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Enjoy our episode guide of all 1,399 CBS Radio Mystery Theater old time radio shows for free! You can stream or download old radio shows in MP3 format or copy radio shows to CD. We're big fans of Radio Mystery Theater and by offering shows from the golden age of radio for free, we keep the spirit of the Radio Mystery Theater alive!
Henry Slesar (Writer)
| Date | Episode | Title | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01/06/1974 | 0001 | The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill | An old lady rents a room to a sick boarder. She runs into problems with his strange deathbed confession. |
| 01/07/1974 | 0002 | The Return of the Moresbys | A husband kills his wife for donating all their money. Now, he is certain that she has been reincarnated in the form of a cat to wreak revenge on him. |
| 01/09/1974 | 0004 | Lost Dog | A husband cannot appreciate his wife's phobia of dogs. Once he gets one home, his wife sets it against him. |
| 01/19/1974 | 0014 | The Girl Who Found Things | A young girl with criminal tendencies is taken by a couple who discover her peculiar talent for retrieving lost things - including corpses |
| 01/20/1974 | 0015 | The Chinaman Button | A perfectly anonymous murder offers the opportunity to earn a fortune for a man in dire financial straits. |
| 01/24/1974 | 0019 | Deadly Honeymoon | A honeymoon turns nightmarish as a woman realises her husband to be culpable of the murders of his previous wives - during their honeymoon |
| 01/26/1974 | 0021 | The Ring of Truth | A tortured story about a father's coercion to get his daughter to testify against her beloved in a homicide by vehicle case. |
| 02/06/1974 | 0032 | After the Verdict | An upcoming attorney discovers to his dismay that the man he acquitted of homicide is indeed culpable. Now he must find a way to straighten out the facts. |
| 02/24/1974 | 0045 | The Horse That Wasn't for Sale | Hereditary equestrian passion notwithstanding, a woman has to put up her horses for sale after her father's death. All except one that is fabled to be the best to the dismay of her dad's rivals. |
| 02/28/1974 | 0047 | A Choice of Witnesses | The tables are turned on a seasoned blackmailer as his past victims team up to create a deadly plan to ensnare him. |
| 03/18/1974 | 0058 | Sea of Troubles | A trans-Atlantic voyage on a ship is also the scene of a murder conspiracy where a man enlists the help of his brother to kill his wife for her wealth. |
| 04/08/1974 | 0070 | The Locked Room | The bride's mother plays villain in the life of a newly wed couple. She is convinced the boy has married her not-too-beautiful daughter simply for her wealth and plans a nasty surprise for him. |
| 04/09/1974 | 0071 | The Murder Museum | A wax museum made especially for infamous criminals is an eerie concept. Things become creepy when it becomes the place for the re-enactment of a past murder as an exhibit protests his inclusion in the museum. |
| 04/16/1974 | 0075 | Men Without Mouths | A gangster adopts the daughter of a dead comrade and sees her off faithfully until her happy marriage. With approaching old age however, he is tormented with visions of men without mouths despite the sincere aid from his sworn daughter. |
| 05/16/1974 | 0093 | The Trouble with Ruth | Despite her best attempts, a kleptomaniac falls back into her old ways and is found out by some thieves. They blackmail her to rob a diamond pin or they will reveal her true nature to her husband. |
| 06/10/1974 | 0103 | A Bargain in Blood | When a strange turn of events allows a young man to switch illnesses with the diseased, a young man uses his gift to win the approval of his sweetheart's father. |
| 06/25/1974 | 0110 | Where Fear Begins | The strange circumstances surrounding her sister's death prompt a young woman to dig deeper. She soon learns that the medication her sibling was taking was prescribed by a mysterious doctor. |
| 08/01/1974 | 0126 | The Hit Man | A chance meeting with the wife of his next victim changes the mindset of a hired gun. |
| 08/15/1974 | 0134 | The Final Vow | Sister Pamela owns a priceless figurine that is stolen from her. So she quits the church and dedicates all her time to find the missing statue in order to return it to a dying nun. Help comes from a source that she never would have imagined. |
| 08/19/1974 | 0135 | The Hands of Mrs. Mallory | Shortly after the death of her husband, Mrs. Mallory loses control of both her hands mysteriously. She meets a woman in Central Park who seems to have lost her legs in a similar manner and decides to consult her doctor. The consequences are beyond her expectations. |
