BW - EP133—009: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—Wrapping Things Up

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

Chuck Schaden interviewed Tony Randall on September 16th, 1970 at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago. Eight days later Randall’s new series The Odd Couple debuted on ABC. Randall played Felix Unger. The show ran for five seasons and became Randall’s most-remembered role. He continued acting until passing away on May 17th, 2004. After I Love A Mystery went off the air, Carlton E. Morse penned a new serial drama entitled Family Skeleton. He cast Mercedes McCambridge in the lead role. The Program would air weeknights on CBS from June 8th, 1953 through March 5th, 1954. It pulled a rating of 3.3 for Sweetheart Soap. Mercedes McCambridge had many trials and tribulations. She was nominated for a second Academy Award for her role in Giant in 1956. She also voiced the demon in The Exorcist. She won a battle with alcoholism and penned an autobiography in 1981 called The Qualities of Mercy. Six years later her son John—a futures trader—was caught embezzling funds under McCambridge’s name after she’d given him money to invest. Mercedes refused to cooperate with her son and the company he worked for. They wanted to institute a repayment scheme which would have kept the matter from becoming public. In November of 1987 John wrote a scathing note blaming her for his problems before killing his wife, children, and then himself. Mercedes appeared in one final TV role in 1988. Her second husband, radio and tv writer/producer/director Fletcher Markle, passed away in 1991. She died on March 2nd, 2004 in La Jolla, California.