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With the smash success of Dragnet, many networks and producers began to play follow the leader. On NBC, Dragnet was followed up with Tales of the Texas Rangers which dramatized real life tales from the Texas Rangers. CBS countered with The Line Up and later 21st Precinct,  and then Nightwatch which while following an actual policeman in the field was as realistic as it got in a show that was pre-cursor to modern police reality dramas like Cops.

The Line Up was a hard boiled drama of police action. Like Dragnet, it realistically showed police doing their jobs. Unlike Dragnet, it was not based on “cases taken from police files.” Rather The Line Up made its fictional cases seem realistic, from kidnappings and murders to thefts and obscene phone calls. The Line Up radio show was not set in any particular city. However, when the series moved to television, it was set in San Francisco.

The Line Up, as the title indicates, centered around the police line up. The show always began with one. The Sergeant in charge of line would say, “May I have your attention please? You people  on the other side of the wire in the audience room, may I have your attention please.” He would then give his name and say, “I’ll explain the line up to you. Each of the suspects you will see will be numbered.  I’ll call of their number, their name, and charge.  If you have any questions or identifications, please remember the number assigned to the prisoner as I call his name. At the end of each line when I ask for questions or identifications, call out the number.  If you’re sure or not too sure of the suspect, have him held.   The officers who took your name will assist you, they’re seated among you. Please be prompt with your questions or identifications. When the prisoners leave here,  they are sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes. It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here. The questions I ask these suspects are merely to get a natural tone of voice so do not pay too much attention to their answers as they often lie. Bring on the line.”

While the line up was rarely the key to solving the case, it did give the show a rhythm and it also allowed for humor in the interrogation of the suspects by the sergeant. The series began as a Summer Replacement for The FBI in Peace and War in 1950, but quickly got its own time slot and would remain on radio until the Spring of 1953 before becoming TV only.

About the Stars:

William Johnstone (1908-96)  is best known as the second voice of the shadow beginning in 1938 a. However, Johnstone’s radio career goes far beyond that. Johnstone was also a solid and indispensable character actor appearing regularly on a wide variety of programs from Cavalcade of America to Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In 1950, he got his second starring role for CBS in The Line Up playing Lieutenant Ben Guthrie for 3 seasons.

Wally Maher (1908-51): Maher was the consumate radio character actor. He was probably best known for playing policemen,  playing the police foil to George Valentine in the first several seasons of Let George Do It and then later as Sergeant Matt Groebs on The Line Up.  Maher also starred in Mutual’s  Private Detective Michael Shayne from 1944-48.

Program Log:

