Bickersons

1/2 hour or 10 minute episodes

If you liked Al and Peg Bundy from "Married with Children", you’ll love the Bickersons. The Bickersons was a short lived, but long remembered radio show starring Don Ameche, as John Bickerson, and Frances Langford as his wife Blanche Bickerson. The two fought about every aspect of their lives and each other; John’s job, Blanche’s cooking, cleaning, John’s love of bourbon, etc. The running joke was John always wanted to sleep and wife Blanch had insomnia, so she would wake him up and the two would argue about something, anything, always.

The show was created by Philip Rapp, who also created Fanny Brice’s skits on the Ziegfield Follies show – those skits later turned into the wildly popular Baby Snooks character and show. Unfortunately for Rapp, he based some of the dynamic on his own rocky marriage.

The show lasted as its own program, (not part of a variety show) for only 2 years, but its impact can still be felt today. When you consider that other married couples on the radio were "Ozzie and Harriet" (a couple so perfect you just want to throw up) or from the "Life of Riley", (good natured ribbing, but obviously two people in love) the Bickering Bickersons certainly portrayed a very different perspective on marriage. Their constant fighting and complete disdain for each other can be seen as an attack on the institution of marriage, or even an attack on society at large. Or for the less philosophical, it can be seen as just two people stuck together going at it.

All of our Old Time Radio Programs are in MP3 format. You can play them on your computer, you can transfer them to MP3 players (like the IPod), but, by and large, you cannot play them on stereos, walkmen, or car radios.

The sound quality of Old Time Radio Programs can vary greatly. Some episodes are excellent, others you have to turn up the volume a little and ignore the static. All of the episodes can be listened to and enjoyed. You can listen to our free samples to get a feel for how the programs sound.

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