This collection contains twelve of the greatest comedy shows ever broadcast during the golden age of radio. You ll hear Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll as "Amos n Andy," Robert Young in "Father Knows Best," Jim and Marian Jordan as "Fibber McGee and Molly," William Bendix as Chester A. Riley in "The Life of Riley," Lucille Ball in "My Favorite Husband," Eve Arden as English teacher Connie Brooks in "Our Miss Brooks," plus many others, including "The Fred Allen Show," "The Aldrich Family," "The Great Gildersleeve," "Life with Luigi," and "Lum and Abner."

Relive twelve of the best classic radio comedy shows from yesterday and hear the legendary stars who made them great in this incredible collection."

Created by author Jack Boyle, Boston Blackie was a master safecracker and hardened criminal who served time in a California prison. Rehabilitated, he decided to use his knowledge of the underworld to fight crime as an amateur detective. Known as an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend, Boston Blackie s exploits were adapted to film, radio, and television. Chester Morris, who had played Boston Blackie in a series of B movies for Columbia, originated the character on radio in 1944. By 1945 Richard Kollmar had taken over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv. Over two hundred radio episodes were produced between 1944 and 1950. While investigating the cases, Blackie would invariably encounter harebrained Police Inspector Faraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solve the crime before Faraday could. The initial friction between Blackie and Faraday gave way as the series continued and Faraday came to recognize Blackie s talents, occasionally even requesting his assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty (Tony Barrett) was on hand. "Boston Blackie" transitioned to television in 1951.

Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll made their radio debut on January 12, 1926, as the comedic blackface characters Sam n Henry. On March 19, 1928, they introduced "Amos n Andy," which went on to become one of the most popular and longest-running programs in radio history. During the height of its popularity, almost the entire country listened to the fifteen-minute, Monday-through-Friday adventures of Amos and Andy. Department stores open in the evening piped in the broadcasts so shoppers wouldn t miss an episode; movie theaters scheduled their features to end just prior to the start of "Amos n Andy" so they too could pipe it in.

The characters were members of the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge, of which George Stevens was the Kingfish. Amos and Andy ran the Fresh-Air Taxi Company, with the more stable, married Amos doing most of the work while Andy chased girls. One of the best-remembered sequences was the time Andy almost married Madame Queen. In 1943, after 4,091 quarter-hour episodes, it switched to a half-hour weekly comedy. While the five-a-week show often had a quiet, easygoing feeling, the new version was a brassy Hollywood-style production, complete with studio audience, full cast of supporting actors, and full orchestra. Many of the half-hour programs were written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher, later the writing team for "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Munsters." In the new version, Amos became a minor character to the more dominant Andy and Kingfish duo. The new "Amos n Andy Show" endured for the next twelve years as one of the most popular weekly programs on radio.

The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman, who is best known for his Oscar-winning performance as Professor Charles Kingsfield in the "The Paper Chase." After a series of acclaimed stage productions, Welles and his Mercury Theatre were offered their own weekly hour-long radio program over the CBS radio network. Here Welles along with Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Joseph Cotten, Alice Frost, Martin Gabel, and others presented powerful adaptations of literary classics with Bernard Herrman as composer and conductor.

Considered by many critics as the finest dramatic hour on radio, "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" was without a sponsor until a single broadcast changed all that: "The War of the Worlds.""

Dashiell Hammett created the character Sam Spade for his crime story "The Maltese Falcon." Spade was a hard-boiled detective with cold detachment, a keen eye for detail, and an unflinching determination to exact his own justice. For most people, Spade is most closely associated with actor Humphrey Bogart, who played him in the third and most famous film version of "The Maltese Falcon." In 1946 one of radio s top producers, William Spier, brought Sam Spade to the airwaves in a radio show starring newcomer Howard Duff, who took a considerably more tongue-in-cheek approach to the character. Duff remained Spade until 1951.

Dashiell Hammett lent his name to the new series, and Lurene Tuttle (and occasionally Sandra Gould) played Spade s secretary, Effie Perrine. In 1947 the program won scriptwriters Jason James and Bob Tallman an Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama from the Mystery Writers of America."

Created by Blake Edwards, "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" came to NBC Radio in 1949, starring film actor and crooner Dick Powell. Powell had recently played Philip Marlowe in the popular RKO film "Murder, My Sweet" and jumped at the chance to play a suave detective on the radio. Diamond was a lighthearted, New York based private eye who enjoyed ribbing the cops and singing songs to his millionaire girlfriend, Helen Asher. Its theme, Leave it to Love, was whistled by Powell at the beginning of each episode.

Powell s production company, Four Star Television, produced a version of "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" for CBS in 1957. The lead role went to David Janssen, who would later gain fame as Dr. Richard Kimble on "The Fugitive." Sam, Diamond s beautiful secretary, was only ever shown from the waist down. Those beautiful legs belonged to Mary Tyler Moore, as well as other actresses."