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Year Five in Review!
Well, how about that? Five years of Madison and over 100K downloads! I’m super crazy grateful that all of you are on this adventure with me. It’s been a labor of love in that I have found a way to love myself. I have thrown caution to the wind to write and produce Madison on my terms. I’ve spent decades with other people’s input and me producing work that wasn’t exactly what I envisioned. So I decided, sink or swim, Madison is me. With the addition of a fabulous roster of actors and Jeremy doing the music and EQ, you all have been getting my vision for Madison. So thank you all so very much for coming alone with me!
EPISODE 52: ROBIN HOOD – THE FAMILY THEATER
Karim Kronfli joined the cast Year One in “Rocky Jordan” and has been a major asset to bringing these OTR characters to life. I can’t pay my cast, so instead I offer to write them into a role they’ve always wanted to play. Karim asked for Robin Hood. As I always like having our anniversary show be something grand, I decided “Robin Hood” was the perfect choice. Every episode I try to embody the tone of the original show and since “The Family Theater” wrote this Robin Hood story with Old English style dialogue, I was all in! Having been a performer at both the Bristol Renaissance Festival in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the Georgia Renaissance Faire in Fairview, Georgia, and worked the full season on the Lifetime series, “American Princess” set at a Renaissance Festival (I was in the Queen’s court) I was totally primed! A viewing of the Kevin Costner, Errol Flynn and, of course, Disney “Robin Hoods” helped everything come into place.
EPISODE 53: THE FALCON – THE CASE OF THE DOUBLE NEPHEWS
“The Falcon” was not a show I was familiar with, but it was recommended to me by a listener from the OTR subreddit (check it out if you’re into OTR!) The listener told me he started listening to Madison with his teen son and found it a great way to bridge his love of the old shows with a modern twist that got his son interested. Madison bringing families together! I particularly liked this one where Madison is on the wrong side of the law. The girlfriend in the original episode was really a demanding woman, thinking she knew best. No idea why I thought Madison would fit in that role!
EPISODE 54: OUR MISS BROOKS – THE HURRICANE WARNING
“Our Miss Brooks” has been THE most recommended OTR series. You probably have seen me post about how hard it is for me to put Madison’s humor into the style and tone of the OTR comedy series. For me, “Archie Andrews” in Year Three was a breakthrough in doing comedies, so I felt it was about time I did “Our Miss Brooks.” I really liked this particular episode as it puts Miss Brooks in charge where she shouldn’t be. Perfect for Madison. I tried to flesh out her landlady, Mrs. Davis. She’s such a fun character but wasn’t represented much in this episode, so I hit on some of the running jokes they make with her. And Madison got to have fun stepping into the sarcastic shoes of Eve Arden’s character.
EPISODE 55: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES – THE SECOND GENERATION
Okay, I had a ball with this one. Not only did I get to continue the saga between Madison and Harry “Sponsor Dude,” but this episode was originally produced as a sequel to the episode “A Scandal in Bohemia” which was the very first Sherlock adventure Madison visited. This episode is very “Rosencranz & Guildenstern are Dead” where the real story is going on and our characters float in and out of it in their own mini-storyline. And being able to torture Harry with bees? What could be more fun?
EPISODE 56: BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY
I always do one science fiction show each season. Buck Rogers was a hard one for a number of reasons. I actually worked for Flint Dille whose family owns the rights to Buck Rogers. His grandfather was instrumental in bringing the character to newspapers back in the 1930s. However, there is contention between the Dille family and the other creator’s family as to who owns what. So, the character has basically been put in storage so no one can make money off of the franchise. Therefore, trying to find scripts or recordings of the original radio series is incomplete. On top of it, this was a weekly serial for kids. So one storyline stretched out for well over 20 episodes in 15 minute increments. My battle was to transcribe as many of the storyline as I could, and then chop it down for one coherent Madison adventure. Bonus was getting Adam Donnelly from “Second Fiddles” to step in as Buck. I voice one of the “Big Bads” on that series, and loved Adam’s voice/performance, feeling he was a perfect fit for Buck!
