The Exploring Tomorrow Radio Program

Background

Science Fiction in print, film, radio and television enjoyed exponentially increasing popularity throughout the Golden Age Radio era. Between the mid-1920s and the 1970s Radio brought a great many popular Sci-Fi programs to its listeners. The most poular science fiction programs during the era were those directed at juvenile audiences. It wasn't until after World War II that more adult-oriented science fiction anthologies began airing. There were of course any number of popular adventure programs throughout the era that broadcast an occasional science fiction script or adaptation. But it wasn't until the advent of the Atomic Age that science fiction found a much broader audience.

Among the more popular and enduring of the science fiction genre over Radio were:

• 1932 Buck Rogers In The 25th Century
• 1935 The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon
• 1938 Superman
• 1950 Dimension X
• 1950 Space Patrol
• 1952 The Space Adventures of Super Noodle
• 1952 Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
• 1953 Tales of Tomorrow
• 1953 Think
• 1955 X Minus One
• 1957 Exploring Tomorrow
• 1964 Theater Five
• 1973 The Price of Fear

While not presented as all-inclusive, the list above provides a comparatively representative selection of the era's most popular Sci-Fi programming.

For the era's hard-core Sci-Fi addicts there were several popular science fiction pulp publications and digests. One of the most popular science fiction digests of the era was Astounding Science-Fiction. Begun in 1930 as Astounding Stories, writer John Wood Campbell, Jr. assumed the reins of Astounding Stories in 1938, soon after changing the name of the digest to Astounding Science-Fiction. Indeed it was from either Galaxy magazine or Astounding Science-Fiction that many of the scripts of the more popular Sci-Fi Radio dramas of the era were derived.

The more adult-oriented Sci-Fi programs of the era arrived during the 1950s, fairly evenly represented between NBC, CBS and MBS. ABC arrived somewhat late to the Sci-Fi genre with its Theater Five program in 1964.

MBS and John Campbell bring Exploring Tomorrow to the air

The calculus that brought Exploring Tomorrow to the air was reasonably well supported. Dimension X (1950) had been quite popular with its fans while suffering under several scheduling changes and almost no promotion beyond its first few episodes. 1953's Tales of Tomorrow had been spun off from its Television version. And NBC's X Minus One's fans suffered even greater indignities than those of Dimension X at the hands of NBC's schedulers.

A uniting element of all of these productions was John W. Campbell, Jr. and his Astounding Science-Fiction magazine. Campbell's publication and his contributing science fiction writers were responsible for a great number of the Sci-Fi scripts that had been adapted from either Astounding Science-Fiction or Galaxy magazine, a competing Sci-Fi digest. An M.I.T. grad as well as Editor of Astounding Science-Fiction, John Campbell was uniquely equipped to host Exploring Tomorrow. In addition to hosting the series, Campbell also added his own thoughts and observations before, during and after each episode, depending on the length of the script.

A New York production, Exploring Tomorrow premiered on December 4th 1957 as a 20-25 minute program airing on Wednesday and Friday evenings. The New York cast members included many of Radio's finest, including Mason Adams, Jim Boles, Lawson Zerbe, Mandel Kramer, Bret Morrision, George Petrie, Lon Clark, and Larry Haines, among many others. Of note is the fact that most of the Radio stars cited had at one time or another their own network showcase of one type or another. Produced and directed by Sanford Marshall, the scripts were adapted for Radio by either the authors themselves or a combination of John Fleming, Peter Irving and John Campbell himself.

One of the more fascinating elements of each episode were John Campbell's reflections on both contemporary and emerging technologies of the era as they affected contemporary culture and world events. Another element that made the series even more unique was the active participation of the U.S. Air Force in providing authentic sound clips for the series. Given the comparatively humble budget for Exploring Tomorrow, a little extra authenticity went a long way indeed.

Though only some twenty minutes of actual exposition or script, Exploring Tomorrow packed a lot of suspense, thrills and surprises into each installment. Shortly after it began airing, the AFRTS picked it up as one of the canons destined for our troops in the European and Pacific Theatres--a sure sign of the series' popularity. The commercially broadcast series ran until well into December 1958 and well into 1959 over the Armed Forces' Far East Network and American Forces Network.

As another indication of both listener and network loyalty to the series, we have yet to encounter a single preemption or interruption to the series over a period of almost thirteen months. As the genre goes, we'd have to characterize Exploring Tomorrow as the thinking person's Sci-Fi adventure series. The series' stories appear to have been selected by John Campbell himself and generally posed one significant sociological or cultural issue or another.

