During the early days of radio it was common for the listening audience to
dig deep into their fertile imaginations and create a personalized mental image
from a performers words as they spilled out from the radio speakers. A million
different images spawned from one radio broadcast. With the advent of television
this trend was quickly reversed. The imagination took a back seat to the full
brightness of transmitted pictures. No longer was the audience responsible for
imagining what a radio character looked like, they were now given all the
information conveniently located within the confines of their black and white
(and later color) TV sets. One image for the millions. However, occasionally a
television program was produced that harkened back to those good old days of
imagination, producing a character whose inherent physical features were kept a
secret from the audience. It was in those instances that the flavor of radio was
recaptured. I call these unseen, unsung characters the "Faceless Favorites of
Television."
Douglas
Douglas:
You're the only one who
ever sees this blue guy, Duncan
Duncan
Douglas:
He's real!
Debbie
Douglas:
Well, of course he's real
to you, dear, but that's because you're probably insane
