Well, last week the geniuses at Cerny sent me the TZ episode "The Shelter" starring Ernie Hudson and it came out great! It will be airing on the network this week so listen for it. Ernie is a great actor and does a brilliant job as a man who has the foresight to build a bomb shelter in his basement before it's ever needed. The supporting cast has many of our TZ regulars including: Kurt Naebig, JoBe Cerny, Tom McElroy, Jamie Baron, Ana Sferruzza, Linda Reiter, Norm Woodel, Doug James, Jeff Lupetin and Ric Vargas. It features newcomers April Williams and her son Damon Williams and also first time Zoner Renee Domenz. It also has a few lines by my 10-year old son C.J. who you can hear as the young boy who receives phone calls from his dead Grandma in "Long Distance Call" starring Hal Sparks. FYI: "Long Distance Call" is one of the three shows we offer for free download on our TZ home page.

The next show that Cerny is working on is "Young Man's Fancy" by Richard Matheson and adapted for radio by Dennis Etchison. It's the story of a woman who is in competition with her new husband's dead mother, whose spirit does not want to let go of him. Tony Plana (the dad from "Ugly Betty"), who was magnificent in "The Mirror" for us, plays Alex, the husband and Franette Liebow plays Virginia his new wife. Nydia Rodriguez plays Alex's dead mother (she can be seen as the woman judge who gets blown up in her car in "The Dark Knight").

Barry Richter, who has written some amazing TZ radio scripts for us, including a brilliant adaptation of "The Encounter" has tackled the one show that so many people thought would be impossible to present on radio -- "The Invaders." That's the show where Agnes Moorehead plays a woman who does not utter any dialog as she is being invaded by tiny spacemen. It's one of the most famous TZ shows of all time. Well, I have to say that Barry figured out an angle on how to present it on radio and I can't wait for you to hear it. Way to go Barry! With this script Barry just proved that Stan Freberg was right when he said "anything can be done on radio!"

By the way, here's just some of the stars you'll soon hear in upcoming episodes of TZ:

Ed Begley, Jr.
Bruno Kirby
John Schneider
Jason Alexander
Stan Freberg
Marshall Allman
Kim Fields
Blair Underwood
Hal Sparks
Lou Gossett, Jr.
Don Johnson
John Heard
Barry Bostwick
Lou Diamond Phillips
Robert Knepper
Karen Black
Shelley Berman
Henry Rollins
John Rhys-Davies

Well that's all for now my friends. See you next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Happy New Year everyone! I look forward to an exciting 2009! We have a lot in store for fans of TZ and MYSTERY THEATER. MYSTERY THEATER with host Christopher Lee launches this March 2nd, 2009. A mass-mailing of MYSTERY THEATER demo kits went out this week. Stations should start receiving them next week. We have a follow-up mailing scheduled for the first week of February so my hope is to launch with 50 or so stations and build on that throughout the year and on-going. My goal for the show is 150 stations by the end of 2010.

The website is coming along quite nicely; it will be up and running by mid February and will be at www.mysterytheater.com MYSTERY THEATER is set up to run Monday through Friday. At the official website, listeners will be able to listen to that night's MYSTERY THEATER show at 10 pm Eastern each night Monday through Friday. The 5 shows airing the current week will be available for download the following week for only 99 cents each. Fans will have one week to download the prior week's shows for only 99 cents each. Then, after one week, the 5 shows will be replaced with 5 new shows (which aired the previous week) and they too will be available for download for only 99 cents each and so on. If you miss downloading any MYSTERY THEATER shows, they will be permanently available in the Radio Vault for a download price of $2.99 -- so I encourage fans to download them when they are available for only 99 cents each.

The website will also have a "Radio Vault" feature that will house thousands of other top-quality radio episodes from the mystery, detective and sci-fi categories. Each episode (whether 30-minutes of 60-minutes) will be only 99 cents each to download. When you buy 5 shows, you get 1 additional show for free. When you buy 10 shows, you get an additional 3 shows for free. There will be many other fun features at the MYSTERY THEATER website and I can't wait to have it up and running.

Last week we received in the TZ episode of "The Mirror" starring Tony Plana and it came out great! Listen for it on a station near you. Next to be mixed is "The Shelter" by Rod Serling and adapted for radio by Dennis Etchison. George Clayton Johnson calls it the best of the Serling episodes. This one stars the amazing Ernie Hudson. It's the one about the man who builds a bomb shelter in his backyard. When it looks like the Big One is going to hit, his neighbors panic, turn into a mob and try to break into his shelter. By the time it's over all have learned something about themselves -- some of it ugly. It's similar in feel to "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" which is one of the best-remembered TZ shows. I look forward to hearing what the geniuses at Cerny do with "The Encounter."

