otr_chicken

Old Time Radio - Comedy - Chicken Man

Chickenman was created in 1966 by Dick Orkin, at the time a production director at WCFL in Chicago. WCFL's Program Director, Ken Draper, was inspired by the success of the Batman TV show, and asked Orkin to put together a two-and-a-half-minute comedy feature with a similarly "camp" sensibility. Orkin's Chickenman series was part of the late morning show hosted by Jim Runyon. Orkin played the male characters, including Benton Harbor and Police Comissioner Benjamin Norton. The female characters on the show were performed by Jane Roberts, a Chicago theater actress who worked at WCFL as the traffic reporter. Roberts' characters included the almost-unflappable Miss Helfinger, Chickenman's mother Mildred Harbor, his mother's oldest friend Emma Leckner, and Emma's attractive-and-still-single daughter Sadye. Runyon performed the narration, including a closing tag for each episode that memorably began with an astonished "Well-l-l-l-l." Chickenman’s rogues gallery includes the Choker, the Hummer, the Chicken-Plucker, the Dog Lady, Big Clyde Crushman, the Bear Lady, the Very Diabolical, Rodney Farber (a childhood playmate who never forgave Benton Harbor for breaking his red wagon one Christmas Day), and the Couple From SHTICK (Secret Henchmen To Injure Crime Killers). Benton Harbor is prone to spoonerisms, such as "I shall not rest while rime runs crampant in the streets of Midland City." Chickenman roams Midland City seeking criminals in his yellow crime-fighting car, appropriately known as the Chicken Coupe. He has a secret headquarters, the Chicken Cave, accessible through a trap door in his bedroom closet. His armaments include the Geshtunkana Ray Gun, which is not lethal but makes the target "geshtunkana" for 24 hours. When Chickenman is busy, his mother Mildred fills in as "the Maternal Marauder", sometimes known as "the Masked Mother". As the popularity of the show grew, Orkin created a production company at the station, to continue producing the series. Chickenman was produced under the station's production banner for the next five years, until Orkin bought the show just prior to leaving WCFL in the early 1970s and continued to produce and syndicate it on his own. In 1973, Orkin's production company revived the series as Chickenman vs. the Earth-Polluters, an ecology series in which the "Fearless Feathered Fighter" battles pollution in Midland City, organizing the BEAK (Beautiful Earth & Air Keepers) Patrol. A total of 52 episodes were recorded. In 1977, Orkin produced Chickenman Returns for the Last Time Again. The "Wonderful White-Winged Warrior" feels that time had passed him by and he decides to open a crime-fighting school to carry on his crusade. However, there is only one student: Leon Cablemouth (played by Orkin's then-partner, Bert Berdis). Orkin and Rich Koz co-authored several of the episodes, which numbered 65. Radio NK: Chickenman turns 50: ext. Link

Archivnummern: AP/e_eng/otr_usa_chicken_(Dateiname)
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