This has always made me afraid of dogs!

This lady's husband is pretty jerky. He beats her, yells at her, beats up her best piano student, and then brings home a scary dog to get her over her fear of dogs. After a very amusing hypnosis session where she regresses into childhood, she remembers a dog from her past that helped her do something unthinkable.

Contains a throwaway homophobic comment (by an unsympathetic character); I would not have gotten it as a kid. Always have a hard time sympathizing with revenge as a motive, so heroine was unlikeable to me. Not how hypnosis really works, but good example of how it has always been portrayed. Crime drama, no supernatural elements.

The Lost Dog was a pretty interesting story about a woman whose physically abusive husband, a real salami head (sounds and acts like Archie Bunker, only 100 percent nasty, with no warm side whatsoever), insists on getting a dog even though she's phobically terrified of them. There's also a side story of a 20-year-old piano student of the woman who has a crush on her and gets on the husband's bad side. Anyway, she goes to a hypnotist to find out what caused her inane fear of dogs, and it gets really interesting after that. Probably my second favorite of the first four episodes, behind the Moresbys.

I think they went over the top in making him this big of a monster. He probably would have been in jail for his assault or spousal abuse long before the story ended (even in the mind your own business 70's)

I knew Patinkin had done an episode and that he was on "Criminal Minds", but not much else. I was most surprised to realize it was him in "The Princess Bride". I love that movie and also loved that line. His line and "as you wish" are probably the most memorable from the movie. I really enjoy finding information about actors/actresses from CBSRMT. Does anyone know if Evelyn Juster was ever on TV in character roles? Her picture looks familiar to me, but there is no information that I can find that she was ever on television. I keep thinking that she looks like she may have been a guest on "Bewitched" at least once.

Check out St. Elsewhere! Mandy Pantinkin, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel & some guy named Denzel Washington. :-)

I have enjoyed almost every single one of them, though there was one that was slightly disturbing. "Lost Dog" (01-09-74), in which a woman is repeatedly physically abused by her alcoholic husband. Now the plot in general was quite inventive and unique...however, as someone stated previously, the abuse made me cringe. I am not exactly sure why it was so disturbing, but that was one episode that I probably won't be listening to again.

A woman and her abusive husband live a stormy relationship. The husband wants a dog but the wife is terrified of even the smallest of dogs. Eventually, the man gets his way....or does he?

A very nasty husband and a decent heroine equal great characters in a good story.

Ronnie the piano student sounded like a novice actor. I thought the married couple of George and Julia was not very believable. I couldn't imagine George being able to keep his selfish, evil personality in check long enough for Julia to fall in love and marry him. Although he played the alcoholic bully rather well, no effort was made to understand how he became the antithesis of 'Husband of the Year'. The end was a bit anti-climactic, as it was fairly easy to see what Julia was planning since he planned the same scenario years earlier. I'm not looking forward to the next Slesar story. We'll see.

A petty thug torments his wife --- who is afraid of dogs --- by buying a doberman and trying to make her live with it. She has different ideas. Truly a classic and an episode most fans can readily identify. Highly recommended.

I loved this episode. The wife of an abusive and violent husband seeks help to get over her fear of dogs so that her husband can have one of his own. Through hypnosis a repressed memory reveals that in her youth she had trained her own dog to attack a neighbourhood bully. Now cured of her fear, she spends time with their new dog reliving her youth... so to spea. Campy characters, but a memorable script.

Story: Julia Smallet is a local piano teacher whose husband, George, has a nasty habit of beating her. Julia's student, 20 year old Ronny Hughes, notices Julia is a bit discolored at times. Julia explains the beatings are the result of her not letting George own a dog due to her neurosis. George sends Julia to a shrink and then buys a Doberman (Atilla) while Julia is at the doctor. After another beating, Ronny takes it upon himself to confront George. George 1 - Ronny 0 During a regression-hypnosis session we learn that when Julia was a young girl, she had a dog that she used to attack another kid. After her third session, Julia appears to have kicked her problem... but old habits are hard to lose. Will Julia play the Atilla card? Favorite Quote: "Nothing will ever take the smell of George out of anything." Comment: The story is a mix of "Burning Bed" meets "They Kill their Masters" and "The Graduate". When I was a kid, my piano teachers were about my grandmother's age, so the relationship b/t Ronny and Julia started to "gross me out." But, Ronny may have merely been ahead of his time....it was another 20 years before Anna Nicole perfected the neo natal-grandparent relationship. Anyway, the focus on domestic abuse was truly ahead of the curve. Kudos to writer Henry Slesser for beating the visual media to the punch on the domestic abuse issue, as I don't think "Burning Bed" came out for at least another five years. I have to say that George's fight with Ronny, while not justified, did give me a vicarious thrill - Ronny seemed like a couple of snot-nosed, silver spooners I knew in college. Ahh, if only I wasn't a pacifist at the time (I really wasn't, but hey, it got chicks). The story's ending is merely a suggestion of things to come. I don't think today's audience would be satisfied by the lack of "closure", but I found it unique in a retro-refreshing kind of way...kind of like the spinning question mark at the end of "The Thing." Parting shot - The latest version would substitute two feuding magicians for Julia and George and a white tiger in place of the Dobie - nah, nobody would believe it......