| 08/22/1974 | 0138 | The Case of M.J.H. | A professional swindler seduces a lonely unmarried woman who works as a psychiatrist's assistant. He persuades her to pilfer her employer's patient files in order to extort money from them. |
| 09/17/1974 | 0149 | Thicker than Water | A tired lawyer is made to take on a murder trial with the defendant adamantly professing his innocence. But the lawyer refuses to believe his client's claims and orders a series of tests to be run on the weapon allegedly used in the crime. |
| 10/10/1974 | 0159 | The Doll | A professor obsessed with his niece uses a voodoo doll in order to win her love. |
| 10/17/1974 | 0162 | The Last Escape | An elderly escape artist wants to try his hand at the greatest escape - the one that Houdini failed to complete. But his wife and her lover don't want him to succeed in his endeavor. |
| 11/04/1974 | 0169 | Bury Me Again | A seasoned charlatan somehow survives a massive train accident. He then plots to claim the insurance money belonging to a widow. |
| 04/15/1975 | 0257 | My Own Murderer | Joe Vinacelli is obsessed with murdering Joe Vincent. The latter goes into therapy to seek help as we slowly understand that the pursuer and the pursued are the same individual. But things get creepy when Vincent gives both his therapist and himself - the slip. |
| 05/16/1975 | 0275 | The Rise and Fall of the Fourth Reich | A Nazi fantasy? In this weird tale, two scientists discover an aged and sickly Adolf Hitler in 1970's Mexico City. They begin to try and restore his health and youth through their experiments. |
| 07/04/1975 | 0303 | The Slave | When two friends agree to be the other's slave for a year in the event that they lose the bet they made, to what length's will they go in order to win? |
| 08/19/1975 | 0329 | Welcome for a Dead Man | After serving a 21-year prison sentence, a criminal convicted for the murder of a payroll assistant is finally set free. He learns something more important during a journey to recover his ill-gotten wealth. |
| 12/03/1975 | 0389 | Promise to Kill | After learning that the killer's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty, a man plans to mete out his own brand of justice against the deviant that brutally raped and murdered his wife and daughter. |
| 02/11/1976 | 0429 | You Owe Me a Death | Haunted by dreams and visions of the untimely death of her deceased twin, a woman desires to put the voices to rest. In order to do so, she must first unravel the mysteries surrounding her identical twin to find the truth. |
| 03/17/1977 | 0618 | Jobo | A mildly retarded hick from Texas seems to be the heir of the gods of Easter Island. An archeologist and his daughter take separate paths to discover the truth. |
| 06/02/1977 | 0658 | A God Named Smith | A young child prodigy creates an entire planet of his own, intending it to be a better world than earth. He finds volunteers to populate it, and establishes himself as a god. |
| 06/10/1977 | 0663 | The Night We Died | It's con man versus con man in this sci-fi story of double-crossing and murder as a veteran of the Lunar Revolt tries to scam a war widow. |
| 12/12/1979 | 1038 | The Movie Makers | A man is driven to suicide after obsessively watching several video recordings of his whole life. The wife enlists the assistance of his friend to uncover the truth behind her husband's passing, and the mysterious company that provided him with the films. |
| 01/16/1980 | 1051 | Prisoner of the Machines | A group of rebels are taken prisoner by robots during a war between man and machine; and their commander plans to liberate them from Asteroid Prison One. |
| 04/09/1980 | 1075 | Kitty | Sharing a love for creatures of the feline persuasion, a New York dancer and her roommate become even closer. A series of bizarre deaths send a police detective and college professor knocking on their door when her rivals are found scratched to death! |
| 05/19/1980 | 1086 | Two of a Kind | An idle and selfish oaf leases two identical rooms and outfits them in the same manner in an elaborate scheme to relieve his aunt of her wealth, and to continue driving her crazy! |
| 05/28/1980 | 1089 | The Bluff | In a high stakes game of blind man's bluff, a retired police detective uses himself as bait to lure out the man who blinded him to exact revenge for ruining his life. |
| 07/16/1980 | 1103 | Murder Preferred | In an effort to make her husband's suicide less of an embarrassment, his widow fakes a crime scene in order to make it look like murder. When an innocent man is caught in the cross-fire, she admits her felony to the lawyer she hired to save the unfortunate man. |
