George Maharis (left) (turned 92 last month) Martin Milner
(December 28, 1931 – September 6, 2015)

On October 7, 1960, the first episode of the one-hour television
drama “Route 66” airs on CBS. The program had a simple premise:
It followed two young men, Buz Murdock (George Maharis) and
Tod Stiles (Martin Milner), as they drove across the country in
an inherited Corvette (Chevrolet was one of the show’s sponsors),
doing odd jobs and looking for adventure. According to the show’s
creator and writer, Stirling Silliphant (best known for his acclaimed
“Naked City,” an earlier TV series), Buz and Tod were really on a
journey in search of themselves.

“Route 66″was different from every other show on television. For
one thing, it was shot on location all over the U.S. instead of in a
studio. By the time its run was up in 1964, the show’s cast and
crew had traveled from Maine to Florida and from Los Angeles
to Toronto: In all, they taped 116 episodes in 25 states.

George Maharis 

Dangerous Assignment was an NBC radio drama starring Brian Donlevy
broadcast in the US 1949–1953, a syndicated television series
distributed in from 1951–52 (also starring Brian Donlevy), and an
Australian radio series broadcast from 1954-56 as remakes of the
original American  radio scripts.

Waldo Brian Donlevy (February 9, 1901 – April 6, 1972)

I Led 3 Lives (also known as I Led Three Lives) is an drama series
syndicated by Ziv Television Programs from October 1, 1953,
to January 1, 1956. The series stars Richard Carlson. It was a
companion piece to the radio drama I Was a Communist 
for the FBI, which dealt with a similar subject and was
also syndicated by Ziv from 1952 to 1954.

George Orson Welles  (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985)

“The War of the Worlds”—Orson Welles’s realistic radio dramatization of a
Martian invasion of Earth—is broadcast on the radio on October 30, 1938.

Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided
to update H.G. Wells’ 19th-century science fiction novel The War of the
Worlds for national radio. Despite his age, Welles had been in radio for
several years, most notably as the voice of “The Shadow” in the hit
mystery program of the same name. “War of the Worlds” was not planned
as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. A voice announced:
“The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present
Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in ‘War of the Worlds’
by H.G. Wells.”

Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and
millions of Americans had their radios turned on. But most of these
Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy
“Charlie McCarthy” on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the
comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on. By then, the
story of the Martian invasion was well underway.

X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series
broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in numerous
timeslots on NBC. The series was never able to generate a
large following.   

A vintage Zenith tube radio from 1955.