Suspense was the most popular radio anthology series for two decades. It first aired, as a series, on June 17, 1942 with "The Burning Cout" starring Charles Ruggles, and broadcast its last episode on September 30, 1962 with episode 945, "Devilstone".
At its height, Suspense was able to attract top Hollywood stars of the day, like Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Greer Garson, Judy Garland and so on.
Matinee idols such as Cary Grant wanted on the program, where they could play cold-blooded killers...roles they weren't allowed to play on the big screen. And comedians, such as Bbob Hope, Red Skelton, and Jim and Marian Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly) wanted on the program so they could play dramatic roles.
Jack Benny appeared in 3 episodes of Suspense. "Murder in G Flat," "A Good and Faithful Servant," and "Plan X."
In "Plan X," he plays a Martian who is tasked to deal with a spaceship from Earth. The opening line of the narrator's introduction is: "Tonight, Autolite, following a popular trend, anticipates the strange disappearance of experimental rocket ship Y272B."
It's interesting that they should talk about the "strange disappearance" of rocket ships on Mars, because from the 1970s onward (20 years after this show aired), most rocket ships to Mars did disappear, either en route, or once there, stopping transmission after a few seconds...
"Plan X" is in 3 parts, because of You Tube's insistence that videos can be only 10 minutes long. Also, there's about a minute of overlap at the beginnings of Part 2 and Part 3, just to get you "back in the swing" of the episode.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
As a review...the episode is quite enjoyable until it gets to the very end...it is kind of a let-down. Well, listen to it for yourself and decide....
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