Tune in at 6:00 tonight for Jukebox Graduates, the show produced by students in the Githens Middle School Bruce Springsteen fan club.
Then revisit the Golden Age of Radio at 7:00 with Goodnight Gracie. Tonight’s show highlights two 1950s programs that explore unknown frontiers, albeit in different times: Have Gun - Will Travel shares the exploits of Paladin, the gentleman gunslinger of the Wild West of 1875, and X Minus One, featuring tales of the future—in “a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds.”
The episodes we’ll play tonight have two common themes: deviance from behavioral expectations and the influence of war. “Comanche,” a July 5, 1959, episode of Have Gun - Will Travel tells the story of a man who, after deserting his cavalry unit, regains his sense of duty once he learns of his fellow soldiers’ fate. The story is interspersed with U.S. government propaganda PSAs that promote the importance of democracy and the goodwill efforts made by our servicemen overseas to “understand” foreign customs.
After Paladin wraps up this latest job, we’ll visit the dystopian society of X Minus One, in an episode from May 22, 1956, called “The Defenders.” This Cold War-era program begins 16 years after the start of a nuclear war against the “Asian Confederation.” The “Western Confederation” has moved underground to escape dangerous levels of radiation, but a few curious souls who make a trip to the surface make a surprising discovery about war and peace.