episodes of Columbia Workshop

The Columbia Workshop, a sustaining program (ie: no commercials or sponsor), was was created in 1936 by the Columbia Broadcasting System (now CBS) as a prestige program and a laboratory for the best that the audio medium had to offer. Needless to say, there is no equivalent being broadcast today.

As a workshop, the doors were thrown open to new playwrights (Norman Corwin made his auspicious debut here in 1938 with "The Plot to Overthrow Christmas", as well as established authors interested in experimenting with the medium (Archibald MacLeish's "The Fall of The City") . There was an emphasis on high production values and creative sound patterns. Not everything was a success. Listening today, some programs are electric, others dated. But in its day it was something to talk about.

Broadcasts became sporadic during and after World War II. A new version returned for 86 episodes in 1956 and 1957 as The CBS Radio Workshop. In case you wondered, yes, it was this show that inspired the name for our radio production company, the Generic Radio Workshop.


Click on a script title below to view it:

Jul 18 1936 A Comedy of Danger / The Finger of God
Aug 02 1936 Cartwheel
Aug 16 1936 Case History
Dec 19 1936 The Gods of the Mountain
Apr 18 1937 R. U. R.
May 11 1937 The Fall of the City
May 16 1937 Paul Revere
Jul 04 1937 Mr. Sycamore
Sep 26 1937 Alice in Wonderland, Part 1
Oct 03 1937 Alice in Wonderland, Part 2
Jan 29 1938 Madame Curie
Feb 19 1938 The Well of the Saints
Mar 26 1938 J. Smith and Wife
Apr 16 1938 The Terrible Meek
Oct 27 1938 Air Raid
Dec 01 1938 The Giant's Stair
Dec 25 1938 The Plot to Overthrow Christmas
Jan 30 1939 Now Playing Tomorrow
Feb 20 1939 Nine Prisoners
Apr 10 1939 They Fly Through The Air
Jun 05 1939 Highboy
Jul 20 1939 John Brown's Body
Aug 24 1939 Meridian 7-1212
Sep 14 1939 The Use of Man
Oct 19 1939 William Ireland's Confession
Mar 07 1940 My Client Curley
Jul 20 1940 Carmilla
Sep 29 1940 The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man
Jan 26 1941 This is from David
Mar 02 1941 Roadside
Jun 08 1941 Odyssey of Runyon Jones
Jul 13 1941 Ann was an Ordinary Girl
Aug 24 1941 Job
May 31 1942 The City Wears a Slouch Hat
Jun 07 1942 The Little One
Jul 10 1942 Let Me Tell You About My Operation
Apr 18 1944 Untitled
Jun 20 1944 American Trilogy: Walt Whitman
May 19 1946 The Trial
Jun 16 1946 Sometime Every Summertime
Jan 27 1956 Brave New World, Part One
Feb 03 1956 Brave New World, Part Two
Sep 14 1956 A Pride of Carrots: or, Venus Well Served
Nov 25 1956 The King of the Cats
Jan 27 1957 The Crazy Life
May 05 1957 Nightmare
Aug 25 1957 Sweet Cherries in Charleston
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