One of old-time radio's most famous and controversial broadcasts. Three days before Christmas 1949, Sergeant Joe Friday is called out when nine-year-old Stanley Johnstone goes missing and bloodstains turn up in the backyard. What Friday uncovers -- a Christmas rifle, two boys at play, and a tragic accident -- makes for one of Dragnet's most quietly devastating stories, and a finale of unexpected grace. Jack Webb's stripped-down realism at its most powerful.

Our Miss Brooks was radio's best-loved schoolroom comedy, starring Eve Arden as the dry-witted English teacher forever pining for bashful biology teacher Mr. Boynton. In this May 7, 1950 episode, Mr. Boynton plans a barbecue -- and Connie Brooks pulls out every trick in the book to wangle an invitation and a spot at his side. Cue misread signals, good intentions gone sideways, and the meddling Madison High regulars, all served up over a backyard grill with Eve Arden's perfect comic timing.

Step up to the microphone with the kings of comedy. In this March 30, 1944 broadcast of The Abbott and Costello Program, cool Hollywood tough-guy Alan Ladd drops by -- and that's all it takes for Lou to decide he was born to be a radio announcer. Cue the double-talk, the malaprops, and the mayhem as Bud tries to keep the whole radio station from falling apart. A half-hour of pure wartime escapist laughter from the team that gave the world "Who's on First?"

Step through the famous creaking door once more. Inner Sanctum Mysteries was Himan Brown's masterclass in radio terror, hosted by the pun-loving Raymond. In "Death Is An Artist," first broadcast January 23, 1945, an artist, his vindictive ex-wife, and a string of grisly discoveries prove that murder can have an eye for composition. A blood-chilling tale from the golden age of radio horror, starring Lee Bowman.

Step through the creaking door into Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Himan Brown's classic anthology of terror hosted by the sardonic Raymond. In "Death in the Depths," a deep-sea diver alone on the ocean floor lets his mind drift to murder -- fathoms down in the crushing dark, where no one can hear a scream. A claustrophobic tale of suspense from February 1945.

America's favorite cheapskate is stepping out on the town! In this March 1954 broadcast from New York, Jack Benny gets gussied up for a big date with singer Gisele MacKenzie at the swanky Acme Plaza Hotel -- but his legendary penny-pinching keeps getting in the way of romance. Comedian Frank Fontaine guest stars for an evening of classic Benny laughs from the show that defined radio comedy.

Dick Powell stars as Richard Diamond, the singing private eye, in one of the series' most playful cases. What begins as a routine investigation turns into a gleeful send-up of the whole gumshoe genre after Diamond buries his nose in a lurid pulp detective magazine -- piling cliche on cliche until even he admits the dialogue is bad. A witty, winking detective romp, capped off with a song.

From the BBC's beloved 1952-1969 Sherlock Holmes series, Carleton Hobbs is Holmes and Norman Shelley is Watson in Conan Doyle's greatest mystery. In Part 1, Dr. Mortimer lays before Holmes the legend of a spectral hound that haunts the Baskerville family across the Devonshire moor -- and the terrible death of Sir Charles Baskerville, found with the footprints of a giant hound beside him. As young Sir Henry arrives from Canada amid stolen boots and a warning pasted from newspaper cuttings, Holmes sends Watson to the brooding Hall to watch over the last of the Baskervilles.

George Burns and Gracie Allen bring their golden-age comedy to the air, and this 1940 outing finds George stuck with a pile of telephone charges -- until Gracie's wonderfully tangled logic about who really owes the money turns a simple phone bill into a full-blown comic runaround. With swing from Artie Shaw and his orchestra and close harmony from the Smoothies, it's a breezy half-hour of vintage laughs.

From NBC's landmark science fiction series X Minus One comes Ray Bradbury's haunting Martian Chronicles tale. The Fourth Expedition lands on Mars to find its ancient civilization gone -- wiped out by chickenpox carried from Earth. As his crewmates desecrate the silent ruins, the archaeologist Spender is consumed by grief and rage, and turns against his own men to defend a dead world's beauty. Adapted by Ernest Kinoy, it remains one of radio's most literate and unsettling broadcasts.