The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Our 350th episode celebration continues with a live Q&A at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! Special guest Shanan Custer interviews your Mysterious Old Hosts to find out the true origin of the MORLS and to learn their secret opinions on a wide range of topics! We collected questions from Patreon and the audience and here are the answers! What’s the best way to get cast in a show at the Bryant-Lake Bowl? How long is the podcast obliged to continue? Which host can actually name a film from 2024? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s our 350th episode and we’re celebrating with live recording of our podcast at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! Our audience joined us for the Suspense adaptation of “The Most Dangerous Game” based on the short story by Richard Connell! The production features Orson Welles as General Zaroff, an eccentric big game hunter who lives a reclusive life on a private island. When a fellow hunter is shipwrecked and washes up on the shore of this island, Zaroff invites him to participate in a hunt for an unusual quarry! Will Zaroff capture his prey? At this point, does anyone not know what “the most dangerous game” is? How politically extreme can a dog get? Listen for yourself and find out!

It’s that time again! Join us as we celebrate the glorious triumphs and the embarrassing whoopsies of 2023! We’re revisiting all the episodes we listened to last year. Then, based on listener polls, the keen insights of esteemed special guests, and our own incoherent ramblings, one episode shall travel a Long Distance to The Black Tie Affair and another will be forced to Hideout in the Junkyard! Will your hosts go to the Black Room in the Cabin? Will they get Milwaukee Deep in the Devil’s Workshop? And which host will be arrested for taking a standardized test nude? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week, we take a gamble on a new-to-us series, Diary of Fate! “David Dexter” is the story of a grifter trying to con a recently remarried widow. But Fate has other plans for the man who calls himself David Dexter! When past crimes come back to haunt him, there are no guarantees for who will get the better of whom! Will this woman discover his true intentions before it is too late? What happened in the past that connects these two? Why is Fate so judgy? Listen for yourself and find out!

Joshua’s old college friend John suggested we listen to “The Gorilla Man” from The Shadow. So we did! Thanks, John! The story features a man who takes care of a large gorilla at the zoo. He finds himself growing to resemble the beast in his care, and the more he does, the further he retreats from the rest of humanity. But when Lamont, Margo, and Shrevvy find a corpse at this zoo, it’s up to the Shadow to uncover the truth! Is the Gorilla Man really turning into an animal? How exactly does the staffing in this zoo work? Why does Eric keep saying, “Ski-U-Mah”? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’re listening to an episode of X Minus One recommended to us by our Patreon supporter, Evan. Thanks, Evan! “The Lifeboat Mutiny” is an adaptation of the Robert Sheckley story of the same name. The plot features a crew of space travelers who get a bargain on a used lifeboat. But when the automated lifeboat decides the crew is in peril, it becomes a bizarre battle to retain control of the ship! Why does this intelligence think the crew is being threatened? Why does it do such strange things to “care” for them? What made the podcast host decide to “sing” in this discussion? Listen for yourself and find out! 

We’re checking out a new-to-us series this week, The Eleventh Hour for an episode entitled “The Tomb!” Robbers take a hostage to help them break into a jewelry shop’s safe, but lives are on the line when the plan takes a turn for the worse! Will their hostage survive? Will the heist ultimately succeed? Is there anything that will make Joshua truly happy? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we pay our first visit to The Adventures of Sam Spade for an episode entitled “The Mad Scientist Caper”! The story features Dashiell Hammett’s famous detective working for an inventor who believes that that the secrets of one of his creations have been stolen. But the inventor himself may be a bit unhinged! Who exactly is a murderer and who is a madman? Will Spade end up in a mental institution? What elaborate selection process did Eric use to bring this episode? Listen for yourself and find out!

As we head into August, we’re listening to the Suspense adaptation of W.F. Harvey’s story, “August Heat”! Ronald Colman stars as an illustrator who inexplicably starts drawing a man on trial. It’s a man the artist has never seen before. Caught up in a strange sense of foreboding, the artist wanders out into the oppressive heat to discover the bizarre fate that awaits him. What is the meaning of this drawing? What madness does this summer heat inspire? What hilarious TikTok content are we considering? Listen for yourself and find out!

Special guest Shanan Custer joined us at the Bryant-Lake Bowl for this live recording of the MORLS as we listened to “The Edge of the Shadow” from Dark Fantasy! The story features a farmer investigating a strange cut on his cow’s leg, which of course leads to a romantic betrayal, strange omens of the future, and an exciting eye rinse. What is the secret behind this bovine injury? Can this farmer avert inevitable disaster? Can Scott Bishop? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week we’re paying a visit to the Hermit’s Cave to listen to “The Search for Life”! A scientific breakthrough has enabled a doctor to extend human life, but he may also be able to raise the dead! His colleague hopes to step away from the work, as a way to show his devotion to the woman he loves. But what does he really intend to do? What will be the ultimate result of reviving the dead? What would Mark McKinney do? Listen for yourself and find out!

Your hosts are taking the weekend off to celebrate July 4th, but we do have a treat for you! We’ve been performing live radio shows on stage at Crooners Supper Club for a while now, and here’s two examples of our work, starring Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, and Eric Webster ! First, we present “The Cabin” a classic episode from the series, Gunsmoke! Our second performance is “The Silence of Death” from the MORLS original series, Mr. & Mrs. Nighthawk! Our supporters on Patreon have access to all the shows we’ve recorded over the years, and you can become a supporter too at patreon.com/themorls!

Suspense began its run with an adaptation of John Dickson Carr’s novel, “The Burning Court” and this week, we’re tuning in to give it a listen! A man discovers an image of a notorious 17th century poisoner who looks like exactly like his wife. And as fate would have it, his friend’s uncle has just been killed by poison! Is his wife somehow the same woman as he saw in the illustration? Can the amateur detective Cross deduce some less phantasmal explanation for the crime? Do all comedians want to be blaggards? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote […]

All aboard for this adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle mystery that does not feature Sherlock Holmes! “The Lost Special” from Escape depicts the mysterious disappearance of a train that has Scotland Yard utterly baffled. But once they eliminate what is impossible, they begin to see how the crime could have been committed! What happened to the train? How was the apparently miraculous disappearance achieved? Did the Cub Scouts help defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt? Listen for yourself and find out!

This week, we’re taking our place once again in the Weird Circle! This episode, “The Old Nurse’s Story” features an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s short story of the same name. In this tale, a daughter’s ill-conceived marriage drives a wedge between her and her father, leading to a bitter grudge and a promise of revenge. What death will lead to a second oath? Will this family ever be reconciled? How hard would it be to use child actors borrowed from a Victorian orphanage? Listen for yourself and find out!