Radio Drama · Old Time Radio Researchers · Comedy · Children's · Drama

The Harold Peary Show

Heard
1950–1951
Episodes
38

THE HAROLD PEARY SHOW

More about it

The Harold Peary Show made its CBS debut on September 9, 1950. An audition show was done on August 23, 1950. Harold Peary was the creator and main performer for the show. Previously starring on The Great Gildersleeve, Peary took many of Gildy's characteristics along with him to his new Honest Harold character... the "dirty" laugh, singing songs, and closing dialogue over credits were all there with Harold. And that voice. Who could forget that voice? In simple terms, Peary couldn't or wouldn't sound and act differently enough to make listeners forget Gildy, and that made it very tough for the new show to fly. Perhaps the plot was a little creaky for the beginning of the Rock 'n' Roll era, as well. The show was about an older, unmarried guy, Honest Harold Hemp, who lived with his mother and nephew and did a radio homemaker's program. The townsfolk think of him as somewhat of a celebrity, but his girlfriend, Gloria, who works at the station, knows better. The series received undeserved negative ratings and general negative comments as there were just too many similarities between the two series. Also, the series was without a sponsor, although some of the last shows were sponsored by the US Armed Forces. The series lasted only one season. The regular cast consisted of Harold Peary, Gloria Holiday, Peary’s wife, who played Gloria, Joseph Kearns as Old Doc ‘Yak Yak’ Yancy, Mary Jane Croft and Parley Baer. The announcer was Bob Lamond. The series was…

Episodes, in broadcast order

  1. Audition Show

    · 33 min

  2. Harold Loses His Job at the Radio Station

    · No. 1 · 30 min

  3. Plan to Rename Boomer Park

    · No. 2 · 30 min

  4. Advertising Shark Repellant Powder on the Radio Show

    · No. 3 · 30 min

  5. Harold Falls for a Chanteuse

    · No. 4 · 30 min

  6. The Runaway Boy

    · No. 5 · 29 min

  7. Harold's Campaign Speech

    · No. 6 · 30 min

  8. Harold Decides He Wants to Lose the Election

    · No. 7 · 30 min

  9. Cousin Raymond Visits

    · No. 8 · 30 min

  10. Getting a Job for Raymond

    · No. 9 · 30 min

  11. Thanksgiving Play

    · No. 10 · 30 min

  12. Harold Meets the Hummer

    · No. 11 · 30 min

  13. Harold Helps Raymond and Gloria Go to the Dance

    · No. 12 · 30 min

  14. Santa at the Children's Christmas Party

    · No. 13 · 30 min

  15. New Year's Barn Dance

    · No. 14 · 30 min

  16. Mrs O'Day's Warbleware Party

    · No. 15 · 30 min

  17. Harold Loses His Sponsor and Tries a New Show

    · No. 16 · 30 min

  18. Harold Thinks of Going to New York

    · No. 17 · 30 min

  19. Harold Gets Engaged - Twice

    · No. 18 · 30 min

  20. Civic Achievement Award

    · No. 19 · 30 min

  21. Harold's Mother Has a Suitor

    · No. 20 · 30 min

  22. Mistaken Valentines

    · No. 21 · 30 min

  23. Florabelle Returns

    · No. 22 · 30 min

  24. Willis Can't Pass the Physical

    · No. 23 · 30 min

  25. Red Cross Drive

    · No. 24 · 30 min

  26. Income Tax

    · No. 25 · 30 min

  27. Cousin Marvin Comes to Stay

    · No. 26 · 30 min

  28. Cousin Marvin's First Day of School

    · No. 27 · 30 min

  29. Modernizing Doc's Office

    · No. 28 · 30 min

  30. Harold Decides to Clean out the Cellar

    · No. 29 · 30 min

  31. Circus Day

    · No. 30 · 30 min

  32. Marvin's Gang

    · No. 31 · 30 min

  33. Harold and Mr Walker Vie for Class

    · No. 32 · 30 min

  34. Does Florabelle Have a New Lover

    · No. 33 · 30 min

  35. Marvin Is Invited to a Party

    · No. 34 · 30 min

  36. Harold Is Marshall for a Day

    · No. 35 · 30 min

  37. Peabody's Sister Takes over the Radio Station

    · No. 36 · 30 min

  38. Marvin Decides to Stay with Harold

    · No. 37 · 30 min

Where it comes from 1

The archive items its episodes are played from, best first, with each one’s rights as its archive states them. An episode two sets both hold is played from the first.

  1. The Harold Peary Show - Single Episodes

    Old Time Radio Researchers · Old Time Radio Researchers Group · 38 episodes here · archive.org (opens in a new tab)

    CC BY-NC-ND 3.0: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0, as its uploader states it at the Internet Archive.

5 more sets hold only episodes played here from a set above.

A set by the Old Time Radio Researchers Group (otrr.org), at the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio collection.

More Comedy

Radio drama, old-time radio and historic broadcasts from the Internet Archive (its Old Time Radio collection with the Old Time Radio Researchers' sets, WWII Era Audio Recordings, the Pacifica Radio Archives, the Radio Haiti Archive, German radio plays and listeners' uploads), Wikimedia Commons (with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision's broadcasts) and the Library of Congress. Every episode plays from its archive, which this site does not copy; rights are as each archive states them. Nothing here is called public domain on this site's say-so. In the United States, sound recordings first fixed before 15 February 1972 have federal protection under the Music Modernization Act of 2018, for most until 2067 at the latest, so most American radio of the 1930s to the 1950s is not in the public domain there. Each set shows the licence, mark or statement its archive gives, and says whose it is. Horror, crime, war and westerns are for teenage and adult profiles, racist caricature for adults only, and children’s profiles hear what was made for children. More about these archives.