Opening Narration / Radio

• Our Miss Brooks always began with a narrator introducing Miss Brooks as an English teacher at Madison High School. The narrator would often note something about the day's plot; often cuing some wry remarks by Miss Brooks herself in response, this in turn leading into the episode proper.
• "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"
• On radio, each episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar began with the announcer declaring "Time now for...", followed by a telephone ring that would be answered by the leading man saying "Johnny Dollar". This was used to great effect following a Cliffhanger in which Dollar had been shot: the phone rings several times before a heavily medicated Dollar answers the phone from a hospital bed. The first season included an extended opening narration afterward, noting that, "When it comes to insurance investigations, he's simply an expert; when it comes to padding his expense reports, he's an outright genius."
• The Lone Ranger - "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear..." It wasn't always the first line though. Usually, it was: "A fiery horse with a speed of light, a cloud of dust, and hearty 'Hi-o Silver!' (The Lone Ranger rides again!)".
• "The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both The Six Shooter".
• The radio version of Gunsmoke had a real classic:
  Announcer: Around Dodge City and in the territory out west, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of...Gunsmoke! (theme music starts) Gunsmoke, starring William Conrad. The story of the violence that moved west with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it.
  William Conrad: I'm that man. Matt Dillon, United States Marshal. The first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful...and a little lonely.
• "From approximately coast to coast, Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding present the CBS Radio Network."
• "Lights Out brings you stories of the supernatural and the supernormal, dramatizing the fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown. We tell you this frankly, so if you wish to avoid the excitement and tension of these imaginative plays, we urge you calmly - but sincerely - to turn off your radio...now."
• "And now, another tale well-calculated to keep you in...Suspense!"
• "Tired of the everyday routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"
• "From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine, present... X...Minus...One!"
• "Welcome to Just a Minute!"
• The Guy Noir sketch on A Prairie Home Companion: "A dark night, in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But on the twelfth floor of the ACME building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions. Guy Noir... Private Eye."
• (sung) J-E-L-L-O! Don Wilson: The Jell-O Program, starring Jack Benny, with Mary Livingston, Rochester, Dennis Day, Phil Harris and his orchestra, and yours truly, Don Wilson! The orchestra opens the program with (song title)!
• You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx's radio comedy quiz series), involving a Title Drop:
  George Fenneman: Ladies and gentlemen, don't tell a soul, but the secret word tonight is <word>. W-O-R-D.
  Groucho Marx: Really?!
  George Fenneman: You bet your life!
• "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound (Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman)!"
  • The radio show was the origin of this famous intro, and was later carried over to at least three other adaptations.
• Dragnet would open with a similar disclaimer to the one used on TV ("The story you are about to hear is true"). Then, announcer Hal Gibney would intone:
  Dragnet, the documented drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with state, federal and local authorities, you will travel step-by-step on the side of the law through an actual case history, transcribed from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
• The original radio series The Green Hornet:
  He hunts the biggest of all game: public enemies who try to destroy our America... With his faithful valet Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher, matches wits with the Underworld, risking his life so that criminals and racketeers within the law may feel its weight by the sting of the Green Hornet!... Ride with Britt Reid as he races toward another thrilling adventure! The Green Hornet strikes again!
  • Early versions of the narration had it as "He hunts the biggest of all game: public enemies even the G-men can't touch..." Legend has it that was changed at the behest of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who did not like the implication that there were any public enemies that his Special Agents (the "G-men") couldn't apprehend.
• In New Dynamic English, both New Dynamic English (as "a basic English language course and an introduction to American people and culture.") and Functioning in Business ("as an intermediate level business English course with a focus on American business practice and culture") have opening narrations.
• Every episode of The Men from the Ministry opens with the nameless narrator explaining something about Ministry and/or its workers.
• "Hello, and welcome to The Unbelievable Truth, the show about incredible truths and barely credible lies."
• "It's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the antidote to panel games!" (Although Graeme Garden has observed that, in the decades the series has been on the air, far more new radio panel games have followed its irreverend example than the Serious Business ones they were parodying.)

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