Return To Dust by Suspense

Wow! Richard Matheson published The Shrinking Man in 1956. This shrinker stinker was aired in 1959, and contained nothing but the sci-fi gimmick of man as victim of science gone wrong. For heavens sake our little scientist was even dosed with a mysterious mist, just like Scott Carey.

If the Twilight Zone episode 4 O’Clock hadn’t come out in 1962, I’d have to accused this radio author of ripping off the giant bird, too!

Perhaps if Wm. Robeson hadn’t given George Bambur such a build up this tale might have been tolerable. If it had been an original idea (yes I know, Henry Hesse’s He Who Shrank was around in 1936) it may have been frightening. Without the metaphorical loss of masculinity, the questioning of the nature of existence, the reassurance of Man’s place in the fabric of God’s plan, it was just an audio-only episode of Land of the Giants.