Audio Adaptation

Where things are adapted to audio-only media such as Radio, Audiobooks, or Audio Plays.

The simplest is the Audiobook, which is usually a simple audio recording of a person reading a particular book. Originally, the audio version was abridged due to the limitations of audio recording media. For instance, a typical book of 100+ pages would have required an impractically large number of vinyl records to play in its entirety, and even the development of the cassette tape with its much longer playtime could require a half-dozen for an abridged edition. However, with the rise of the computer audio file and advances in data storage and playback devices, audio recordings of complete books is now a standard item.

Originally, audiobooks were largely restricted for the visually impaired with the aforementioned recording tech limitations. However, when practical recording media that could be carried on ones' person came on the market, such as the Walkman, the audiobook starting gaining a larger market. Today, audiobooks can be purchased, downloaded and played on smartphones, as well as on other audioplayers or personal computers with considerable convenience. As such, people can listen to literature while multi-tasking other activities with considerable flexibility, which has made the audiobook format a growth market in the otherwise struggling book trade.

Some are full adaptations, usually from Literature, Comic Books, or Manga, giving the then silent characters voices. Others are side-stories for the franchise released in an immerse world of sound, a favorite path for animated fare since, after all, they already have the voice actors and sound effects.

Some particular pitfalls of this kind of adaptation include Narrating the Obvious (where descriptive text is just put directly into the mouth of one of the characters present, making them sound like an interpreter for the blind).

This is especially common in Japan. Since they're pretty cheap to produce (you just need the actors, some sound effects, and mixing equipment to make them), a popular work, be it manga, anime, a Video Game or what have you will often get several "Drama CDs" as spinoffs, pseudo-sequels, prequels and interquels to fill in the world and characters. Since the production values aren't too high and for better franchises the actors can like doing them, you can produce a fair number of them and still make a good profit. However, their all-audio nature makes exporting them a nightmare. Drama CDs are the #1 source of All There in the Manual problems for exported Japanese products; because the form is very uncommon in America, there's no real place to sell them, unionized actors drive costs up, etc. As a result, these basically never leave Japan, which can end up being hugely problematic for fans overseas who are missing parts of the story (and for any producers who care about exporting, since they know it's all but impossible for overseas fans to get that part of the story). On rare occasions, there may be an officially released translation of only the CD's transcript, which is the most fans can expect to get, as was the case for the drama CDs for Final Fantasy XV and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and II.

The BBC also produce a fair few of these for broadcast on Radio 4, including some regular features such as "Book at Bedtime" and "Saturday Play."

