1946–1951 · NBC, then CBS

The Bickersons

Two people in a bed, arguing, for fifteen years.

The Bickersons is pure radio — a sketch that consists entirely of two voices in the dark, which is precisely what television could not reproduce. Ameche and Langford took the characters into television variety spots in the fifties and the effect was never the same, because seeing the bedroom removed the listener from it. It belongs here as the counter-example: the property that could not cross.

On radio

Radio from 8 September 1946

On television

Television appearances from 1951

The overlap

Don Ameche and Frances Langford took the act into television variety

40 recordings · Hollywood

Network broadcasts and sponsored segments, 1946–1951, held by the Internet Archive. Public domain (US network broadcast, copyright not renewed); no Creative Commons or non-commercial terms apply.