What happens
Dr. Chauncey Patrick Coffin and his colleagues Philip and Jacob announce a vaccine that cures the common cold, and the public rushes to be inoculated. Coffin's wife Ellie refuses the shot. Soon the three researchers find that the vaccine has removed the virus that once dulled their sense of smell, so ordinary odors become overpowering. The episode is part of the X Minus One science fiction series, first aired on November 21, 1957, and this recording is the NBC broadcast of that date. The men struggle to find a way to catch a cold again, and the story follows their experiments as the problem grows.
A medical laboratory and the city after the release of a common cold vaccine
Characters: Chauncey Patrick Coffin, Philip, Jacob Miles, Ellie
Listen for: Coffin describing how the vaccine makes the smells of the city unbearable
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.