Contrast with Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, where audio-based works are adapted to visual media.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Lots of manga and anime have audio dramas, from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water to Count Cain to Gankutsuou. Then there's the "Nyoron Churuya" audio drama. Usually, these only exist in Japanese.
• A great number of manga and Light Novels have Drama CDs released before, during and after their animated adaptations. Sometimes the voice actors between the Drama CD version and the anime version can change. Many a Visual Novel also has a Drama CD included, usually as a bonus. This isn't much of a stretch either, since the line between visual novel and audio adaptation is thin.
• The Sound Stages of Lyrical Nanoha have been an integral part of the franchise from the start, giving additional side-adventures, back-stories, and setting information that would get referenced in the main part of the series, with certain tidbits in the anime only becoming clear if you've listened to these. The biggest one of these is StrikerS Sound Stage X, an entire Story Arc set three years after the third season.
• Slayers has several set between anime seasons:
  • Slayers EX (Extra) and Slayers N>EX: Set after the first season and second seasons, there are four stories based off of the prequel Slayers Special novels, but they implement Lina's allies instead of Naga. Naga does appear in N>EX, though.
  • The Return of Slayers EX: Five original stories set after seasons 2 and 3, including a run-in with bugs in Saillune's sewer system, meeting baby Val (the reincarnation of the Big Bad of season 3), a hysterical failed attempt to help Zelgadis with his body, and Lina and Naga reminiscing during their old age.
  • Slayers Nextra: Set after the second season, a full-scale adventure, unlike the others.
  • A prologue and epilogue for the Slayers Premium Non-Serial Movie; the prologue creates an issue in continuity by setting two seasons five years apart, which supposedly isn't true in-universe.
  • Two dramas based off of the fourth and fifth seasons of the anime; there is an epilogue story for the one based on Evolution-R.
  • A Crossover story starring the Slayers cast and the Sorcerer Stabber Orphen cast.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi and Negima!? had some drama CDs, which if nothing else, are notable for actually referencing the fandom's popular "KonoSetsu" Portmanteau Couple Name in one of the tracks.
  • A more recent one is the Ala Rubra Drama CD. Specifically the following:
    • Breaking Arika out of the prison.
    • A Hot Springs Episode where the men of Ala Rubra try to take Eishun's glasses.
    • Reenacting the part where Eishun is the Nabe Shogun and Rakan defeats him yet again with the same trick.
    • Nagi VS Rakan. From fighting, an endurance race in the hot springs AND bungee jumping.
    • THE ENTIRE Ala Rubra ships Nagi and Arika together. Even Rakan gives an example on how to sweet talk Arika to Nagi. Everyone's impressed except for Nagi who just laughs at it.
• Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had a radio play called Blind Target, complete with its own theme songs, which was later adapted into a manga (causing a form of Adaptation Displacement in America).
• Both the manga and anime versions of Chrono Crusade spawned drama CDs. The anime version is particularly notable for being a High School AU and allowing the voice actors from the anime to purposefully make fun of their characters by being as hammy as possible.
• A really notorious example is Getter Robo Armageddon, which was the animation sequel... to a popular, long-running radio drama based on the Getter franchise that 99% of anime fans had never even heard of when Armageddon first made its way to America. Fans end up missing a fair bit of backstory as a result.
• Sound of the Sky has two audio dramas. One which explains the deal with the ghost which kicked off the events of the second episode, only to be forgotten by the end. The other tells of how Filicia and Rio first met, along with an explanation of the history of Helvetia after The Great Off Screen War, at least as far as the characters know.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica has four Drama CDs - three of which were packaged in the home video releases and one that was released at a convention. The even numbered CDs are probably non-canon since they are light-hearted Slice of Life Self Parodies of the series. However, the odd numbered CDs contain rather important background information including the identity of the cat seen in the anime's Title Sequence and the prior relationship between Mami and Kyoko that was only implied in the anime. (The latter would actually get a Comic-Book Adaptation in a Spin-Off entitled Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story.)
  • Incidentally, an interview with the writer for some of the Drama CDs revealed that originally they would have been a direct continuation of the anime's events.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion has the comedic Self-Parody Evangelion: After the End, featuring the cast as Animated Actors who discusses how to retool the TV show to appeal to a wider audience. Much Conversational Troping occurs, and it is actually surprisingly in-character.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Pokémon has many Japanese-exclusive radio dramas. For example, The Rocket-dan's Secret Empire is a series of dramas where Musashi (Jessie) and Kojiro (James) act out plays together. In at least one case, their characters were named "Jessie" and "James" in reference to their Dub Name Changes.
  • It's a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket!! is an Original Series drama where a Team Rocket delivery trainee named Mondo meets the Team Rocket trio.
  • Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo was a Japanese-only radio drama backstory to Pokémon: The First Movie. It was later adapted into Mewtwo's Kidroduction for rereleases of the film.
• A Drama CD version of the 2005 film One Stormy Night was released in Japan in 2006.

Comic Books

• Superman has been adapted to radio form many times. The first one gave birth to the popular "It's a bird! It's a plane!" opening, and was responsible for creating kryptonite as well. It was also possibly responsible for killing the KKK.
• Batman likewise has had a few stints, albeit brief, Knightfall being adapted by The BBC.
• Graphic Audio has since joined with DC to bring a number of the company's properties into "Long Car Ride" radio versions, including both original stories, and adaptations of many a Crisis Crossover. The Infinite Crisis one is particularly good.
  • Marvel has also joined their ranks. Currently they have the adaptation of Civil War as well as an original novel based on Spider-Man and an upcoming original story based on The Ultimates.
• In the late '70s, there was a short-lived radio show version of Fantastic Four. It reasonably faithfully followed the original comic issues, but is probably best known as a very early role of a pre-Saturday Night Live Bill Murray, playing Johnny Storm.
• The Sandman (2020), a faithful audio drama adaptation of The Sandman (1989), using narration and sound effects in lieu of visuals.

Comic Strips

• A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Guardian strip Clare In The Community became one of the station's longest-running sitcoms.
• In 2010, the Telegraph strip Alex was adapted for Classic FM.

Fan Works

• The Changeling of the Guard: Beginning in November 2017, the YouTube channel Fanfiction Reader began featuring this story as read by a computer voice. Begin listening here.
  • The author has expressed amusement at some of the effects caused by having a computer read the story.
• One Helluva Broken Day: Beginning in April 2023, a bunch of Hellaverse and SCP fans from said fics Discord community got together to make an audiobook for one of the best crossover fics on Ao 3. The channel can be found here.
• The author of the Undertale Fanfic Visiontale made an audio drama for Chapter 41, the in-game equivalent of the moments leading up to the protagonist meeting Asgore. The first half can be found here, and the second half can be found here.
• The Youtube channel HellFox83 produced a number of audio dramatizations of scenes taken from The Wormhole Chronicles, a crossover fanfiction series based on Halo and Mass Effect.

Films — Animation

• Gulliver's Travels was given a 30-minute adaptation for radio's Good News of 1940, and was presented with a Framing Device of Gulliver returning to Lilliput to visit his tiny friends. Jessica Dragonette and Lanny Ross, the singing voices of Princess Glory and Prince David respectively, did their singing and speaking voices for the broadcast.

