Lights Out

The camera is tightly focused on a set of eyes. It slowly pulls out to reveal the disembodied head of the narrator, suspended in the darkness, ominously setting the stage for tonight's tale of horror or the supernatural. The narrator declares, "Lights out!", blows out a candle, and the story begins. This creepy anthology series began in 1934 on Chicago radio station WENR, the creation of writer Wyllis Cooper. Arch Oboler, however, is more closely associated as the series' writer/director, taking over after a couple of years when Cooper moved on to other projects. Lights Out was a pioneering television effort, with Fred Coe producing four episodes on WNBT-TV in New York during 1946. Once network television began in earnest in the late forties, the series was an early success, airing on NBC from 1949-1952.