Arch Oboler's Plays is a radio anthology series written, produced and directed by Arch Oboler. Minus a sponsor, it ran for one year, airing Saturday evenings on NBC from March 25, 1939, to March 23, 1940, and revived five years later on Mutual for a sustaining summer run from April 5, 1945, to October 11, 1945.[1]
Lewis Titterton, an executive at NBC, originated the program's title. Titterton was described as a man who "thought the future of radio depended on the vision of the writer."[2]
With the launching of Arch Oboler's Plays, Oboler became "the first writer accorded name-in-the-title status."[3] Christopher H. Sterling, in his book Biographical Dictionary of Radio, wrote, "Oboler, writing about 'the terrors and monsters within each of us,' used his stream-of-consciousness technique to shattering effect and made radio a viable new art form."[3]
Oboler used some of the scripts from Arch Oboler's Plays on his later series, Everyman's Theater.[3]
In 2020, the Library of Congress included the November 18, 1939 episode, "The Bathysphere", among its inductees to the National Recording Registry for "cultural, historical and aesthetic importance to the nation’s recorded sound heritage."[4]