Laurie Thornton and her fiancé, George, set out to visit her former college roommate, Helena, at her family's remote estate, but their journey is interrupted by an eerie roadside vision of a violent clash between a father and daughter. They soon discover the haunting is tied to a cursed family heirloom: a ring with a rose-colored stone, rumored to prevent its female bearers from marrying. Later, Helena’s mother insists Laurie accept the ring as an engagement gift — which she does, but soon regrets.

In 1950s America, businessman Spencer Chadwick stands over the body of his wife, Margaret, confessing murder to his friend, Inspector Faraday. His troubles began three months earlier when, at breakfast, he suddenly couldn’t recognize Margaret. Soon, he becomes obsessed with Peggy, a vibrant young woman, and meticulously recreates a downtown apartment filled with relics from two decades past. Within this carefully built world, Spencer’s long-abandoned youthful ambitions collide with reality.

Phil Kohlman, an honest gas station owner, faces ruin unless he can raise $15,000 to buy out his disagreeable partner. Meanwhile, his estranged father, Rick — a newly paroled bank robber who served ten years for a $106,000 heist — moves into his home, unsettling Phil’s wife and teenage son. With the deadline for the gas station deal looming, Phil’s desperation mounts, culminating in a midnight confrontation with his father on a lonely hilltop outside town.

At Westerly estate in 19th-century Maryland, Buford Montgomery is shocked to find his supposedly dead mother alive in her coffin after a mistaken declaration of death. Seizing the chance to break free and claim his inheritance, he locks her beneath the house, forcing his servants into unwilling complicity tied to an old murder confession. But his relief is short-lived — Nancy Lee, his scheming lover, traps him in marriage by claiming she’s pregnant. Desperate, Buford makes a grim decision: his wife will join his mother below.

Young newlywed Jennifer Brady returns from her honeymoon to find her husband, Howard, murdered in their apartment — but when Officer Ed Helmut investigates, there’s no body, no evidence, and no crime. Her sister Maggie insists Jennifer suffers from a psychiatric condition and hallucinated everything, including Howard himself. Yet the sharp-eyed rookie cop spots inconsistencies, especially surrounding a distinctive red sports car parked outside. The stakes escalate when Howard reappears, alive and well, claiming to be Maggie’s fiancé rather than Jennifer’s husband.

Fate has something in store for Charles Powel, a rising corporate executive with a hidden past. When blackmailer Clint Livets recognizes Charles as Robert Hagan — an escaped convict once sentenced to life for murder — Charles' carefully constructed life begins to crumble: his engagement to Alison McCready, daughter of company president J.P., is suddenly threatened, as is his promotion to company president. As Livets bleeds him dry, Charles confides in Alison, hatching a dangerous plan involving cash, car crashes, and quicklime.

In an ordinary American city, salesman Jerry Price is stunned when his old Army buddy, Paul Gardner, walks into Paddy Noonan’s bar — especially since Paul died nine years ago in Vietnam. Worse, he brings unsettling news: According to the Divine Plan, Jerry was meant to perish that day, while Paul was destined to survive, marry Jerry’s wife, Marge, and father a world-changing child. But cosmic balance must be restored, and time is running out for Jerry to meet the fate he narrowly escaped.

Richard Moresby faces a dilemma when his wealthy wife, Una, falls under the spell of Dr. Sing, a mystic who claims human spirits return as animals. When Una vows to leave her fortune to Sing’s temple, Richard stages her death as a suicide, securing his inheritance. But his confidence falters as animals begin appearing around his home — a barking dog, a persistent raccoon, intrusive birds. Is it guilt, paranoia, or did Una truly mean it when she swore she’d be back?

Welcome to If You Please, Himan Brown’s Radio Mystery Theater. On this series we are offering rebroadcasts of a select group of programs created by this legendary producer for CBS between 1974 and 1982. Brown reimagined radio drama for contemporary times. Our new series offers some of these exciting works again, and includes comments by John Slavney about each episode.

This week: The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill

Ada Canby is 77 years old, sharp as a tack, and nobody's fool. So when her boarder, Mr. Paulson, confesses on his deathbed that he killed a man for money a decade ago, she’s determined to uncover who ordered the hit. Soon, she figures out the players and the plot, and she plans to go to the police with the new information — although she still sets aside time to care for her new boarder, Stuart Winfield, who's dealing with an increasingly severe case of pneumonia... or something like it.

