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Title

The Waiting Room

Plot

A cordial invitation from an elderly couple for a weekend stay at their mansion has sinister repercussions for a young couple. They have been baited for a deadly occult ritual dedicated to evil.

Episode

0704

Air Dates

  • First Run - September 5, 1977
  • Repeat - January 21, 1978

Actors

Writer

Listen

Rating

127
108     19


27 Responses to Episode 0704

This is one of my favorites in particular about a couple who get invited to stay the weekend with some "nice" people, who have a large aviary. As it turns out, the birds are all hosts for souls of history's most evil players - until new bodies can be found for them.

Karl

Ha! Found it - "The Waiting Room"

Karl

there are several indexes and listening logs online to assist in identifying a particular episode. glad you found yours.

Miles

oh yes! That's an excellent episode!

Di-Ellen

INT. HIMAN BROWN'S OFFICE, EVENING. THE ODOR OF WHISKEY PERMEATES THE STALE AIR. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Brown?" "Yeah, kid. I've got an idea for a script I want you to get cracking on." "Yes sir?" "'The Birds' meets 'The Boys from Brazil.'" "Uh..." "Well, why are you still standing there? Get to work!" -- And to everyone's credit, this is actually a pretty good episode!

BF

I thought this was a fun episode. Sort of silly, though. Methinks Hitler's soul has been in the company of Lucifer for the past 62 years. But none-the-less, I guess I will nix the idea of buying a parrot anytime soon.

Proculo

i loved it! one of the better ones in my humble opinion.

Caren Juan

This episode reminded me of the story in which a couple is lured to spend a weekend with a couple that fatten them up in order to eat them. I like the idea of characters being placed in a mysterious situation in which the purposes of the villains are not immediately clear. Yes the introduction of Hitler was a crazy plot twist and I am still wondering why he didn't speak German (maybe they have English lessons in Hell?) but I enjoyed this episode. It threw me that the "spriit birds", even though their possessing souls were evil, apparently thought resurrecting Hitler was too much.

Carlos

Thought it was interesting. Nice plot twists. Thought the cop at the end knowing the name of the deceased (Burt) was kind of hokey. Most likely wouldn't have had that info. If he did he most likely wouldn't have given it to the people at the house. But then again, it was the 70s.

Bill

it was pretty hoky in several places. Nevertheless an enjoyable episode.

A.J. Bordey

Quote: Thought it was interesting. Nice plot twists. Thought the cop at the end knowing the name of the deceased (Burt) was kind of hokey. Most likely wouldn't have had that info. If he did he most likely wouldn't have given it to the people at the house. But then again, it was the 70s. CBS Radio Mystery Theater is one of the very few series from a progressively modera era (the 1970s and early 1980s) which I'm sure we've all noticed sometimes resembles a radio or TV show from the 1950s & early 1960s due to corny dialog, stereotypical character portrayals, and the same music heard on countless CBS series from that era.

Drew

Above average. I liked the show, why would the "evil" birds have an issue with Hitler? Still an enjoyable episode.

P. Chambers

Now it's exactly 1 month later from when this topic was started, so I'm up to September 1977 and this morning I heard "The Waiting Room". This was one of the dumber plots, but I've heard worse from this series. The demonic birds were obviously not real birds but demons in bird form. Marian Seldes and Russell Horton using the young couple and Burt Thomas to complete their satanic ritual to bring back Adolph Hitler in itself was recycling an idea better executed in an earlier Mystery Theater episode in which Hitler is revived by a group of German scientists plotting to start a Fourth Reich in modern times. He spoke English too, so we really can't fault the writers for typically going that route. I almost commented on this in my "Executive Decision" topic, until I remembered this thread.

Nemia Howard

For some reason,"Bill" appears to have cribbed the opening of "Drew's" post. I'm also getting tired of "After all it was the 70s" and "50s & 60s corny dialogue" being a blanket complaint for material deemed less sophisticated than today's amazing,mature entertainment.Nine times out of ten,when someone disparages anything from the 50s,60s and 70s it's because they were born in the 80s or 90s. Fifty years from now,people will be laughing at whatever you think is credible now because in the future no one will speak or think or write. Hell,they barely do now. As for the actual episode,we are in "They Saved Hitler's Brain" territory again and the idea has always been silly. This episode is silly. But I don't really care. EC Comics were silly too but they were great fun. I grew up on CBSRMT and enjoy revisiting it. Signed Dale "Grumpy" Haskell

Dale Haskell

The Waiting Room is my favorite.

Ellen

Loved this show!

Charlie

AH YES THE MEMORIES, LISTENING TO CBSRMT, IN BED WITH MY VERY FIRST RADIO ALARM CLOCK I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS,THE NIGHTMARES ,THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS BEFORE SCHOOL

Chris

Love it!

Aaron

Wonderful!!

MissKimberlym

still listen...loved listening under the covers as a kid!

Mary

My all time favorite radio show

RevThomas

Love it!!

Marcellus

Greatest show on radio!

Andrew

That is awesome

Daniel

I think it's interesting that Larry Haines, Marian Seldes, and Russell Horton were the only actors who received credit for the episode when it was obvious that the the young couple was played by different actors, not the aforementioned ones simply "doubling." I just checked, and I am now certain that was Don Scardino playing Marty with Jada Rowland as Charlotte. Definitely worth a listen--not sure why the two were not credited though.

Dan from S. Jersey

I rate this episode ★★★★☆ for GOOD. Bob Juhren's mystery story is a surprising one at best! Here we have, 3 guests invited by 2 hosts for 1 weekend. The shocking surprise at the end of ACT-2 was an eye-opener. An edge-of-your-seat suspense that reminded me bits and pieces of Ep. #0275-THE RISE AND FALL OF THE FOURTH REICH written by Henry Slesar. But in this tale, the pet birds steal the show in the final Act and CBSRMT should've made another episode about them and see who else they peck. The title is good, another way to title this would be "The Deadly Flock" or "Weekend Of Evil." Sound Effects of the Disco music, people chatting, car engine, water splashing in the pool, footsteps, doors, crows, drips of blood, crickets, wings flapping, window opening, poking into the dirt, birds chirping and whistling, flock of birds attacking, and police sirens were extremely supportive in this. As for the music, suspenseful tunes were wonderful, including the addition of tunes from THE TWILIGHT ZONE series. In our Host's Prologue, E.G. Marshall starts off by saying, "Welcome to our world where real demons exist in this strange and brooding land behind the creaking door." Now THAT is 1 of his best intros! In ACT-1, discussing that the Forces of Evil are in disguise. In ACT-2, after the shocking surprise, we now know what's in the Waiting Room. In ACT-3, after the birds did their job to save the surviving protagonists, E.G. Marshall concludes that the Waiting Room is officially empty. In his Epilogue, he points out that Good gets unnoticed, Evil gets more visibility. Everything that E.G. Marshall had said was great, except for 1 important part: he mentioned 3 cast members instead of 5! He only mentioned Larry Haines (as Robert Carson), Marian Seldes (as Rhoda Carson), and Russell Horton (as Bert Thomas and the Police Officer). The other 2 he forgot to mention were Don Scardino (as Marty Lannings) and Jada Rowland (as Charlotte Lannings). These 2 played the surviving protagonists! Why E.G. Marshall forgot to say their names? Who knows? It's a mystery we may never solve. If he didn't make that error, I would've rated this 5 stars for EXCELLENT. But all in all, this was a fascinating episode and should be checked out if you enjoy Bob Juhren's tales of suspense and the supernatural. Until next time…pleasant dreams. =0)

Russell

Love ❤️!!!!

Michael Carolan


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