Well, that's all for now friends, check back with me soon for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, last week I received in the final tweaked version of TZ episode "The 16 MM Shrine" starring Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. It came out great! I hope all of you reading this have a chance to hear it. The next TZ show that Cerny is working on is "The Mirror" starring Tony Plana. As Dennis Etchison describes it: That's the one that Peter Falk starred in on the original TV show. The original was an anti-Castro tract, with Falk made to look like a clone of Fidel, who becomes a ruthless, bloodthirsty dictator as soon as he takes over. It was very much of its time, expressing America's hostility toward the new regime in Cuba. An angry, one-sided propaganda piece. Serling called him Clemente, with D'Allesandro as a stand-in for Che. Rather than arguing the pros and cons of Castro, the radio version is less specific. It is set in what could be any Latin American country ruled by a dictator. The basic point is sound - that fear and paranoia can make any new leader a dictator himself. It is a cautionary tale about the corrupting dangers of power.

I was so happy to have cast the amazing Cuban-American actor Tony Plana in the lead role. You can see him each week as the dad on "Ugly Betty." What a pleasure it was working with him, not only on this story but on "Young Man's Fancy" too. I think he had a really fun time getting to play two completely opposite characters and he totally knocked them out of the park. I can't wait for you to hear them.

We're close to releasing TWILIGHT ZONE collection 14, which will have 10 shows on 10 CDs. The shows are:
Night Call – Mariette Hartley
Kick the Can – Shelley Berman & Stan Freberg
A Game of Pool – Wade Williams
A Penny For Your Thoughts – David Eigenberg
Free Dirt – Eric Bogosian
Number 12 Looks Just Like You – Bonnie Somerville
On Thursday We Leave For Home – Barry Bostwick
Third From the Sun – Fred Willard
The Trouble With Templeton – Michael York
The Mirror – Tony Plana.

We're hard at work producing MYSTERY THEATER hosted by Christopher Lee which launches March 2nd and will be a showcase for the best of the best in radio mystery, detective and science-fiction -- so be sure to listen. Well, that's all for now, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and join me next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

We're getting ready to mail out our MYSTERY THEATER flyer and CD demo to prospective radio stations across the country. My hope is that we sign up 50 to 75 stations to start and build it to 200 or more stations by the end of 2009. MYSTERY THEATER officially launches March 2nd, 2009.

I've had the great pleasure of working with Christopher Lee as host. He's voiced the first 50 shows (from London), which is the first 10 weeks. We're in the process of building a wonderful website for the series at www.mysterytheater.com (not up yet). Eventually, listeners will be able to find thousands of mystery, detective, and science-fiction radio shows available at our site for download or CD sale. The site will be a great place to visit and I'll keep you posted on the progress.

On the TZ front, this week I received in "The 16 MM Shrine" starring Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. It needed some tweaks here and there and is back in the capable hands of Matt Sauro at Cerny American Creative. I'm told that the final version will be here today, so I'm looking forward to that.

Recently, I've received in TZ radio drama scripts for "Eye of the Beholder" by Barry Richart, "Once Upon a Time" and "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" by Matthew Elliott, " and a fresh 'never before seen or heard' episode called "And Cauldron Bubble" by Christine Watson. I'm looking forward to producing these shows in 2009. We have scripts out for consideration to Billy Zane and Christopher Lee and Tim Kazurinsky is going to come in, in a few weeks to star in two great shows. It's always so much fun working with Tim, he's simply amazing.

On the Old Testament audio Bible front, we just recorded Max von Sydow as "Noah" from the South of France and he was absolutely brilliant. Also, we recorded my good friend Malcolm McDowell as "King Solomon," Wade Williams as "Gideon" and we just signed John Rhys-Davies as "Saul." I can't wait for everyone to hear Malcolm, Max, Wade and all the cast in this epic Old Testament audio project to be released in October 2009.

Well, that's all for now, join me next time for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, I can finally reveal who the host of MYSTERY THEATER will be! I'm very proud and honored to announce that the host of MYSTERY THEATER will be the legendary film star Christopher Lee! Special thanks to Gemma Cox, Donna Cannatella and Juan from Mr. Lee's official website for helping make this possible. Mr. Lee's website is: http://christopherleeweb.com/

Last Thursday, Mr. Lee recorded the first month's scripts. He lives in London and London is 6 hours ahead of Chicago so I had to phone in at 5 am for the 3 hour session. We'll record approximately 10 sessions per year. At each session Mr. Lee will record slightly over one month's worth of scripts. He was absolutely brilliant and so very gracious and just wonderful to work with.

I think listeners will really enjoy MYSTERY THEATER, which will be a showcase for the best in radio mystery, detective and science-fiction. They'll love Mr. Lee as host, but they'll also be impressed with the quality of the radio episodes that we'll be presenting. Mostly the shows featured on MYSTERY THEATER will be from the 1940s and 1950s; shows like: Suspense, Escape, Sherlock Holmes, The Whistler, Johnny Dollar, X Minus One, Ellery Queen and so on but we'll also have newer mystery, detective and science fiction shows too. For example, we just licensed the Peabody award-winning series Bradbury 13 produced in 1984 by Michael McDonough. Bradbury 13 was originally broadcast on NPR and has never been broadcast on commercial radio - but you'll be able to hear it on MYSTERY THEATER.