Films — Live-Action

• All three original Star Wars movies had radio play adaptations broadcast by NPR: Star Wars in 1981, The Empire Strikes Back in 1983, and Return of the Jedi in 1996. The first one is very famous for including a whole lot of stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor of the original movie, including early scenes on Alderaan with King Organa, a long chat between Biggs Darklighter and Luke that established both their characters, and a greatly expanded interrogation scene between Vader and Leia.
  • As have the following comic book arcs: Tales of the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic, TOTJ Freedon Nadd Rebellion, TOTJ Dark Lords of the Sith, Dark Empire I, II and Empire's End, Crimson Empire, and the three Dark Forces graphic novels. Oddly enough, they never finished them by releasing the two more Tales of the Jedi arcs featuring Ulic Qel-Droma as well as making Crimson Empire II. Dark Empire has some script changes.
• The Radio show Lux Radio Theatre was a long-running program adapting hit (and some lesser) movies to radio drama form. It was produced and hosted by Cecil B. DeMille.
  • The Lux adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life was also remade, with Bill Pullman as George Bailey.

Literature

• BBC Radio has produced lots of adaptations of books, many of them starring well-known actors like Christopher Lee and David Warner.
  • Ian Fleming's James Bond canon since 2008. Bond is voiced by Toby Stephens, who played Big Bad Gustav Graves in Die Another Day.
  • The Lord of the Rings, with full cast and sound effects. Interestingly, it starred Ian Holm as Frodo (Holm would go on to play Bilbo in Peter Jackson's live-action films) and featured Peter Woodthorpe as Gollum (Woodthorpe had previously voiced the character in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film); Woodthorpe's Gollum had a pretty clear influence on Andy Serkis'.
  • The Hobbit, with full cast, sound effects, and original material (such as Bilbo talking back to the narrator).
  • All of the Sherlock Holmes stories, with full cast and sound effects
  • The Discworld novels Guards! Guards!, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Night Watch, Small Gods and Eric adapted for radio, with full cast and sound effects.
  • A number of Robert Rankin novels, including Brightonomicon and the Brentford Trilogy, with full cast and sound effects
  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (full cast, sound effects)
  • Ghost stories by a variety of authors (full casts, sound effects)
  • A number of Tintin's adventures. In these adaptations, Snowy takes on the role of extraneous narration and comic relief that can't be accomplished through dialogue and would have been accomplished through artwork in the original.
  • The His Dark Materials trilogy - although there are actually two adaptations of this one: a radio adaptation and a full-cast unabridged recording, narrated by author Philip Pullman. Both were produced by the BBC.
  • War and Peace, full cast, sound effects
  • Adrian Mole. In fact, original Adrian Mole monologues were written for Pirate Radio 4, a teenage magazine show that also included Doctor Who: Slipback (below). These were recursively adapted into "Adrian Mole at the BBC" in True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory got this treatment (full cast, sound effects) in The '80s.
  • Neverwhere, Good Omens and Anansi Boys, with full cast and sound effects.
  • Len Deighton's Bomber, split into sections and broadcast over the course of an entire day, with each section taking place in Real Time.
  • Many, many, many adaptations of Charles Dickens.
• Foundation:
  • Random House made an audiobook adaptation of the Foundation series in 2010, with Scott Brick as narrator.
  • The Foundation Trilogy: This is an adaptation of The Foundation Trilogy by The BBC Radiophonic Workshop for Radio with a full cast for the characters, sound effects, and with stereophonic radio (one of the BBC's first ever).
  • "The Mayors": Caedmon created an LP of this story in 1977, with Isaac Asimov as the narrator.
  • William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy Read Four Science Fiction Classics: William Shatner reads abridged versions of "The Psychohistorians" and "Mimsy Were the Borogoves", and Leonard Nimoy reads abridged versions of The Martian Chronicles and "The Green Hills of Earth."
• American publishers don't do this as often, but there have been full-cast recordings of:
  • Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit – Will Travel and "The Green Hills of Earth"
  • Many of H. P. Lovecraft's novels and stories
  • Star Trek novels, narrated by George Takei and guest starring Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.
    • Long before the Star Trek audiobooks, audio plays featuring the original cast were produced in LP format.
  • Many Star Wars novels as well, including Matt Stover's greatly respected novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Many of these audio adaptations even include sound effects and music from John Williams's scores.
  • Many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories
  • World War Z was adapted with a full cast
• Tell Me a Story: Science Fiction One: Paul Williams adapted several stories to an audiobook format:
  • "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley
  • "Cyber-Claus" by William Gibson
  • "Expendable" by Philip K. Dick
  • "The Golem" by Avram Davidson
  • "Insert Knob A in Hole B" by Isaac Asimov
  • "The Nine Billion Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
  • "The Perfect Woman" by Robert Sheckley
  • "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson
• Stephen King is a big audiobook fan. The audiobook release of his massive Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection starred different narrators for every story, including such luminaries as Grace Slick, Yeardley Smith (yes, that Yeardley Smith. If you think King is creepy on the page, wait until you hear Lisa Simpson narrating it!), Joe Mantegna, and Tim Curry.
• Even though the first two books of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy were originally radio plays (and then adapted to other media), the last four were books first and later adapted for radio.
• The Shadow counts, even though the magazine was inspired by the "narrator" of a mystery radio show. The magazine started in 1931, the radio adaptation in 1937.
