Playhouse 90.1

Some Memories

The following is written by Gerry Wilkinson....During my years at WRTI, my fondest memories are of the series, "Playhouse 90.1." I did not create the concept. Playhouse 90.1 first aired in September of 1966. It was basically a vehicle for classroom productions.

For the second semester, I became directly responsible for the show. I had decided to use a standard theme song that would be the same on every show. The music was a cut from the soundtrack album, "The Diary of Anne Frank." I then tried to standardize the program with a host and announcer that would intro and outro each program. The host was the same every week and so was the announcer, though they may have changed from semester to semester.

When I took over, "Playhouse 90.1" aired Saturdays at 7:30 pm, just before Broadside. It was, indeed, a treasured time slot in the FM program schedule. I knew if the program wasn't quality, it would not continue to have this plum in our broadcast schedule. It was a time period I definitely wanted to keep. I also really tried to live up to my slogan of "A Weekly Series of Outstanding Radio Dramas." It was never meant to be pure "puffery." And it wasn't. Everyone involved in the program helped to made it truly outstanding. It was not me, but everyone......every actor, every director, every person associated with it that made Playhouse 90.1 something to be proud of. Even Howie's singing. Hey, "Playhouse 90.1" was to boldly go where no one had gone before.

The first program to air under my supervision was my classroom version of "The Hitchhitcher," which starred Mike Biel. Mike may think that he wasn't the best person for the lead role but I disagree. I thought and still do believe that he was perfect for the part. Listen to the excerpt that Jerry Klein posted in his annex. I just listened to it a couple of hours ago (when this was first written), and I still think he was great. I received an "A" from Dr. Dusenbury for the classroom production which aired exactly as I handed in the tape, complete with theme host, announcer and PSA's. The only thing that Dr. D said was that it was a shame to interrupt the program for the announcements. But in commercial broadcasting, the spots are what would pay the bills. Learn how to insert the announcement with as little disruption as possible.

I remember the Graduate Assistant, Wade Alexander saying that even though Dr. Dusenbury said not to edit the tape, it was okay to do so as long as there were not too many splices. "The Hitchhiker" was the very first time I had ever made an edit. ....And I was splicing the MASTER TAPE. This program, by the way, was recorded in Studio "C" before we had signed on the air. I remember why it was recorded there. This wasn't supposed to be the actual recording session. It is just a rehearsal. I had decided to record it just to get an idea of what it would sound like. But everything went better than planned. When the show was over, Mike Biel had to leave because the future good doctor had another class. He said, "Use the tape...it's good." When I listened to the playback, I was thrilled. It was a really good presentation. In fact, it was recorded during class time. Studio "A" was in use taping a class production. Studio "B" was in use for a rehearsal and we were in Studio "C." Thinking back on it, I sort of feel like Frank Sinatra. He is well known for using rehearsals for his tv specials. This was the very first (and only) read through of the script.

I also remember the telephone sequence in this program being recorded in studio "B." The phone number, by the way, was the Temple switchboard number for WRTI. The phone exchange was RUdman something or other, but not when you looked at it in numbers. Then it was the WRTI phone number. Who knew about using 555-???? like they do now on tv and in the movies? I didn't. Well, anyhow, the phone bit was recorded in "B" and spliced into the tape. It had Barbara McGill on the phone (she was really on the phone) and Mike Biel in the studio. Barbara couldn't hear Mike. I just threw cues at both of them. I think Mike could hear Barbara and I know I could. But it came out very good. It was a technique I would later use in commercial radio production at WDAS.

The script used for my production of "The Hitchhiker" was adapted by me from the original script that was written by Lucille Fletcher (no relation to Jessica Fletcher). A better known work of Lucille's was "Sorry, Wrong Number." I pretty much left the script alone. I made only minor changes, mainly in the telephone sequence at the end. In 1967, long distance calls just were not made as they were in the original 1941 script. The first version of "The Hitchhiker" goes back to November 17, 1941 (the day after my mother's 15th birthday). It was aired on "The Orson Welles Show" and the Mercury Theater and starred, who else, Orson Welles. I was going to say "Beaver Cleaver" but I didn't think you would believe me. The music score was written by Bernard Herrmann, well-known for his movie scores. An interesting sidebar was Bernard was married to author Lucille Fletcher.

The second presentation of "The Hitchhiker" was on the CBS Radio Series, "Suspense" which aired on September 2, 1942. I have just finished listening to the entire CBS half-hour program, and to be honest, I THINK MIKE BIEL DID A BETTER JOB THAN ORSON WELLES. By the way, I feel that the hitchhiker on this second version sounds alittle like Mike Biel. On this edition, I also thought that the sound patterns distracted from the story. The cows "mooing" were driving me out of my mind. (I know I'm letting myself open on that one.) The automobile sound in the background sounded more like a hum. I used very little sound patterns in my production because the effects available all sounded like 1940 automobiles....and so they should, they were recorded on 78's in the forties. I went with the assumption that little effects sounded better than bad effects. The story should carry the weight. The 1942 version with the depositing of $3.85 in coins with just too much. It slowed the story down just when it had whipped you up into a frenzy.

