What happens
The Great Gildersleeve, a Summerfield water commissioner, has a bad morning at the office, where his secretary Bessie is late and complaints about the water service pile up. He is invited to give a speech about the water department on radio station WSUM, and he tells his friends and family about it. Unable to write the speech himself, he persuades his neighbor Judge Hooker to write it for him over dinner, and the judge agrees. The episode aired on NBC on April 14, 1948, with Harold Peary in the title role.
Summerfield, a small town, including the water department office, the Gildersleeve home, and Floyd's barber shop, and the radio station WSUM.
Characters: Gildersleeve, Bessie, Charlie Anderson, Judge Hooker, Floyd, Bertie, Marjorie, Leroy
Listen for: Gildersleeve's attempts to get out of writing his speech, and Judge Hooker's reaction when he learns what Gildersleeve has been up to.
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.