Lights Out

Lights Out premiered as a local Chicago program on WENR on January 3, 1934, created by NBC writer Wyllis Cooper. The show moved to national NBC in 1935. Cooper departed in 1936 when Arch Oboler took the reins. Oboler's debut episode 'Burial Services' — a woman paralyzed and buried alive — nearly ended his career before it began. Instead, NBC received unprecedented mail response. His most celebrated episode, 'Chicken Heart,' featured a laboratory chicken heart that escaped its Petri dish and grew until it consumed the entire Earth. Bill Cosby famously recreated his childhood terror of this episode in stand-up comedy.