• An unusual case is Kenneth Williams' reading of Nikolai Gogol's Diary of a Madman. This was originally recorded as the narration for an animated adaptation, but the animation was never completed and the recording was eventually broadcast as a radio monologue by The BBC.
• Ulver adapted William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell into a two-disc album, using the poem as the lyrics in it's entirety.
• Focus on the Family (responsible for Adventures in Odyssey) has a radio drama arm, appropriately titled Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Among other things, they have produced:
  • Les Misérables, starring BRIAN BLESSED
  • Silas Marner
  • The complete The Chronicles of Narnia series
  • A Christmas Carol
  • The Screwtape Letters, featuring none other than Andy Serkis himself playing the title character.
  • Anne of Green Gables
• Gap Digital produced Dramatic Audio presentations of the twelve main books in the Left Behind series.
• Over 2012-13, Penguin Audio released new unabridged audiobook versions of many of Roald Dahl's works, covering most of his adult short story collections and the bulk of his novels and poetry collections for children. Though none qualified as full-cast recordings, an All-Star Cast of narrators was assembled and some of the children's novels warranted sound effects as well (James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.).
• Arctic Monkeys' fifth album, AM, features the song "I Wanna Be Yours," which is an adaptation of a poem of the same name by John Cooper Clarke.
• In 1965 a full cast audio drama of Alice in Wonderland was released by EMI as a double album, with an all-star cast filled with voices a British audience of the time would recognise instantly (Tommy Cooper as the Mad Hatter, Frankie Howerd as the Mock Turtle etc.)
• Isaac Asimov:
  • Science Fiction Favorites: In addition to selecting which stories/poems would be included, Isaac Asimov also provided the narration for the entire book. The following stories were adapted into the audio format:
    • "The Feeling of Power"
    • "I Just Make Them Up, See!"
    • "The Immortal Bard"
    • "Jokester"
    • "The Last Question"
    • "Living Space"
    • "Satisfaction Guaranteed"
    • "Spell My Name with an S"
    • "Someday"
    • "The Ugly Little Boy"
  • "The Fun They Had": Spoken Realms made an audiobook adaptation in 2014, with John W Michaels as narrator.
  • "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda": This Short Story was adapted into a stand-alone audiobook narrated by Jim Gallant. Orchestral music is included.
  • The Complete Robot
    • Warner Audio Pub produced an abridged two-cassette copy of this anthology in 1985, with Lloyd Battista as narrator. This version was republished by Random House Audio in 1988.
    • Books On Tape created an unabridged audiocassette adaptation in 1986, voiced by Larry McKeever. It is a whopping 17 cassettes.
• Isaac Asimov and Janet Asimov: Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot: There is a vinyl LP recording (only includes the first two chapters) with Mark Hamill as narrator.
• William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy Read Four Science Fiction Classics: William Shatner reads abridged versions of "The Psychohistorians" and "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," and Leonard Nimoy reads abridged versions of The Martian Chronicles and "The Green Hills of Earth."
• Julie Kagawa's The Iron Fey: The series has been adapted into audiobook form for Audible, and read by individual narrators. Khristine Hvam reads most of the stories (The Iron King, "Winters Passage," The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, and "Irons Prophecy"), but "Summers Crossing" is read by Josh Hurley and The Iron Knight is read by Mac Leod Andrews.
• Orson Scott Card's Maps in a Mirror: This collection has been turned into an audiobook, where Orson Scott Card reads the introduction and afterward, but the stories are read by professional narrators.
• The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One: Blackstone Audio created an unabridged audiobook adaptation in 2017, using a cast of eighteen narrators.
• Recorded Books produced audiobook versions of the Franny K. Stein books narrated by Michele O'Medlin.
• Phonogram GmbH adapted The Little Witch into a radio play in 1970, 1971 and 1977.
• Noddy
  • Between 1953 till 1959, Enid Blyton did a narration for some of her Noddy books part of the "His Master's Voice" series. In later stories, actual voice actors were brought in to voice Noddy and Big Ears.
  • Four audio adaptations of four Noddy books were sold in the UK in the early 70s narrated by Kathleen Davydd. The first was Noddy Wins a Prize/Noddy and the Aeroplane in 1971, and Noddy Goes to School/Noddy Gets Into Trouble in 1972.
  • The 1953 book "Noddy at the Seaside" gained an audio adaptation/audiobook that was released in 1986 on Casssette players, complete with 80s era synthizers used for songs when Noddy decides to sing.
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: The November 1948 issue features an advertisement written by the editors for Talking Records, which has been creating audiobooks of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for the blind, paid for by the Library of Congress.
• Dimension X:
  • Episode one is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit."
  • "Episode two is an adaptation of Jack Williamson's "With Folded Hands."
  • Episode three is an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "The Report On The Barnhouse Effect."
  • Episode five is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Knock."
  • Episode six is an adaptation of Robert Bloch's "Almost Human."
  • Episode seven is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "The Lost."
  • Episode eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Fox And The Forest."
  • Episode nine is an adaptation of Donald A Wollheim's "The Embassy."
  • Episode ten is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth."
  • Episode eleven is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Zero Hour"
  • Episode twelve is an adaptation of George Pal's "Destination Moon."
  • Episode thirteen is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe."
  • Episode fourteen is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven!"
  • Episode seventeen is an adaptation of Jack Vance's "The Potters Of Firsk"