The third version of this story also starred Orson Welles. It aired on the Mercury Summer Theatre on June 21, 1946. I guess they figured that millions missed the original presentations because of the Second World War and so "let's use an old script," and save some money.

In 1959, there was a television version of this script. It starred Orson Welles. No, just kidding. It featured the acting talents of Inger Stevens and was presented on "The Twilight Zone," during the show's first season. I never saw the TZ version until four years ago. To tell you the truth, I think the story played better on radio.

In "The Cawdor Caper," the excerpt used was the script supplement that I wrote. Why it was done, I have absolutely no idea now. Probably the presentation was short and needed to be padded out. I really don't remember why. But I sure do remember writing that piece Mike Biel read.

"Inside a Kid's Head" was Mike Biel classroom presentation and good one at that. Notice how Mike sucked up to the GA and the Professor by putting their names in the credits. The excerpt used was from the classroom version. I remember that we changed the air credits by using the standard theme. Biel had to give me the record he used (I think it had a brown cover) so that I could mix the music in and do a fade. I don't remember in the air version whether Wade and Dr. D got credit. I think not. It sounds like something I would have deleted. I remember being involved in this classroom venture, but don't recall exactly what I did in it. I did the "Sound Patterns" that we have discussed elsewhere on this site, but precisely what I just don't remember.

"The Spirit of Montague Manor" I do recall. I'm not sure whether it was a classroom presentation or one of the very first (maybe THE FIRST) program recorded especially for Playhouse 90.1. I remember Jerry Klein and Mike Biel discussing the hook up and patching of the tape to give us the echo effect.

I believe that GEORGE was recorded specifically for PLAYHOUSE 90.1. The reason I feel this is, I remember writing to NBC to get an okay to use a Huntley-Brinkley Report tape. Mike Biel and I, along with Sandy Skalka and Jerry Klein had a real battle over whether or not to run the HB broadcast in the background during the entire drama. Sandy and Jerry wanted it in the BG during the entire show with Mike and I wanting it just at the beginning and end. It seemed to me that I either engineered this show or engineered the insertion of HB. I'm not sure but I think we met somewhere in the middle with the HB broadcast starting up full and then taken into the background and very slowly faded out over a period of minutes. I don't really recall.

I know that the Joke Mongerer was written and recorded just for air. It was not a classroom project. I was really trusting in turning my script over to Jerry Klein to direct. He did a good job finding the exact feel I had intended. I don't even know where the idea came from. I found myself riding the Market Street El and writing down idea after idea. ...So much so, I missed my stop at 56th and Market and had gone all the way to 69th Street.

When we started "Thru The Mist," a sort of a radio version of Twilight Zone, both The Hitchhiker and The Joke Mongerer were reprised. A good show deserves a second airing. Today a bad show gets a tenth airing.

"The Face," as I recall was something pulled from the Biel archive. I believe it was something that Mike had committed to air the semester before and never made it on the air. I know that the copy of the tape that was incorporated into the show came from Mike Biel.

In the presentation "The Yellow Wallpaper," there was a discussion whether or not we would be allowed to edit the program to fit into the half-hour time frame. That would lead me to believe that it was a classroom production. I know that we did finally cut it but I have a vague feeling that the running time was a little over 31 minutes. That's all I remember.

When you produce several programs, it became easy to get a time period for your specials. You just use one of the time periods for one of your regular programs. That's what Jerry Klein and I did on the WRTI-FM News Special, Adenauer: Man of History. The program, listening to the brief excerpt that Jerry Klein posted, was even better than I remembered.

On Howie Shapiro's "Man of the White House," I remember it being taped or at least parts of it in Studio B. The credits in Jerry Klein's Annex shows only two musicians but I thought there were more. I was there when at least part of it was being taped because I was making edits in another one of my series, Retrospect on the old Pentron tape recorder. Finally I moved into Studio C with Pentron in hand. The news was finished and they wouldn't be using the studio (or headphones) for awhile.

It's funny. On the program "Trial by Treachery" from the show's third semester, I could have sworn that Jerry Klein was the director of this particular show. Oh, well no one's memory is perfect. Actually, I do have an answer. There were at least two versions of this show. One edition was directed by Jerry Klein for a classroom project, but that was not the one we used for "Playhouse 90.1"

I know there were other programs in the series. There was a program called, "The Futures of Tomorrows" but, I believe that program ended up on "Thru the Mist." I originally wrote this three part science fiction drama to be a continuing program. But Fred Smith nixed that. Then it went over to "Playhouse 90.1." However, went I got the okay for TTM, the presentation went over there. Ed Cunningham played Gary Glenn, a time traveler. In fact, several years ago, I started to write a sci-fi novel and parts of it were drawn from "The Futures of Tomorrows." Remember, I did have a story line for three more episodes that never were written, and certainly never got produced. They too, were slightly incorporated into this unfinished novel, which is now on the back burner, but every once in awhile I go back and do a little more work on it. However, I consider myself to be a producer, not a writer. Zara is the one in the Wilkinson family with real writing talent. She's taken my story line and adapted into a Star Trek tale.

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