I’m a first responder and I often think that stupid should hurt, but it shouldn’t be fatal and above all it shouldn’t hurt others. This was fatal stupid that hurt many others. This one brought back some crappy memories for me.

I love OTR and I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of it but I’ve never had this kind of reaction to any episode.

Thanks, I wish we could lock down the pilot, he was great, too.

For those who might be interested: In addition to Frank Lovejoy, others listed in the cast included Stacy Harris, whom we heard in “A Study in Wax”, and Jack Kruschen, who starred in everyone’s favorite episode, “The Day Sinatra Got Fat”. You may also remember Kruschen as the mad Albanian genius Eivol Ekdal on Batman (in the episodes “Zelda the Great”/”A Death Worse Than Fate”), and he had a memorable role as a pedophile in “The Big Crime”, a really grim episode of the 50s TV version of Dragnet — as well as literally hundreds (222 on IMDb) of other roles in movies and TV. (“The Big Crime” was originally done on the radio, but I haven’t heard that one, and I can’t find any information as to whether Kruschen was in that version.)

I *think* Harris played Mike, the other guy in the tower with Lovejoy. (Harris was listed first after “Included in tonight’s cast”, so ordinarily, I would have expected him to have the second largest part, the pilot, but it doesn’t sound like his voice to me.) I didn’t recognize Kruschen.

So for the record: That’s one actor (Harris) who played Batman on the Superman radio show, and another (Kruschen) who played a villain on the Batman TV show, giving this episode a Batman Score of 2.

This was much more relatable and a good outcome was within reach. Alas…

This is the first radio drama that has made me want to punch a wall, and that very much speaks to just how well it was done. As the father of a boy who turns 9 next month, all I can say is… dammit. But also, I don’t think I’ve come across a better example of this medium’s ability to evoke powerful emotions. Easily a top 5 episode.