• The Anita Cameron Case* (Audition Date: May 27, 1950)
• Eddie Gaynor Framed for Murder (Original Air Date: July 20, 1950)
• The Paradise Motel Murder Case* (Original Air Date: July 27, 1950)
• Hit and Run Murder (Original Air Date: August 3, 1950)
• Suspect Poisoned* (Original Air Date: August 10, 1950)
• Gas Station Robbery and Murder (Original Air Date: September 16, 1950)
• The Supermarket Murders (Original Air Date: September 23, 1950)
• The Candy Store Murder (Original Air Date: November 16, 1950)
• The Topaz Earring Murder (Original Air Date: November 23, 1950)
• The Cop Killer (Original Air Date: November 30, 1950)
• The Jersey Parallel (Original Air Date: December 7, 1950)
• The Holstedter Case (Original Air Date: December 21, 1950)
• The Elsner Case (Original Air Date: December 28, 1950)
• The Case of Frankie and Joyce (Original Air Date: January 4, 1951)
• The Mad Bomber (Original Air Date: January 11, 1951)
• The Cigar Box Case (Original Air Date: February 15, 1951)
• The Silver Swan Case (Original Air Date: February 22, 1951)
• The Molly About Seven Case * (Original Air Date: February 27, 1951)
• The Check Killer Case (Original Air Date: March 6, 1951)*
• The Brommell and Bellows Bloody Bullet Case (Original Air Date: April 24, 1951)*
• The Hiccuping Hamster Hemostatic Case (Original AIr Date: May 29, 1951)
• The Red Shirt Case (Original Air Date: June 5, 1951)*
• The Harrowing Haggada Handball Case (Original Air Date: June 12, 1951)
• Lieutenant Guthrie Kidnapped (Original Air Date: June 19, 1951)
• The Mad Bomber (Original Air Date: June 26, 1951)
• The Syncopic Sweazy Sweat-out (Original Air Date: July 5, 1951)
• The Pointless Pierson Polemic Society (Original Air Date: September 7, 1951)
• The Senile Slugging Case (Original Air Date: September 12, 1951)
• The Fur Flaunting Floozy (Original Air Date: September 26, 1951)
• The Wild Wild Woman Case (Original Air Date: October 4, 1951)
• The Frivolous Forger Fracas (Orginal Air Date: October 11, 1951)
• The Nicely Nixed Nixon Case (Original Air Date: October 18, 1951)
• The Pixie Pickle Picker Case (Original Air Date: October 25, 1951)
• The Jolted Justice Job Case (Original Air Date: November 1, 1951)*
• The Keenly Clipped Kenovac Case (Original Air Date: November 22, 1951)
• The Railroad Roundhouse Round Up Case (Original Air Date: November 29, 1951)
• The Holstedter Case (Original Air Date: December 20, 1951)
• The Elsner Case (Original Air Date: December 27, 1951)
• The Potting Peter Case (Original Air Date: February 6, 1952)
• The Murdering Mercers Malingering Case (Original Air Date: March 4, 1952)
• The Mirthless Methyl Moonshiners Case (Original Air Date: March 18, 1952)*
• The Bakery Bandit’s Bad Blooper (Original Air Date: March 25, 1952)
• The Books Krakov Killing (Original Air Date: April 1952)
• Kastro’s Cop Killing Carnage* (Original Air Date: April 1, 1952)
• The Cornered Cop Killer Case* (Original Air Date: April 8, 1952)
• Nancy’s Nauseating Naivete* (Original Air Date: April 15, 1952)
• The Corny’s Complaintant’s Case (Original Air Date: April 22, 1952)
• The Big Boy’s Brutish Back Bending Case* (Original Air Date: April 29, 1952)
• Babs, the Baggy Bungling Brunette Bombshell (Original Air Date: May 6, 1952)
• Yudo in Ypsilante (Original Air Date: May 13, 1952)
• Wacky Williams’ Wooftop Wrangle* (Original Air Date: May 20, 1952)
• The Aching Arthritic’s Anxious Antic* (Original Air Date: June 3, 1952)
• Lodbell’s Poodle Cut Tomato Case (Original Air Date: June 10, 1952)
• The Pitiful Patricide Case* (Original Air Date: June 17, 1952)
• The Cutie-calling Culprit Case (Original Air Date: June 24, 1952)
• The Guided Gang Case (Original Air Date: July 1, 1952)
• The Luger-lugging Laddie (Original Air Date: July 8, 1952)
• The Twitching Twists Twenty-Two Tweaking Case (Original Air Date: July 15, 1952)
• The Drinkler Kidnapping Case (Original Air Date: July 22, 1952)
• The Charles Crocked Clobbering Case (Original Air Date: July 29, 1952)
• Karger Cops a Clinker Case (Original Air Date: August 5, 1952)
• The Jane Doe Case (Original Air Date: September 10, 1952)
• The Fresno Break Case (Original Air Date: September 17, 1952)
• The Poker Party Killing (Original Air Date: October 1, 1952)*
• The Teacher’s Pet (Original Air Date: October 8, 1952)
• Bentley’s Boo Boo Case **(Original Air Date: October 15, 1952)
• The Green Cap Case (Original Air Date: October 22, 1952)
• The Sobbin’ Sisters Saga (Original Air Date: October 29, 1952)
• The Be-Bop Bandits Bungling Bang-Bang*** (Original Air Date: November 5, 1952)
• The Buggered Bunco Boys (Original Air Date: November 12, 1952)
• The Modern Sounds Case (Original Air Date: November 19, 1952)
• The Matthews-Murray Mishmosh Case (Original Air Date: November 26, 1952)
• The Gasoline Bandit (Original Air Date: December 12, 1952)
• Two Tough Thugs (Original Air Date: December 19, 1952)
• Cowardly Castro (Rehearsal of Program that Aired January 2, 1953)
• Once Upon a Snow Plow (Rehearsal of Program that Aired January 9, 1953)
• Good Enough to Eat (Original Air Date: February 13, 1953)

Log information courtesy of the Digital Deli’s fine Line Up log.

*Played out of order

**Played out of Order, Original commentary indicates title incorrectly as Pitiful Patricide Case.

***Played Out of Order, Original commentary indicates title incorrectly as The Luger Lugging Laddie.

End of Log.