR set), anchored to the Haendiges syndication log (26 titles, no missing programs). The ABC network run itself ran longer -- newspaper listings place the last broadcast at 1947-04-20 -- so the held 26 are the syndication package, not the full network chronology.
Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
1946
1947
Dr. Daniel Danfield is a doctor of criminal psychology with a talent for ending up inside the murders he studies. Every half-hour opens the same way -- Danfield in his office, dictating the case to his secretary Rusty Fairfax -- and the drama plays out between passages of that dictation, with Danfield laying out the solution to a woman who is openly in love with him and just as openly held at arm's length. Steve Dunne, billed here under his early professional name Michael Dunne, played the doctor; JoAnne Johnson played Rusty. Ralph Wilkinson wrote, Wally Ramsey produced, and Teleways Radio Productions cut the whole run to transcription discs for the Knox Company -- which is why all 26 circulating episodes still exist when far more famous series survive in fragments. Herb Butterfield turns up as Captain Otis of homicide and Jay Novello as Mario, the chauffeur, alongside a bench of West Coast regulars including Howard McNear, Parley Baer and Lurene Tuttle. Nobody has ever called it good. The Old Time Radio Researchers' own series summary is blunt, judging that the show offered "some of the worst acting and writing of any detective show to reach the airwaves" -- and Danfield's psychology is closer to confident guesswork than to science. What it is, though, is a clean and unusually complete specimen of a small 1940s subgenre -- the criminologist as detective, alongside Crime Doctor and The Crime Files of Flamond -- scored throughout on a lone organ, with almost no sound effects, and a running gag about a secretary who deserved better.
Read the full story →