| 11/17/1980 | 1136 | The Eleventh Plague | After being marooned on a strange world for fifteen years, a magician develops god-like powers. When a group of men are sent to retrieve them, he sends the Biblical plagues of Moses to meet them. |
| 04/19/1982 | 1317 | Shelter | The threat of nuclear war forces a group of people to take refuge in the bomb shelter of their neighbor. As tension rises, the shelter's owner spreads ill will amongst the camp's members. |
| 10/29/1982 | 1388 | I Hate Harold | When his boss hires a slick and overbearing sales manager, his executive assistant detests him on sight. When he discovers that the man is an expert jewel thief out to rob them blind, he lends his assistance to the local police. |
13 Responses to Slesar Henry
Right on, Liam! Henry Slesar was an outstanding writer and my favorite too! One of CBS Radio Mystery Theater's absolute best!! Slesar wrote the very first Radio Mystery Theater episode "The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill" and continued writing exciting and innovative dramas for many years. Best was his character development; essential to a good radio play. You cared about Slesar's characters - even supporting ones. He accomplished this through precise and meaningful dialogue which was never wasted; never seeking merely to fill time. I love his use of flashbacks too. Among great episodes are The Final Vow and The Slave, BUT at the absolute TOP of my list of favorite episodes of ALL TIME, are 'Murder Preferred' and 'Prisoner of the Machines' (read my reviews on the respective episode pages). Both are episodes I have listened to literally dozens of times and still never grow tired of them. Slesar respected the intelligence of his audience, and of his actors. I think the actors responded by giving Henry's radio plays their very best (examples: Tony Roberts and Terri Keane in 'Murder' and John Lithgow in 'Prisoner'). I invite Radio Mystery enthusiasts to spend some time focused on Slesar's stories. You begin to understand the essential and complex elements of a successful story, which must be difficult for many other writers to capture because so many episodes from other writers have gaps. Radio Mystery Theater and we listeners are fortunate to have had Henry Slesar as a resource. Thank you so much, Henry, for giving your creative self so devotedly for the enjoyment of so many!! - JUROR #4
JUROR #4
Henry Slesar's entries in Wikipedia and IMDB illustrate his extreme prolificity which goes back a long time and included much more than radio. He seemed to like writing science fiction short stories and short dramas with twists such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
JUROR #4
Henry Slesar was one of my favorite writers from the Alfred Hitchcock show, to the Alfred Hitchcock Magazine to the Edge of Night and CBSRMT. The master of the twist ending
Kevin
Henry Slesar was such a well-regarded author, I'm surprised there's no comprehensive collection of his stories. There is a book called "Death on Television" that collects his stories that were adapted for the Alfred Hitchock series (called "Death on Television), but no other collections as far as I can tell.
John
Henry Slesar wrote for Ellery Queen ‘s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Saint Mystery Magazine also. He is on par with O.Henry with unexpected twists at the end. More talented but unfortunately less recognized by anthology editors. He is my all time favorite author and I adore his works. Any one can tell us about his family? Wife, children etc? Couldn’t find it anywhere.
Malladi
Henry Slesar was a great sci-fi writer. He wrote 'Prisoner of the Machines', 'The Eleventh Plague', and "A God Named Smith', which are great episodes. I enjoy a lot of his non sci-fi stories as well. I wish he had written more episodes because he was one of the best writers for the series.
Amy
I just saw another episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents' starring Carmen Mathews, and written by Henry Slesar. (He is one of my favorite writers on CBSRMT.) As I am watching this series, it seems that he wrote quite a few of the Hitchcock episodes, so the show has a CBSRMT "feel" to it, (at least the episodes I've seen so far). It's so cool to see a TV show that reminds me of CBSRMT! 'One Step Beyond' is another show I mentioned before which also has a similar 'flavor'.
Luann
He was also the writer for the excellent "Edge of Night" daytime soap. I believe he was head writer 1968-1984. He also wrote for "Search for Tomorrow" and "Somerset."
Liam OCearuil