  • Episode twenty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles."
  • Episode twenty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll."
  • Episode twenty-three is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit."
  • Episode twenty-five is an adaptation of Fletcher Pratt's "Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium."
  • Episode twenty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "And The Moon Be Still As Bright."
  • Episode twenty-eight is an adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's "The Professor Was A Thief."
  • Episode thirty is an adaptation of E Mayne Hull's "Competition."
  • Episode thirty-one is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Universe."
  • Episode thirty-five is an adaptation of Paul Carter's "The Last Objective."
  • Episode thirty-six is an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Revolt Of The Machines."
  • Episode thirty-seven is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Pebble in the Sky.
  • Episode thirty-eight is an adaptation of William Tenn's "Childs Play."
  • Episode thirty-nine is an adaptation of H. Beam Piper's "Time and Time Again."
  • Episode forty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence," transcribed by George Lefferts.
  • Episode forty-one is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Courtesy."
  • Episode forty-three is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt."
  • Episode forty-four is an adaptation of Nelson Bond's "The Vital Factor."
  • Episode forty-five is an adaptation of Frank M Robinson's "Untitled Story."
  • Episode forty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Marionettes Inc."
  • Episode forty-seven is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "First Contact."
  • Episode forty-eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope."
  • Episode forty-nine is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Requiem."
  • Episode fifty is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall (1941)," transcribed by Ernest Kinoy.
• X Minus One: Most of the episodes from this series are Radio Dramatizations, the later episodes all come from Galaxy magazine.
  • Episode zero is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "And The Moon Be Still As Bright."
  • Episode three is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven."
  • Episode four is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Universe."
  • Episode five is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Knock."
  • Episode eight is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth."
  • Episode nine is an adaptation of Fletcher Pratt's "Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium."
  • Episode ten is an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Revolt Ofhe Machines."
  • Episode eleven is an adaptation of Donald A Wollheim's "The Embassy."
  • Episode twelve is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt."
  • Episode thirteen is an adaptation of Robert Bloch's "Almost Human."
  • Episode fourteen is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Courtesy."
  • Episode fifteen is an adaptation of Tom Godwin's "Cold Equations."
  • Episode twenty is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "First Contact."
  • Episode twenty-one is an adaptation of William Tenn's "Childs Play."
  • Episdoe twenty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "Requiem."
  • Episode twenty-four is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Dwellers In Silence."
  • Episode twenty-five is an adaptation of Graham Doar's "The Outer Limit."
  • Episode twenty-six is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Zero Hour."
  • Episode twenty-seven is an adaptation of Nelson Bond's "The Vital Factor."
  • Episode twenty-eight is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall (1941)."
  • Episode twenty-nine is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "The Fox And The Forest."
  • Episode thirty is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "Marionettes Inc."
  • Episode thirty-one is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe."
  • Episode thirty-two is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll."
  • Episode thirty-three is an adaptation of H. Beam Piper's "Time and Time Again."
  • Episode thirty-six is an adaptation of James E. Gunn's "The Cave Of Night."
  • Episode thirty-seven is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "C-Chute."
  • Episode thirty-eight is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit."
  • Episode thirty-nine is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Junkyard."
  • Episode forty-one is an adaptation of L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun For Dinosaur."
  • Episode forty-two is an adaptation of Frederik Pohl's "Tunnel Under The World."
  • Episode forty-three is an adaptation of Jack Mc Kenty's "A Thousand Dollars A Plate."
  • Episode forty-four is an adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "A Pail Of Air."
  • Episode forty-five is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "How 2."
  • Episode forty-six is an adaptation of Mark Clifton's "Star Bright."
  • Episode forty-seven is an adaptation of Ross Rocklynne's "Jaywalker."
  • Episode forty-eight is an adaptation of Milton Lesser's "The Sense Of Wonder."
  • Episode forty-nine is an adaptation of Frank Quattrocchi's "Sea Legs."
  • Episode fifty is an adaptation of Jerry Sohl's "The Seventh Order."
  • Episode fifty-one is an adaptation of JT Mc Intosh's "Hallucination Orbit."
  • Episode fifty-two is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "The Defenders."
  • Episode fifty-three is an adaptation of Gordon R. Dickson's "Lulungomeena."
  • Episode fifty-four is an adaptation of Clifford Simak's "Project Mastodon."
  • Episode fifty-five is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "If You Was A Moklin."
  • Episode fifty-seven is an adaptation of James E. Gunn's "Wherever You May Be."
  • Episode fifty-eight is an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's "Mr Costello Hero."
  • Episode fifty-nine is an adaptation of Finn O Donnevan's "Bad Medicine."
  • Episode sixty is an adaptation of HL Gold's "The Old Die Rich."
  • Episode sixty-one is an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's "The Stars Are The Styx."
  • Episode sixty-two is an adaptation of FL Wallace's "Student Body."