CUNY TV and the Radio Drama Network announce the launch of the archival anthology podcast series IF YOU PLEASE: HIMAN BROWN'S RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, premiering June 4

From CUNY-TV and the Radio Drama Network, upcoming archival anthology podcast If You Please: Himan Brown’s Radio Mystery Theater debuts on June 4, 2026. If You Please presents 26 episodes of Himan Brown’s legendary radio dramas from the CBS Radio Mystery Theater series, which ran from 1974 to 1982.

Radio producer Himan Brown created over 10,000 programs in his lifetime, with a vigor and intensity that kept him going for a century. He was an acclaimed producer in the Golden Age of radio, and then inventively reimagined radio drama for contemporary times. His CBS Radio Mystery Theater series offered a gripping array of compelling mysteries, supernatural chillers, and crime stories with a twist. They were crafted by leading writers in the genre, and always offered much more than their plots, featuring vivid characters, moral dilemmas, and gripping conclusions.

Blending forms between radio drama and curated artistic deep dive, each episode of If You Please is contextualized with an introduction by John Slavney, a Himan Brown scholar authoring the definitive guide to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater programs. In each episode, he shares behind the scenes details about each production before you enter the many worlds created by Brown, his authors, and his actors.

“I had the great pleasure of producing Audio Maverick, a nine-part documentary series about the life and work of Himan Brown,” says Sarah Montague, director, “And it was clear that Brown really lived most through his work, so it is wonderful to have the opportunity to share some of it with a new generation of listeners. As he said himself, ‘radio drama takes your imagination in, embraces the listener like nothing else in the history of theater.’”

Melina Brown, granddaughter of Himan Brown and president of the Radio Drama Network, shares what makes this podcast so important: “My grandfather believed in the power of imagination and storytelling. His dream was to have these shows released and played on the radio airwaves, but had he known about podcasts, he would have loved this format. Radio Drama Network is so happy to partner with CUNY TV in realizing his dream to have the shows playing again and people imagining the scenes.”

CUNY TV and the Radio Drama Network announce the launch of the archival anthology podcast series IF YOU PLEASE: HIMAN BROWN'S RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, premiering June 4

From CUNY-TV and the Radio Drama Network, upcoming archival anthology podcast If You Please: Himan Brown’s Radio Mystery Theater debuts on June 4, 2026. If You Please presents 26 episodes of Himan Brown’s legendary radio dramas from the CBS Radio Mystery Theater series, which ran from 1974 to 1982.

Radio producer Himan Brown created over 10,000 programs in his lifetime, with a vigor and intensity that kept him going for a century. He was an acclaimed producer in the Golden Age of radio, and then inventively reimagined radio drama for contemporary times. His CBS Radio Mystery Theater series offered a gripping array of compelling mysteries, supernatural chillers, and crime stories with a twist. They were crafted by leading writers in the genre, and always offered much more than their plots, featuring vivid characters, moral dilemmas, and gripping conclusions.

Blending forms between radio drama and curated artistic deep dive, each episode of If You Please is contextualized with an introduction by John Slavney, a Himan Brown scholar authoring the definitive guide to the CBS Radio Mystery Theater programs. In each episode, he shares behind the scenes details about each production before you enter the many worlds created by Brown, his authors, and his actors.

“I had the great pleasure of producing Audio Maverick, a nine-part documentary series about the life and work of Himan Brown,” says Sarah Montague, director, “And it was clear that Brown really lived most through his work, so it is wonderful to have the opportunity to share some of it with a new generation of listeners. As he said himself, ‘radio drama takes your imagination in, embraces the listener like nothing else in the history of theater.’”

Melina Brown, granddaughter of Himan Brown and president of the Radio Drama Network, shares what makes this podcast so important: “My grandfather believed in the power of imagination and storytelling. His dream was to have these shows released and played on the radio airwaves, but had he known about podcasts, he would have loved this format. Radio Drama Network is so happy to partner with CUNY TV in realizing his dream to have the shows playing again and people imagining the scenes.”