The Radio Planet
Dr. Christian
Dr. Christian
Dr. Christian cover art
Radio

Dr. Christian

CBS

CBS · 1937–1953

Broadcasts

234

Cadence

Weekly

Rated

PG

Since

1937

The run

Network
CBS
Years active
1937–1953
Surviving broadcasts
234
Genre
drama

(175 Episodes) AWESOME! FAMILY PROGRAMING! "Dr. Christian" was broadcast by CBS every Sunday from Nov 07, 1938 thru January 06,1950. It was a soap opera, but not your every day soap opera. This soap opera played like a serial drama (as each episode was complete), but to keep listeners abreast of the 'goings-on', past activity was referred to within other episodes, as was/is done with all other soap operas. Dr. Christian was portrayed by Jean Hersholt; you may recall that Jean also played Shirley Temple's 'Alps-Dwelling' grandfather in the movie "Heidi." Dr. Christian, country Doctor in small town of 'Rivers-End,' gave sage advice, never talking down to those he doctored. It amazes me, whenever I listen to this program, because episodes appear to be current-day; it is hard to believe much of "Dr. Christian" was written over 70 years ago. Sponsor for the full 12-year run of "Dr. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “Dr.Christian_911”; these recordings are in the public domain.

1946 · 11945 · 31944 · 11942 · 11940 · 11939 · 21938 · 21937 · 1

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: Dr.Christian_911

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

12 dated broadcasts across 17 years on the air, with 9 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from 1937, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. DrC 1937-11-07 #001 Operation in a Shack · 7 Nov 1937
  2. 2. DrC 1938-01-30 #013 The New Stove · 30 Jan 1938
  3. 3. DrC 1938-04-24 #025 Joe Perino · 24 Apr 1938
  • 01

    DrC 1937-11-07 #001 Operation in a Shack

    7 Nov 1937 · 29 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 7 November 1937. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 02

    DrC 1938-01-30 #013 The New Stove

    30 Jan 1938 · 29 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 30 January 1938. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 03

    DrC 1938-04-24 #025 Joe Perino

    24 Apr 1938 · 29 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 24 April 1938. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 04

    DrC 1939-01-17 #039 Back to Youth

    17 Jan 1939 · 30 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 17 January 1939. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 05

    Dr Christian 1939-11-08 (53) Bad Boy

    8 Nov 1939 · 29 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 8 November 1939. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 06

    DrC 1940-03-06 #070 Blossom O'Toole

    6 Mar 1940 · 24 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 6 March 1940. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 07

    Dr Christian 1942-09-23 (200) An Artist Comes To Town

    23 Sep 1942 · 24 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 23 September 1942. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

  • 08

    DrC 1944-11-01 #310 The Substitute

    1 Nov 1944 · 24 min

    Originally broadcast on CBS, 1 November 1944. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection

Also on CBS

CBS in 1937–1953

Other series the network carried while Dr. Christian was on the air.

Same seasons

drama on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

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