Rest your eyes. Exercise your imagination.

The American radio series died when Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar went off the air in 1962. Rod Serling just kind of disappeared when The Twilight Zone drew to a close in 1964.

Or so it seems to those of us born after all that.

In 1968, Serling adapted Planet of the Apes for the screen. In 1972, after Serling’s stint as host of NBC’s Night Gallery, a show over which he had far less creative control than he had on The Twilight Zone, came to an end, he retired from television to teach at Ithaca College in New York.

American radio drama wasn’t quite finished, either.

In 1973, Serling teamed up with legendary producer Elliott Lewis, mastermind behind such radio classics as Suspense, to create Zero Hour for MBS.

When Zero Hour aired, it rekindled interest in old time radio, prompting CBS to produce CBS Radio Mystery Theater and other stations to rerun old OTR programs.

Zero Hour lasted only two years. It’s possible the lack of promotion did it in. It’s also possible that the show’s serial format hurt it in its first season. Stories ran Monday to Friday, meaning that listeners who missed any part would either be lost or have missed the conclusion. Such is the case with “Heir Hunters,” presented here.

Thankfully, amazing modern technology, such as the podcast, makes what was a potentially fatal problem in 1973 a non-issue.

In “Heir Hunters,” Ken Barry plays a young drifter who lands a job as (What else?) an heir hunter, tracking down the rightful heir to a fortune he discovers while cleaning out a bungalow for his landlord and love interest. Edgar Bergen plays the young man’s boss.

This being a Rod Serling and Elliott Lewis production, though, it’s not that simple.

Enough of this rambling, though.

Rest your eyes. Exercise your imagination.

(Originally aired on Monday, October 15, 1973.)

Oh, and the connection to usual TPR stuff? Rod Serling served in the Pacific in WWII.

Part 2 can be found right here.

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