What happens
Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd present a comic burlesque of the radio serial Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on this Town Hall Tonight program. Harry Von Zell introduces the show, and the Colonel and Budd play all the parts themselves. Buck and Wilma find themselves in a room of the Hidden Cities Palace, awaiting a visit from the so-called Great Leader, and they are soon in trouble. The program is a Fred Allen series broadcast on CBS and NBC, first aired on September 23, 1936, with Fred Allen, Portland Hoffa, Kenny Delmar and Minerva Pious among the lead performers. Between the parody scenes the show includes mock inventions, sketches about officials quarrelling over dollar bills and army and navy duties, a potato-unlumper interview and musical numbers.
A Town Hall Tonight broadcast in an old town hall, with a 25th-century parody set in the Hidden Cities Palace and a cave beneath it.
Characters: Colonel Stoopnagle, Budd, Buck Rogers, Wilma, Harry Von Zell, Great Leader, Dr. Heuer
Listen for: The Colonel and Budd playing every part in the Buck Rogers burlesque, and the absurd dialogue about the psychic restriction ray and the disintegrator.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.