One Man's Family (1932-1959) was the granddaddy of a radio broadcasting genre that decades later would be dubbed the "prime time soap." It was also arguably its era's most realistic portrayal of American family life. True, the fictional Barbour family saw its share of psychotic maniacs, international intrigue, even a case of amnesia as the years passed, but even the silliest plots were enacted with a sense of depth and history that eluded most of the series' contemporaries. Writer-director Carlton E. Morse remained the series' guiding hand for its entire 27-year run; the same actors essayed the key roles for years, even decades. And the stories they enacted faced head-on the realities of the day: war, death, the changing roles of gender and generations. The result was a series whose integrity, consistency, and sense of reality left it unparalleled in...