The Lineup

The Lineup is a half-hour American radio police drama that was broadcast on CBS from July 6, 1950, until February 20, 1953. It began as a summer replacement for The FBI in Peace and War. Premise Following a trend begun by the radio series Dragnet, The Lineup strove to portray realism in a police drama. The title indicated the show's focus, as each story began and ended with a lineup of suspects in a police station in San Francisco. Sergeant Matt Grebb, who was heard giving instructions to participants in each lineup, was "quick-tempered and often bored", while his boss, Lieutenant Ben Guthrie, was "soft-spoken and calm." The program portrayed most activities of the police as part of the job with "few heroics". Episodes were "fast, furious, and realistic." Each episode began with the announcer saying: Ladies and gentlemen, we take you behind the scenes at a police headquarters in a great American city where, under glaring lights, will pass before us the innocent, the vagrant, the thief, the murderer. This is The Lineup. On-air personnel Bill Johnstone portrayed Guthrie. Joseph Kearns initially portrayed Grebb, with Wally Maher taking that role beginning in 1951. Guthrie and Grebb were the only two regular characters on the program. The announcers were Clarence Cassell, Dan Cubberly, Bob LeMond, Charles Lyon, Bob Stevenson, and Joe Walters.