EPISODE 57: THE SIX SHOOTER – THE CAPTURE OF STACY GAULT
Besides doing a sci-fi show each year, I also like to include a Western. I really have come to love this genre in OTR and “The Six Shooter” was one of the series I got hooked on back when I first started listening to these shows 25 years ago! But I’d put off doing this show because it is monologue heavy, with Jimmy Stewart describing the action rather than the action being acted out in the scene. But of course, after Scott R. McKinley did such a great job with Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life” I had to do it! But another obstacle was Madison’s well-established hatred for horses! Since Britt Ponsett travels from town to town, how could I put Madison in there when she wouldn’t want to be riding a horse? Then I found this episode taking place at a boarding house. Perfect to stick Madison in as a boarder, especially since all the men in town went to search for the outlaw, so naturally, Madison would’ve stayed behind. Madison’s rather, “randy” attitude in this one just came out as I began the adaptation. What can I say? She hates horses but loves cowboys. 🤠
EPISODE 58: THE ADVENTURES OF ELLERY QUEEN – THE ADVENTURE OF MADISON STANDISH: SUSPECT
“Ellery Queen” was another show that had been recommended by a listener that I wasn’t familiar with. I really loved their “Armchair Detective” gimmick and knew I had to find some way to incorporate it. I specifically asked Shannon Perry, Drew Frohmann and Sarah Golding because they all have been great support and help to me as I’ve learned and grown in this audio drama world. And they’re all very fun people! The trick was to send them a finalized version of the episode minus the big reveal in the last scene. All of that conversation was unrehearsed and wow did we have a great time! Were you able to figure out who the murderer was before Ellery revealed it???
EPISODE 59: BOLD VENTURE – CRUISE TO BATABANO
This really was the year of listeners recommending shows I had never heard. Admittedly, I am not up on my Bogart/Bacall movies, but really enjoyed getting to hear them together in this radio series. When I reached out to Jerry Kokich for the Bogart role, he sent me a sample of his regular voice doing the lines, and “for fun” his Bogart impression. I was sold! Jerry’s Bogart against Madison was a ton of fun. But this was a tough episode with so many accents! But the entire cast brought it. I think James C. Taylor not only nailed King Moses, he did great with the singing even though we record remotely, so he was on his own with a scratch track from Jeremy!
EPISODE 60: THE BIRDS – ESCAPE
I’m always looking for a way to incorporate any of the horror/mystery anthologies of OTR. They are harder because the lead character (who I would want to make Madison) is either killed or is the killer. But for Halloween, I treat it like “The Simpsons” Halloween shows. Madison can step out of her normal character to embody someone else. When I saw the OG “The Birds” from “Escape,” I knew it had to be our Halloween special. There was a bit of bending to get Madison into the action. The original had the husband giving long monologues describing the progression of the birds’ behavior. That didn’t work for Madison. There was a lot of the eery tone in those monologues that Madison wouldn’t have been able to maintain. So I was thrilled to have Edward October from OctoberPodAM bring his eery voice from last year’s “The Tell Tale Heart.” Collecting all of those different bird sounds was a SFX challenge. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found an actual gannet! This version was very different from what Hitchcock ultimately created for the silver screen, but just as scary!
EPISODE 61: THE BLUE (PINK!) BEETLE – THE SEA SERPENT
Another genre I like to hit each year is the superheroes. I threw the question up on the OTR subreddit to see if anyone could suggest another superhero show different from what we’ve already done. Along came “The Blue Beetle!” This time it was fitting for Madison to step into the superhero’s shoes with her own Pink Beetle twist. I liked this particular story because it really did remind me of JAWS. And with my zoo educator background, getting the harp on the “VENOM!” running gag was a bonus.
EPISODE 62: THE ADVENTURES OF NERO WOLFE – THE CASE OF THE SLAUGHTERED SANTAS
Trying to find a Christmas themed show for this year took some doing. Coming off of the past years with “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” I wasn’t sure how I could follow those. I found someone had put up a playlist of 500 (FIVE HUNDRED!) different Christmas OTR shows. So I went to work trying to find the right one for Madison. The title of “Slaughtered Santas” grabbed me right away. And then the format of this brilliant detective who makes his partner do all the legwork was perfect. Bran Peacock completely nailed Nero with his version of Sydney Greenstreet’s performance. So I really think it all came together beautifully.
EPISODE 63: THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER – NEW YEAR’S NIGHTMARE OR MADISON’S ORIGIN STORY
I did a full Musings post about why I finally decided to do Madison’s Origin Story. It did come about from combing through all of those 500 Christmas titles. And as soon as I heard the girlfriend chewing out the guy for drinking too much, well, we were set! Was very grateful to bring Chris Fox aboard. We’d recently started chatting and I’ve been binging his show: The Adventures of the Fox in the Fedora. I liked his modern feel juxtaposed to David Pinion’s more OTR period delivery. And both of them playing gender swapped characters! Overall I’m very happy at how it turned out. And I intentionally kept the mystery in exactly HOW Madison got zapped back into the old shows. Because some things are better left up to our imaginations.