I'm working on licensing many other "newer" radio shows as well. I'd very much like to include the great Himan Brown's CBS Radio Mystery Theater and although we do not have rights to include it at this time, I am in contact with Mr. Brown and hope that he'll allow us to do so in the near future. MYSTERY THEATER will launch March 2nd, 2009 and I'm hopeful that a radio station near you will carry it. If not, you'll be able to hear it streamed at our official website at www.mysterytheater.com (the site is not up as yet - it will go live in March 2009).

In other news, please look for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MICKEY SPILLANE'S MIKE HAMMER starring Stacy Keach. It's at bookstores near you or click this Blackstone Audio link.

And THE WORD OF PROMISE NEXT GENERATION AUDIO BIBLE is in stores everywhere so I hope you'll pick up a copy. Here's Amazon's link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Word-Promise-Next-Generation-Dramatized/dp/1400313279

The next TZ show that Cerny American is working on is "The 16 MM Shrine" which stars Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy. I'm hoping to hear it and make tweaks by next week as it airs in December. Well, that's all for now friends. Check back with me next week for MORE NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

This week I received in the TZ radio episode "The Four of Us Are Dying" starring Eric Bogosian. Eric does an amazing job on this one, as he did previously for us in "Free Dirt." He plays FOUR roles and has to change his voice for each role and does so flawlessly. It airs this week so I can't wait for all of you to hear it. Matt Sauro at Cerny American Creative handled the Foley and sound design on this one and kudos to Matt for doing a brilliant job with it - thanks Matt!

On Wednesday of last week Martin Jarvis and his lovely wife Ros Ayres starred in the TZ radio episode "Passage on the Lady Anne" penned by Charles Beaumont and adapted for radio by our very own Dennis Etchison. "Passage on the Lady Anne" is, in my opinion, one of the best episodes of the series. It was one of the hour long TZ shows so it is seldom seen on TV.

Martin and Ros play Mr. & Mrs. McKenzie a British couple aboard a cruise ship who encounter an unhappily married young American couple (played by David Pasquesi and Ann Sonneville) who are taking the cruise from NY to England in the hopes of rekindling their marriage. The McKenzie's and all of the other passengers aboard the "Lady Anne" are elderly Brits and for some reason they seem to not want the young couple to sail with them. It's mysterious, moody and ultimately quite touching.

This one is tough to produce though because everyone other than the young couple and the travel agent (played by JoBe Cerny) are British. There just are not that many British actors (in their 70s and 80s) here in Chicago so this one has its share of challenges. We've managed to record most of the characters with British actors here but there are still a few parts that need to be recorded and I'm thinking we'll need to reach out to actors in LA or London.

I'm hoping that the new host of MYSTERY THEATER might like to play a role in this TZ episode as he is a mature actor and is British - not to mention one of the greatest actors of all time. Any guesses as to who he might be??? I am days away from signing an agreement with him for MYSTERY THEATER and will be able to reveal who he is very soon, sorry for the wait.

Well, that's all for now friends -- check back next time for more NEWS FROM THE ZONE!

Well, this week I received in a terrific radio adaptation of the famous Rod Serling TZ script "Eye of the Beholder" by Barry Richert. Barry has written a few TZ scripts this year and I'm looking forward to producing them as he is a brilliant writer. "Eye of the Beholder" is an especially difficult show to do on radio as it is very visual but Barry nailed it as I knew he would. I'm a firm believer that "anything" can be done on radio. This was taught to me by my close friend Stan Freberg before I had ever met him -- let me explain: When I was a DJ on my college radio station, RRG-Triton College 88.9 FM, I heard a PSA (Public Service Announcement) written, produced and starring Stan Freberg (little did I know that he and I would become close friends years later and he would host my "When Radio Was" radio show and star in several episodes of TZ). In this PSA Stan uses sound effects of heavy industrial equipment to build a gigantic ice-cream sundae, including a crane to put the cherry on top. At the end of the PSA Stan says in his one-of-a-kind "Stan Freberg" voice: "Try doing that on television." His point was, sure, you could build a gigantic sundae on TV but it would cost a fortune and be a monumental task. But on radio, with a few perfectly placed sound effects, the right music for tension, and a narrator, you could do it quickly, easily and cost efficiently. So, in a nutshell -- ANYTHING can be done on radio! And the truth be told, he is right. You can do anything on radio and I can't tell you how many email I get from listeners to our TZ radio show that ask: Are you going to do "The Invaders" and "Eve of the Beholder?" And my answer is always a resounding YES, yes, we are going to do them. I have faith in my writers that they will figure out how to turn extremely visual scripts like these into brilliant radio
adaptations.

On another subject, I am "this" close to announcing who will be the host of MYSTERY THEATER so hang in there with me, I am hopeful that I will be able to announce it on my next blog.

And a correction from my last blog: The Chris Canniff script that he delivered is not called "Back For the Holidays" it is called "Back for the Fourth" and I plan to produce it in time to broadcast it prior to Fourth of July 2009. It's going to be a
riveting show.

Well, that's all for now my friends, join me next time for
more NEWS FROM THE ZONE!