While tensions remain high between the US and Iran, there's at least one American that state radio in Tehran invites on the air each week for its millions of listeners. It's just that he's a fictional detective who's been on the case since 1949. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, a radio program created by CBS that later found a devoted listenership in Iran for a Farsi-language version in the 1960s, has returned to Iranian radio, per the AP. It's not clear why exactly the network controlled by hard-liners has decided to bring back "the man with the action-packed expense account," but his reappearance harkens back to an era when Iran and the US enjoyed close relations.
The original CBS radio show ran from 1949 until 1962 and focused on the cases of Johnny Dollar, an investigator from Hartford, Connecticut. The serial relied on the investigator's expense account entries—like "$10 deposit on the car I rented" or "one dollar, one drink for me"—to propel the story forward as Dollar interviewed witnesses and suspects in the transatlantic accent common to detective stories of the era. Iran's version of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar dropped the expense account format but kept the noir-light vibe, dramatic music, and US location. Instead, the shows would end with Iranian state radio inviting the public to write in to explain what clue gave away the guilty party, with those getting it right having a chance to win a prize.
"It is amazing—it reminds me of the '60s and '70s, when I listened to the episodes with my parents through a vacuum tube radio," said Masoud Kouchaki, 73. "We did not have any worries except for guessing how Johnny Dollar would find the murderer." After Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country's state radio and television broadcaster soon found itself controlled by hard-line adherents to the country's Shiite theocracy. Any program celebrating America found itself removed after the US Embassy hostage crisis saw relations collapse. The state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcast hasn't explained its reasoning for allowing the show back on the air on its Radio Namayesh channel. So far, state radio has broadcast nine episodes and plans to air 17 more. For those old enough to remember him, they're glad he's back on the case. More here.
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