''Vanishing Point'' is a Canadian

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

series produced and aired by

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

from 1984 to 1986, and then under a variety of different subtitles until 1992. Created and produced by Bill Lane, ''Vanishing Point'' was the CBC’s follow-up to ''Nightfall'', which had instilled new life into its many regional drama centers. Like that series, ''Vanishing Point'' drew from the CBC's entire coast to coast network, gathering staff from across the CBC entire network mount what came to be regarded as one of the best CBC radio series. While primarily a science fiction series, the anthology presented a wide range of genres including thriller, horror, detective, psychological drama, comedy and even the occasional musical. A number of episodes were adaptations of short stories from famous authors like

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

, but many were original plays from Canada’s top talent. Bill Lane workshopped plays from the winners of various Canadian literary competitions as a way of “reaching an audience by developing the talents of new playwrights.”

Format

The regular series ran for two seasons and began with a twice-a-week schedule, with a new episode airing each Friday on CBC-AM, and a re-run the following Monday on CBC Stereo. The show took a hiatus in the summer of 1986 and returning in September with a six-episode adventure called ''The Black Persian'', followed by a miniseries of modernized

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

adaptations, setting a new direction for the series. Now ''Vanishing Point'' would act more as an umbrella program under which shorter miniseries would be developed. Some were serialized adaptations of classic science fiction works from authors like

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

and

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

, while most were mini-anthologies, linked by a writer or theme. While still being promoted as ''Vanishing Point'', these series all featured a unique title and opening. In some cases, two subseries ran simultaneously on different days of the week, creating considerable confusion for radio historians. Things continued like this for several years until ''Vanishing Point'' went off the air for good in January, 1992.

Episodes

Below is a full list of the first two seasons of ''Vanishing Point'' (episodes 1-69), followed by highlights from its more irregular later run. While the series repeated episodes quite a bit, most of these reruns are not listed except when they help clarify. All episodes listed are around thirty minutes long.Internet Archiv
Vanishing Point episode archive
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References

External links

*

- plot summaries and reviews. *
Vanishing Point
- as a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

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