  • Episode sixty-three is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "The Last Martian."
  • Episode sixty-four is an adaptation of Katherine Mac Lean's "The Snowball Effect."
  • Episode sixty-five is an adaptation of James Blish's "Surface Tension."
  • Episode sixty-seven is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley's "The Lifeboat Mutiny."
  • Episode sixty-eight is an adaptation of Frederik Pohl's "The Map Makers."
  • Episode sixty-nine is an adaptation of Algis Budrys's "Protective Mimicry."
  • Episode seventy is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Colony."
  • Episode seventy-one is an adaptation of Michael Shaara's "Soldier Boy."
  • Episode seventy-two is an adaptation of Katherine Mac Lean's "Pictures Dont Lie."
  • Episode seventy-three is an adaptation of Murray Leinster's "Sam This Is You."
  • Episode seventy-four is an adaptation of Fritz Leiber's "Appointment In Tomorrow."
  • Episode seventy-six is an adaptation of Steven Arr's "Chain Of Command."
  • Episode seventy-eight is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains."
  • Episode seventy-nine is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Hostess."
  • Episode eighty is an adaptation of Frank M Robinson's "The Reluctant Heroes."
  • Episode eighty-one is an adaptation of Fredric Brown's "Honeymoon In Hell."
  • Episode one hundred twenty-four is an adaptation of Alan E Nourse's "Prime Difference."
  • Episode one hundred twenty-five is an adaptation of Finn O'Donnevan's "Gray Flannel Armor."
  • Episode one hundred twenty-six is an adaptation of Robert Silverberg's "The Iron Chancellor."
• All four Red Dwarf books were adapted and released on audiobook by Laughing Stock Productions. The first two (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life) were narrated by Chris Barrie (Rimmer in the series), Backwards was narrated by Rob Grant (the author of the book and one of the creators of the series) and Last Human was narrated by Craig Charles (Lister in the series).
• Two of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novels have been adapted into Chinese audio dramas — Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (aired in 2018-2019, with a Japanese dub that began in 2020) and Heaven Official’s Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (began in 2022). The first series also has an audiobook.
• Satoshi Maruo adapted Guardian of the Spirit and Guardian of the Darkness, the first two volumes of the Moribito series, into a radio drama series broadcast by NHK.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who has a lot of these.
  • The BBC have produced a few radio adaptations of serials such as "Genesis of the Daleks."
  • Official BBC-produced original radio plays have been produced as far back as 1986's "Slipback."
  • Officially licensed audio plays by Big Finish, featuring the continuing adventures of Doctors Five, Six, Seven, and Eight (and later Four), now number in the hundreds. Quality is generally considered very high, and is praised for expanding character and concepts which didn't get too much attention or love during their appearance in the TV series, thus leading to quite a few cases of Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, especially for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor.
  • An outfit called BBV Productions produced audio plays and series of varying officialness during the Nineties: one starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as "The Stranger" and "Miss Brown"; one starring Lalla Ward and John Leeson as "The Mistress" and "K-9"; and one starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as "The Professor" and "Ace." None of these were licensed Doctor Who spin-offs, though BBV did obtain a license for K-9 directly from the writers who created the character (an approach they also used to have several recognizable monsters appear in their productions). The "Stranger" and "Mistress" series got away with it by having a low profile and just enough differences from the originals, but the "Professor and Ace" series attracted official notice because McCoy and Aldred were basically playing the same characters under the same names ("Professor" was what Ace always called the Doctor in canon, too), and the BBC stepped in to force some more filing-off of serial numbers.
  • BBC Audio has produced several audiobooks featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. They also created three series of Fourth Doctor audio dramas, starring Tom Baker and Richard Franklin (reprising his role as Third Doctor "companion" Mike Yates).
• BBC Radio produced a few audio dramas of Torchwood, that originally aired on BBC Radio 4. The first celebrated the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider. This was followed by one three-episode series of plays to bridge the gap between series 2 and 3, and another, Torchwood: The Lost Files to bridge the gap between 3 and 4.
• BBC Audio made some audiobooks of The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• There have been a few instances of BBC SitComs transferring from TV to radio:
  • Dad's Army was successfully adapted for radio, running for four series.
  • Steptoe and Son also made the transition from screen to sound.
  • One Foot in the Grave was also adapted for radio, but there were only four radio episodes.
  • Yes, Minister: sixteen episodes, according to The Other Wiki.
• Have Gun – Will Travel was one of the few television shows that then had an adaptation for radio, as opposed to the other way around.
• Various adaptation of Kamen Rider, in tapes.
• Radio 4's six part Neverwhere technically belongs under TV, although Neil Gaiman would probably rather you considered it an adaptation of a book.
• The Channel 4 sketch show Absolutely has been revived on BBC Radio 4 as The Absolutely Radio Show.
• There was a brief attempt to adapt I Love Lucy as a radio show – a little ironic considering the concept started as a radio show years earlier – but after a single unaired trial episode was produced (using the same script as the TV episode "Breaking the Lease," fleshed out with descriptive narration from Arnaz as Ricky), the idea was abandoned. However, the radio pilot did have one positive effect: CBS executives had worried that Arnaz's accent was too thick for American audiences to understand. Hearing the radio pilot convinced them that his accent wasn't as thick and undecipherable as they had originally feared.

