Mysteryshows.com

[Adeny]

Sorry, I had to share my delight at this. Of course I am referring to the Bill Cosby sketch about sneaking out of bed to listen to the radio, and hearing the Lights Out about the chicken heart. And putting Jell-0 on the floor.

When I first got into OTR I looked for this episode, but never found it. I was kind of disappointed. I figured it wasn't out there.

Imagine my delight when I found it on the Lights Out list!!! I am listening to it now, and squealing. This is awesome.

I love this site!!

[Mike Hobart]

Yeah, that's a great sketch. I suppose back when he first started doing it there wouldn't have been a lot of people around who remembered Lights Out in the mainstream audience.

Maybe the Cos should get a star on the radio hall of fame just for reminding people that there used to be such a thing as radio drama!
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tuned in from down under

[Brad]

[gilinaz]

I was always hoping that they would make an extended version of "The Dark", as a movie. They could get Stephen King as the screenwriter
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Gil

[crich70]

I've listened to the episode in question. It's just a few minutes long but scary. I wonder how Mr. Obler came up with so many nightmarish ideas for his stories.

[harrietvane]

I had a similar thrill when I discovered this. I had the Bill Cosby album and loved it, used to tell the story at sleepovers and scare all my friends.

Weird thing is, I have a memory of the actual Lights Out episode starting earlier in the story -- when I've looked it up later, the versions I find seem to start more in the middle of things, with the heart already on the loose. I guess I could be misremembering or conflating two different stories but I remember a flighty group of women visiting the professor's lab and knocking over the beaker or whatever containing the heart, setting it free...

Anyone else know if a longer version of the story exists out there somewhere? Regardless, it's so terrifying!

[dialturner]

Back in the Sixties, Arch Obler produced an LP recording of abbrieviated radio skits that he had written. It was called "Drop Dead" with a photo of a skull on the album. Among the skits were both "The Dark" and "The Chicken Heart." My understanding is that the original recording of the Chicken Heart was lost or destroyed years ago. It featured Hans Conried as the professor who tries to get the heart destroyed. He winds up escaping in an airplane with another guy but unfortunately the plane conks out in mid-air. You can log onto a website which has both the script and the recording and listen and read at the same time. At the time Cosby did his recording, I don't think that many people remembered "Lights Out." They did remember "Inner Sanctum" which he also mentions, because this one was on radio longer and was on television.

[harrietvane]

Wow. I could have sworn I actually heard the episode -- I believe on the Radio Channel in iTunes. Now I have to go looking again...