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For more than 30 years, John Kiesewetter has been the source for information about all things in local media — comings and goings, local people appearing on the big or small screen, special programs, and much more. Contact John at johnkiese@yahoo.com.

WVXU Repeating Rod Serling's 'O'Toole From Moscow' Reds Comedy On Tuesday

WVXU

Before the Reds open the delayed 2020 baseball season, WVXU will repeat its production of Rod Serling's Reds baseball comedy, O'Toole From Moscow, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 21.

Written during the Cold War, Serling's O'Toole From Moscow is about confusion between Russians and the Reds which results in a Soviet Union embassy staffer playing outfield for the Cincinnati baseball club.

O'Toole premiered on March 25, the evening before the Reds' Opening Day got canceled by the coronavirus. The Reds start their 60-game season 6:10 p.m. Friday against the Detroit Tigers at Great American Ball Park.

o'toole from moscow ccm
Credit John Kiesewetter / WVXU
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WVXU
Anne Serling with the CCM cast of 'O'Toole From Moscow' in Cincinnati Public Radio studios November 2019.

Eight students from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music recorded the play in November at Cincinnati Public Radio under the direction of Richard Hess, CCM professor of acting and directing.  Anne Serling, Rod's daughter, is host and narratorfor the one-hour radio program.

Rod Serling, the Twilight Zone creator who started his career in 1950 at WLWT TV and radio, wrote the one-hour television play for NBC Matinee Theatre after the team changed its name to the Redlegs when "Reds" became headline shorthand for Communists.  It was broadcast live at 3 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 12, 1955. The performance was not filmed or recorded.

Credit Courtesy ABC
Chuck Connors starred in NBC's 'O'Toole From Moscow' in 1955, three years before starring as 'The Rifleman' on ABC.

Unlike most of his TV scripts, O'Toole is a comedy. In the play, a Russian embassy worker named Mushnick was being sent back to Moscow from New York for re-education because of his high absenteeism due to attending Brooklyn Dodgers games. So Mushnick and a muscular young Russian bodyguard named Joseph Bishofsky (played by Chuck Connors before TV's Rifleman) hopped a train and went as far as their money would take them, to Cincinnati.

In Cincinnati, Bishofsky went to the Reds offices to turn himself in. Mushnick burst in to explain that Joseph – whom he calls "O'Toole" – was an outfielder wanting a tryout.

The Reds gave O'Toole a shot, and he ends up hitting the ball farther than Reds slugger Ted Kluszewski.

Credit John Kiesewetter / WVXU
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WVXU
Reds organist John Schutte with me in a Cincinnati Public Radio studio in February 2020.

The ballpark music was provided by John Schutte, the Reds organist.  Cincinnati Public Radio's Josh Elstro was the master engineer, and inserted the sound effects.

Full disclosure here: I've known about O'Toole From Moscow since 1989, when I first wrote a story for the Cincinnati Enquirer about Serling's life here. It's been my dream for three decades to find and revive Serling's story involving the Reds. I'm also a producer on the show, and adapted Serling's teleplan for radio.

O'Toole From Moscow also can be heard at wvxu.org. It's also available as a podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR One, Sticher, Google Play and Pocket Casts.

John Kiesewetter, who has covered television and media for more than 35 years, has been working for Cincinnati Public Radio and WVXU-FM since 2015.