Before television became the norm, families used to sit around ginormous vacuum-tubed radios in their living rooms and listen to a variety of programming. As hard as it may be to believe, radio once consisted of more than just the same fifty current “popular” songs put into an endless rotation, a slew of annoying disc jockeys, and an even bigger slew of irritating talk show hosts. Once upon a time, radio was innocent. Every genre of entertainment was represented on the radio: there were dramas, comedies, musical and variety shows (even the odd science fiction piece showed up occasionally), as well as game shows, too. As the more “late night” programming came around, audiences would prepare to be spooked from the latest installment of the popular mystery/horror show. One such popular show was an anthology series entitled Suspense.
Suspense broadcast a jaw-dropping 945 episodes over twenty years (1942 to 1962 — the show continued to air well after television came into play in most American homes), bringing with it an assortment of thrills and chills with stories that ranged from murder mysteries to science fiction tales to horrifying examples of the supernatural — all of which were guaranteed to keep you in Suspense! (with a little help from Bernard Herrmann’s organ theme). In 1949, Suspense made the jump from radio to television on the CBS network. Lasting for six seasons, Suspense was aired on television live. Not today’s example of live — which means “film it live and then re-edit it before you broadcast it” — but LIVE live. If someone flubbed a line or knocked something over, they just rolled with it (which is way all radio and many television broadcasts were at the time). But, seeing as how many of the lead actors that starred in Suspense at one time of another were well accustomed to radio or the stage, few of them had any problems with it — after all, these were professionals.
After their original airings, Suspense seemed to disappear from television altogether (there was a short revival series featuring Sebastian Cabot emerged in the '60s, but it didn’t last long). For years, everyone thought they were lost. It was only recently that some original kinescope masters of the show were found, and thanks to the diligent efforts of Infinity Entertainment, the Falcon Picture Group, and CBS Enterprises, these 90 (of 260) “lost” episodes are available on DVD under Infinity’s label.
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