Saturday, December 19, 2020

Old Time Radio: The Couple Next Door (1957)

 We had this up before, but all existing broadcasts of The Couple Next Door have since been deleted by YouTube and Internet Archive for copyright reasons.

Anyway, I had won a copy of a holiday episode compilation of the series, "Merry Mix-Ups", from fellow blogger Ivan Shreve a couple of years back, and that's when I posted the review, which I unfortunately had to delete.

Peg Lynch & Alan Bunce starred in what was a reboot of Lynch's earlier series, Ethel & Albert, to which she had lost the rights, hence a change in series title and character names. Character actress Margaret Hamilton ("The Wizard of Oz") was heard in some, if not all, episodes.


"Merry Mix-Ups" collects Christmas themed episodes over the course of the series' 2 year run (1957-9). Because the classic era of radio comedies and dramas was drawing to a close, Couple felt a little too generic, like a fair number of its contemporaries, and "Merry Mix-Ups" is a good example of this. I wish there were some samples still available, but not now. Maybe later.

Rating: B--.

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