Multiple

• Orson Welles became famous with his The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which adapted works of literature, both stage plays like Sherlock Holmes and novels like The Pickwick Papers. His most famous broadcast, and probably the all-time most famous instance of this trope, is the October 30, 1938 broadcast The War of the Worlds, which adapted the novel by H. G. Wells.
• Especially in the 1960s and 70s, a huge number of record albums were recorded for children by studios like Power Records. They adapted everything from classic novels like Melville's Moby-Dick and Barrie's Peter and Wendy, to superhero stories (some adapted from comics, some original) and TV shows like Josie and the Pussycats, to nursery rhymes and fables from Aesop.
  • This especially applies to Disney who has made both book and record, and "storyteller" LP versions of not only their own movies, but also the Star Wars trilogy, E.T., and even the first four Star Trek movies. They also adapted the first two Indiana Jones movies.
  • Kid Stuff Records^note Who also had a home video division called "KidVid" is another notable maker of these. Many of their various licenses include, but are by no means limited to: Barbie, Masters of the Universe, Strawberry Shortcake, the original Transformers series, and even video game licenses like Pac-Man.^note This was even before Hanna-Barbera's animated series from 1982.

Podcast

• Realm's catalog includes audiobook adaptations of classic sci fi short stories.

Theatre

• The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show, a 6-part series produced by the BBC World Service, is essentially an Adaptation Expansion of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
• The Moth, a popular New York true storytelling series, did shows for ten years before releasing the audio as a podcast and then the NPR show The Moth Radio Hour.

Video Games

• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky has a whole bunch of these, focusing on various characters and expanding on them. Even with the games coming to America at last, we're quite unlikely to see these.
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a Radio Drama adaptation called Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition.
• Ever17 has two Drama CDs, After You've Gone and 2035, both being Post Script Seasons.
• Riviera: The Promised Land has three drama CDs — one of a promotional nature (the Prelude disc), one containing mostly gag stories and voiced scenes from the game with a single serious original drama explaining antagonist Malice's backstory (the Epilogue disc), and a third containing a series of long episodic adventures (The Precious Chapter). Even when the first two were in print, it was a nightmare trying to buy them, as none of the Japanese vendors selling them shipped overseas. Luckily for (Japanese-speaking) fans, the third didn't have this problem.
• Yggdra Unison was given a drama CD, featuring three episodic stories starring some of the more popular characters. The cast has expressed hopes of being able to produce more, although we've heard nothing from them on the subject since.
• The Putt-Putt series had a book titled Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
• The Freddi Fish series had a book titled Sing Along with Freddi Fish and her Friends, which came with an audio cassette of the same name.
• The Mega Man Zero series had audio tracks included on each of its soundtrack releases. The story importance of these tracks ranged from trivial (such as how Alouette came up with the names for the Baby Elves) to vital, such as explaining Elpizo's backstory (including how he got his name), how Phantom knew about Omega's true nature, or why the Guardians chose to help Zero at the end of the third game.
• The Japanese version of Elemental Gearbolt includes an unlockable audio drama version of an event mentioned in-game, in which the main characters meet as children and promise to reunite. It was Dummied Out of the English release, but the localizer summarized the story in the manual.
• Fire Emblem: Awakening has four CD dramas, each with different stories. The first one (with a male Avatar) depicts the days around Chrom's marriage and focuses on character interactions and some ambushes by Risen. The second (with a Female Avatar) revolves around someone's serious Sick Episode and the aftermath of Emmeryn's Heroic Suicide, alongside Henry and Lucina/"Marth"'s sort-of Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. The third (no defined Avatar) is all about the already Bad Future that Lucina and her fellow Second Generation characters are about to leave. The fourth and last one (also w/o a defined Avatar) is noticeably Lighter and Softer and about Lucina and the children's struggle to find Lucina's precious tiara and both Morgans incidentally meeting up with each other in the Outrealms.
• There are many CD Dramas for for The King of Fighters, usually one or two per game, with individual characters sometimes getting their own CDs. They go from very cracky skits bordering on Gag Dubs, to pretty interesting characterization-wise (i.e. Dengeki Bunko explains how both the Japan Team and the Women's Team came to be among other things, The Sun and The Moon chronicles Iori Yagami's life outside KOF and the Yagami/Kusanagi feud at an unspecified time in the past, and KOF 2000 gives more background on K' and his group while also featuring Athena's misadventures through the world until she finds Kyo and they have a more serious talk about how everyone misses him at home).
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a CD Drama available only in Japan which takes place a year after the events of the game, and also confirms which of the good endings is canon (Maria chases Alucard).
• New Dynamic English has a radio show produced for Voice of America.
• Several audio CDs of Puyo Puyo are known to exist, each having multiple stories on them presenting all sorts of humorous scenarios featuring the series' characters.

