No children on the Mystery Theater??

[Executive]

One thing that was rather disturbing to me was that Himan Brown tended to not hire any juevenile actors. And on those occasional stories to feature children, they were played by adults. Case in point is the one I heard on Saturday: "The Secret Life of Bobby Deland". Anyone can tell that Bobby was played by an adult actress! Such an unconvincing portrayal of a young "boy".

I also thought it was amusing that one of the main characters just happens to be named George Carlin. Sure, that's a common name but comedian George Carlin was already a big star with many years behind him in 1974.

[Mike Stahl]

There were a few kid actors sprinked here and there throughout the series. The first that comes to mind obviously was Sarah Jessica Parker, who made one appearance in "The Child Cat's Paw" and she and her brother Toby both made an appearance in "The Railway Children" on the MT spinoff series: The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater in 1977.
Jennifer Marlowe also made an apprearance in "A Very Private Miracle" during the 1974 season. But Yes, the scripts were mostly written on an adult level, which is probably why the series continues to endure the way it has.

Too bad I couldn't have been a child actor back in 1975, I would have liked to take a crack at playing Bobby Deland smile.gif

[Executive]

Wow...Sarah Jessica Parker before "Square Pegs"! I didn't even know she had a career pre-1982 when that show was on TV.

Jennifer Marlowe I never heard of. Having listened to around 140 episodes (mostly in order from 1974, and a few from 1976 and 79), I haven't gotten to either of those episodes, and although I prefer stories without children elsewhere on the Mystery Theater they have been few and far between.

But that's not as disturbing as two of my all-time favorite radio comedians: Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding a.k.a. Bob & Ray, who played ALL roles in their sketch comedy series -- women & children included.

[rldavis]

When reading on the web sites about Sarah being in an episode, I couldn't wait to get my hands on that one. It wasn't bad.

The only complaint I would have is that we seem to have the same cat for every episode involving a cat.

[Executive]

I just heard "Promise to Kill" from December 1975. It was the first episode in months to have a child character. I'd swear that little girl (who is murdered along with her mother) at the beginning of the story wasn't really a little girl after all. I didn't catch the end credits, but I suspect it may have been creepy Evie Juster again.

Sometimes you have to wonder why child actors weren't used in the first 2 years of the show.