OOOOOH . . . that sneaaaaaky woman!

This was the second RMT I ever heard, and unfortunately this was in 1979 before the 'net and all that, so I had no idea what all had happened in the story when I picked it up (somewhere around when his butler said there was a raccoon trying to get in the back door. I remember the line when the main character said: "Good (!)...could one of them have been...UUUUUUNAAAAAAAH?????" My Mom was teaching high school drama at Springfield, MO, Central High at the time and, visiting her backstage during a play rehearsal I repeated that line. Some of the kids (I'd graduated from high school the previous year) picked up on it and "Could one of them have been....UUUUUUNAAAAAAAH?" soon became a standard greeting on my next few visits. - Yet another compliment on the RMT's music. There was a lot of great "uneasy/scary" music in their repertoire (and some of those made it to this one). But there was also some wonderful jazzy scores. I think my favorite of the latter is in this when in the first act Richard is describing Una the first time he met her. He says something like "See what I mean" and this wonderful bass-clarinet driven score plays behind it. The sitar was a great touch in this as well. - Did rich people actually call their cooks "Cook"? (Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing - I was just curious.) - Dan Okko was a flat-out wonderful RMT personality. I love it when he talks to his reporter about taking his story to "Weirdo Digest". -...and there were some amusing lines in this one. What was it Richard said: "So I tried to become one with the universe...and when that didn't work I tried becoming one with a bottle of scotch." I'm not a fan of alcoholic beverages but this was one of the funnier lines I ever heard in the entire RMT. - Marian Seldes was an RMT treasure.

Bart, I think your rating is for the episode before. This one was about Lost Dog.

George Smolett (wonderfully portrayed by George Mathews) may be one of the vilest villians in RMT history. He\'s all the more horrific, because this type of character exist (unfortunately) all too often in the real world. I\'ve never wanted to see the bad guy get his comeuppance more in an RMT play. This is one episode where I would have enjoyed one more additional scene tacked on to the end. Then, again, the final scene is very well done and allows the listener ample grist for their imagination to paint their own vivid ending to this tale. The closing music is especially chilling and appropriate. Kim Hunter is also wonderfully cast and creates a character we immediately sympathize with and root for. Mandy Potamkin is woefully inadequate and I\'m rather glad this is his only apperance in RMT. Going back to George Mathews, I wish he had been cast in more episodes of the series. He\'s a great villian in this one and in his only other apperance in \"Sea Fever\" (episode 46) as the demented Captain Adams. A rather simple, but chillingly effective story and one of the better \"non-supernatural\" tales of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater......................

I think you are refering to "The Return of the Moresbys". It's the only episode that I can recall with a woman named Una, a racoon and the mention of "Weirdo Digest". It's a great episode in its own right. It does have some really amusing lines. My favorite is this exchange: "Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!" "What was that?" "I would guess-- it was Cook, Sir." This is only RMT's 2nd episode and its very first venture into the Supernatural and it's quite effective. The whole final act is a creepy roller-coaster ride of chills and thrills, as one animal after another keeps popping up, gnawing at our protagonist's conscience and imagination. I love the ending as the two reporters spot the mouse with the "silver eyes"...........

This show has one of the best endings in RMT history, love the female lead.

What an embarrassment...thanks for catching my error. (Next thing I'll be confusing "The hand" with "Appointment in Uganda".) ">) - I love, love, LOVE the music bed during the hypnosis segments. Classic RMT. - George Matthews, who plays "George", always seemed to be cast as a...not nice guy. He was as scary (and ripe for punishment) in "Sea Fever" as this. - Was this Mandy Patinkin's only RMT episode? (He sounded like his wisdom tooth had been pulled and he was trying to talk through a swollen jaw with gauze over the wound.) - Trucking company owner, piano teacher, young adult male piano student, hypnotist. CLASSIC storywriting.

I've always wondered about this. In my Handy-Dandy Episode Guide and Handbook, it refers to a Mandy Potamkin and when you listen to E.G. giving the cast list at the end --it sounds like that. Is it the same actor we're all familiar with? It does sound faintly like him, he had gauze stuffed in his mouth. According to Google-- Mandy Patinkin was born in 1952-- so he would have been 22 when they recorded this episode. It certainly could be the same actor. Just curious...... Oh, and also according to my Guide this was (Mandy or Mandy's) only apperance on RMT. Until I confuse "Dracula" with "How Eberhard Won His Wings" Keep on Listening...........

George Matthews who plays the brutish, lout of a husband was usually cast as a big, dumb henchman, worker,side-kick, etc. in his roles. He was in a classic "The Honeymooners" episode where his much smaller and meek looking friend is holding a pool table while he was somewhere else and Ralph and ED Norton come in and take the pool table and the meek guy starts saying that his friend."Harvey", I think was the name of the character George Matthews was playing got the table before they did and he was going to start trouble with Ralph if he didn't let them have the pool table. Well, Ralph thought the friend was a small wimpy guy like him and starting mocking him and "Harvey". Of course , when Harvey shows up and Ralph is shocked to see the big tough Harvey he starts "ahummanah, a-humminaing" and Ed Norton makes things worse by challenging Ralph to beat up Harvey in a fight at the local gym. I guess with a face and voice like George Matthews had he was pretty much typecast in those types of roles. I also agree with the comments about the wimpy piano student. It wasn't very believable that he could fight his way out of a paper bag, much less the husband.

