Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hi everyone,

Let's start this blog with an apology -- I'm very sorry that the MYSTERY THEATER website is not fully-functional to date. I've had many emails expressing disappointment in the site still being 'under construction' in sections. There are many reasons why this is so, but there is really no need to pass the buck, I take full responsibility for its present condition. We're all working very hard to get it up and running to full capacity as soon as possible. I hope you'll visit it often and if you do, you'll see the progress we're making.

Once again, the site is www.mysterytheater.com

MYSTERY THEATER with host Christopher Lee is airing on 35 stations to date and we're growing the station list each week. At the site is a 'Radio Locator' section to help you find a station in your area. If there is not one, soon you'll be able to hear the show streamed each night at 9 pm. I'm told this will be 9 pm in all US time zones - - Eastern, Central and Pacific. At MYSTERY THEATER we present great mystery, science-fiction and detective programming from the golden age of radio and beyond, so I hope you'll check out the site.

On the TZ front, I have a special announcement:

We have released a total of 13 volumes of TZ on Compact Disc (10 shows per volume). They are all available at our website. We've decided to NOT manufacture any more CDs of TZ. We've decided that TZ will be a download ONLY show as soon as the CD product that we have in our warehouse is sold. We will not be releasing a volume 14 on CD. Volume 14 and subsequent volumes will be available at our website but via download only. The 13 volumes that we do have on CD have been specially marked: Buy 1, get 1 Free. You can buy as many volumes as you like and get an equal number of volumes for free while supplies last so -- get em' while they're hot!

We're reeling in all the third-party companies that sell and download our TZ product and very soon, the only place TZ will be available is at our official TZ website. We want to be better at managing the distribution of the series and if it is available at our website and our website only, we believe we can better serve fans and collectors.

I recently received in the TZ episode "Probe 7, Over and Out" starring Academy-Award Winner Lou Gossett Jr. Mr. Gossett is simply amazing in the role of Colonel A.L. Cook, an astronaut who crash-lands on an uncharted planet. While there he learns that much of his own world has been destroyed. He has no one to rescue him, no way to repair his ship and nothing to go back to if he could. He's a space-age Robinson Crusoe and he's on his own -- until he meets a female astronaut who also crashed there. But she's not from his planet and she speaks a language he can't understand.

In the original teleplay starring Richard Basehart, the female astronaut (played by the beautiful Antionette Bower) barely speaks at all. Much of the story was visual, as he explored the planet and tried to communicate with her. All of that worked great on television, but this is RADIO. Our brilliant writer Dennis Etchison had to work magic with his radio adaptation of the TV script, including adding lines in an unknown language for her to speak, so we can hear their interaction. This one needed Herculean efforts for writing, acting and sound design. I'm pleased to report that all three hit the mark. I think it's one of the best we've ever done. Kudos to Mr. Gossett and Chicago actress Oksana Fedenuschen who are the only voices in the play other than Stacy Keach as host and Doug James as the announcer. "Probe 7, Over and Out" will be airing on the TZ network soon so tune in for it.

Next up is "Two" starring Don Johnson and I'm looking forward to hearing a draft mix of it. Well, that's all for now. See you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!