Webcomics

• Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has an "unofficial" Radio Play here that has currently produced three episodes covering the story arcs "Warrior for Hire," "Recipe for Disasters," and Part I of "The Return of Dark Pegasus," with Part II in the works as of October 2010.
• Slightly Damned has a Radio Drama adaptation here that currently consists of two episodes covering the first 63 pages, with episode three (set to be pages 64-93) well under way as of October 2010.
• Welcome to Room #305 has received a Korean Radio Drama.
• An audiobook of When Heaven Spits You Out follows the novelization of the original webcomic, and is narrated by the comic and novel's author, Ruairidh MacVeigh.

Western Animation

• When Nickelodeon cancelled Invader Zim, seven of the unfinished episodes already had their voice tracks recorded, so they were later released on the (now out of print) Special Features DVD.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has a series of German albums in CD and MP3 formats, each album containing two Freundschaft ist Magie episodes. Volume 1, Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia, contains "Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia (Teil 1)" and "Ein Auftrag von Prinzessin Celestia (Teil 2)." Volume 2, Apfelschüttelernte, contains "Eine Freundin hat's nicht leicht" and "Apfelschüttelernte." Volume 3, Angeber-Trixie, contains "Gilda, die Partybremse" and "Angeber-Trixie." Volume 4, Die Pyjama-Party, contains "Drachenscheu" and "Die Pyjama-Party." Volume 5, Das fremde Zebra, contains "Das fremde Zebra" and "Fürchterlich niedliche Tierchen." Volume 6, Etwas ganz Besonderes, contains "Frühlingsanfang in Ponyville" and "Etwas ganz Besonderes." Volume 7, Die Modenschau, contains "Das Blätterrennen" and "Die Modenschau." Volume 8, Pinkie Weisheiten, contains "Pinkie Weisheiten" and "Rainbows großer Tag." Volume 9, Die Showstars, contains "Babysitter Fluttershy" and "Die Showstars." Volume 10, Fluttershy auf dem Laufsteg, contains "Diamanten-Hunde" and "Fluttershy auf dem Laufsteg."
  • Germany loves doing this. Their audio adaptations of western animated productions goes back to at least the 1980s.
• Similar to Friendship Is Magic, Spongebob Squarepants has received 12 German albums for CD and MP3 in Germany. Some albums such as "Quallendisco" and "Das Blaue Album" would contain brand new stories told by the charaters provided by their German voice actors.
• The Wallace & Gromit book Anoraknophobia was adapted for cassette featuring Peter Sallis as Wallace.
• The Merrie Melodies short A Wild Hare was adapted for a 1941 episode of radio's Al Pearce and His Gang, with Mel Blanc reprising his role as Bugs Bunny.
• The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald received a promotional radio play adaptation titled The Wacky Musical Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Intergalactical Magical Radio, which fell into obscurity due to only being distributed on United Airlines' in-flight radio and involved the McDonaldland gang setting up a radio station and subsequently converting it into a spaceship to try and make contact with aliens. Notable anomalies include the omission of Sundae and the McNuggets, Franklin and Tika being replaced with a different set of kids and Grimace, Hamburglar and Birdie being respectively voiced by Frank Welker, Carl W. Wolfe and Russi Taylor (their standard voice actors in the McDonaldland ads at the time) rather than Kevin Michael Richardson, Charlie Adler and Christine Cavanaugh.

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