As a production during Mutual's 'MBS-Plus' sponsor-sharing plan of the era, sponsorship of Exploring Tomorrow was somewhat hit or miss throughout its commercial broadcasts. It did however attract at least six significant sponsors over its thirteen months.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

As a consequence of the OTR nonsense cataloged further below, our log of Exploring Tomorrow is necessarily fraught with ambiguities and questionable entries. The only moderately accurate resource we found were a scant few entries in the Pacific Stars and Stripes from 1958-1959. We also suspect that the overwhelming majority of the circulating exemplars of Exploring Tomorrow were 'manufactured' from the AFRTS-denatured run from 1957 to 1959. Thus, the only synopses or titles we can reasonably substantiate at this point in our research are those from the Stars and Stripes and the Janesville Gazette. All other dates we cite for a specific exemplar were derived from the radioGOLDINdex. Unfortunately the radioGOLDINdex entries for Exploring Tomorrow appear to have been--erroneously--based at least in part upon someone else's research. The giveaway is the apparent belief by that sources--or sources--that Exploring Tomorrow aired once a week for a specific period of 28 weeks. Such was absolutely not the case. Exploring Tomorrow aired--from beginning to end--as a Wednesday and Friday feature over the Mutual Broadcasting System. Some independent stations occasionally aired the canon on Saturdays or Sundays, but by and large even the stations unaffiliated with MBS aired the canon on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The above underscores the even more glaring error in all other presently circulating logs of Exploring Tomorrow--the misconception that only twenty-nine episodes ever aired. That fallacy was based on the OTR Myth that Exploring Tomorrow aired once weekly, which was obviously never the case. Had Exploring Tomorrow aired for precisely twenty-eight weeks, the canon would have comprised between fifty-two and fifty-six episodes--not twenty-nine. Going further, it's patently demonstrable that Exploring Tomorrow aired well into December of 1958--a full six months later than circulating 'OTR lore' has traditionally maintained.

Given our own extensive research, the papers and recollections of Robert Silverberg, and a few clues in the radioGOLDINdex entries, we're of the belief that there were in all likelihood an estimated 104 broadcasts of Exploring Tomorrow over the course of its MBS syndication. As to the long-touted twenty-eight unique exemplars in circulation, we find that allegation equally suspect. We have twenty-two unique exemplars among our own holdings. We would estimate that we're actually missing only two of the circulating exemplars, for a total of twenty-four in actual circulation. The Pacific Stars and Stripes listings indicate some fifty or so non-repeating episodes among the AFRTS-denatured recordings. There might well be as many as seventy-eight unique scripts within the Exploring Tomorrow canon--or more. It would also appear that a great many of the commercial Exploring Tomorrow broadcasts were repeats.

OTRisms:

The widely circulating collections of Exploring Tomorrow are predominately complete frauds in almost every respect. Virtually all of the circulating recordings are heavily butchered and totally contrived:

• Opens and closes from other recordings are edited into the circulating exemplars.
• The majority of the circulating exemplars are fake stereoized.
• The majority of the circulating exemplars are 'pegged out' (e.g. clipped sound waves).
• There are so many 'a.k.a.s' in circulation for the canon that most collections have at least five or six bogus duplicates among the canon.
• AFRTS exemplars are heavily edited to disguise their AFRTS-denatured origin.
• X Minus One and Dimension X episodes edited into opening and closings of Exploring Tomorrow.

Exploring Tomorrrow was an excellent Sci-Fi offering for the era. Sadly, the OTR Community has so utterly butchered and misrepresented the circulating canon that sorting it all out might take years to come--if ever. Some OTR 'authority' apparently pronounced the series as running from December 4th 1957 to June 13th 1958--and that, by gum, was that. There's just one niggling little problem with that pronouncement--it's a complete and utter lie. In point of fact, Exploring Tomorrow ran well into December of 1958 throughout America--yet another manifestation of the widely held OTR community's narcissistic misconception that New York was the epicenter of the Golden Age Radio universe.

Due to the widespread--and widely condoned--butchery of the circulating recordings, it's most likely that the overwhelming majority of circulating recordings originated from AFRTS-denatured recordings. Predictably, only the orginating butchers of the circulating exemplars can fully substantiate our surmise--which, given the low bar of integrity throughout the hobby, remains highly unlikely.

All of the above wouldn't be so egregious, but for the utter futility of the butchery. To what end? To drive another $300 of commerce to the originating vendor(s)? Bragging rights among other deceptive vendors or collectors? Or simply more childish mischief. The circulating Exploring Tommorow canon is a poster child for all that is wrong with the entirely exploitative 'OTR' movement and the swath of historical destruction that the movement has left in its wake.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]