The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 33
- Genre
- comedy
THE MARY LEE TAYLOR PROGRAM This series, "the longest-running cooking program on radio," began November 7, 1933 on CBS and concluded October 9, 1954 on NBC. The CBS episodes were initially fifteen minutes long and devoted to cooking tips and recipes. Before the show switched to NBC in 1948, it had expanded to thirty minutes, and there it became part of the "NBC Saturday morning parade of stars". The new version, introduced informally by the announcer as "Mary Lee on NBC," was an unusual but effective generic hybrid. Each episode begins with "The Story of the Week", a light domestic drama about fifteen minutes in length featuring young married couple Jim and Sally Carter. These segments have much in common with the many radio sitcoms of the day. In one show, we find Jim seized by jealousy because an old friend of his is flirting outrageously with Sally right before his eyes. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Mary_Lee_Taylor_Singles”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. Moving To Capitol City · Date unknown
- 2. Old Friend Charlie · Date unknown
- 3. Dad's Old Flame · Date unknown
Moving To Capitol City
Date unknown · 28 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Old Friend Charlie
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Dad's Old Flame
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Sally's One Track Mind
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Is Nicki After Jim?
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Hero
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Skeleton In The Attic
Date unknown · 28 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Sally Finds An Apartment
Date unknown · 27 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on NBC
NBC in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while The Mary Lee Taylor Program was on the air.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Mary Lee Taylor Program
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
Chosen by the same editors.