Revenge is a dish best served by a Doberman? Seems like she was fairly young to be able to teach a dog that trick.

My dog and I enjoyed this one...oh yes we did. The husband is really a jerk and the wife gets revenge at the end.

The abusive husband was horrible to his wife, but I thought Julia was very cruel to the dog at the end of the story and she turned out to be even more vicious and abusive than her husband. The way she reveled in both her mistreatment of the dog, as well as what she was about to do to her husband, was truly frightening. This shows she had a very sadistic streak in her, which makes her a character that is not very likeable. Having said this, the actress was fantastic and played the role very well. It was a well-acted episode, even though it was disturbing.

Lots of Psychology in this one. You wonder why this sweet woman would marry an abusive alcoholic- but there are millions of divorced women who marry yet another abusive alcoholic. Not a pleasant episode but a good psychological one.

Kim Hunter was really good in "Lost Dog", and she was very creepy at the end!

I loved this one.

I rate this episode ★★★★★ for EXCELLENT. The 4th episode of the CBSRMT series is an outstanding Drama-Mystery. Henry Slesar’s story leaves a good impression on what CBSRMT is about. Likable protagonist, despicable antagonist, suspenseful mystery that gets solved, and a crafty climax. There are many ways to title this, such as “Julia’s Cynophobia” (the fear of dogs), “Topper: The Lost Dog,” “Attila: The Doberman,” or “Every Dog Has Its Day.” The sound effects of the piano keys, footsteps, doors, tableware, dialing of the rotary phone, pages of the piano sheets, classical music, punches, cars, howling wind, and or course, the sounds of the dog were supportive in this tale. The music also, with its suspenseful tracks that brought the levels of tension and fear up. “Welcome to the world of mystery. The world of terrifying imagination” is a classic intro coming from E.G. Marshall. In ACT-1, he brings us into the story where it begins at a Suburban house on Elm Street (no relations to Freddy Krueger). Afterwards, he asks who is the real terror: the dog or the husband? In ACT-2, he points out that men who love dogs aren’t loveable themselves. In ACT-3, after hearing our stunning climax, our Host points out that a dog could also be a Woman’s best friend. In his Epilogue, E.G. Marshall does a terrific impression of a dog howling. And speaking of terrific, our cast: Kim Hunter (as Julia Smolett), George Matthews (as George Smolett), Robert Dryden (as Dr. Frolich), Gilbert Mack (as Dr. McCann), and Mandy Patinkin (as Ronnie Hughes). Kudos to Robert Dryden & Gilbert Mack for playing the roles of doctors. George Matthews’ performance as the villain was nicely done. Mandy Patinkin did wonderfully. It’s shame that this was the only CBSRMT he ever did (SPECIAL NOTE: he played Inigo Montoya from the 1987 film THE PRINCESS BRIDE). Big props go to Kim Hunter who stole the show. Her performance in this is memorable as her roles in #1193-GARDEN OF THE MOON and #0178-THE SIGHTING. Tune in to this if you’re a fan of Kim Hunter. And if you enjoy mystery stories involving Dogs, check out #0417-THE RED FRISBEE and #0609-THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. Until next time…pleasant dreams. =^D

Liked this one and remember hearing it many years ago. HAs the unexpected twist to it and leaves it to your imaginations what happens later. Great one! Check it out!

This episode sacred me. The actor who played the husband was so realistic, his lines, so true to life, it scared the hell out of me. What made it so frightening was that there were thousands of people exactly like that character, in real life. The horror...is in not being able to get away from them. I couldn't go right to sleep afterward and had to put on the Red Sox. lol :)

This one took a totally different direction than I thought it would take. The path of the hypnosis was really intriguing if not really believable, and I don't think I'd ever let someone hypnotize me. Too creepy even if it is a a doctor doing it.

People who are using current social norms to evaluate to understand this story are missing the point. It's a literally ripping yarn about revenge.

I have listened to all 1,399 episodes and now am listening to them again and reviewing them. This is not one of my favorites and I think it is because the main character is so cruel to his wife. I am not using social norms of today, he is just not a good person. You have to tell an exceptional story to make a evil person bearable, and this does not come close. I wish it did. Alas.

Was disturbing to hear the cruelty of the husband, which alas happens more than we like to think about. But for the storyline of revenge, a good yarn. Justice is delivered in the end, especially since he apparently just keep the dog tied up outside. Cruelty again from a person who was cruel, but reaped his reward.

Let sleeping dogs lie. If her husband would have done so (and had been nicer not only to her but others around him: dog boarder, her piano student, her doctor, probably his employees too), he would not be in line for his "soon-to-be-comeuppance".

One of the more interesting stories on CBS RMT. This one kept my interest while working late during tax season for the entire story. Good acting and good story.

That's the way a woman ought to be treated!