The Gumps is an American radio sitcom broadcast from 1931 until 1937, mostly on CBS Radio based on the popular Sidney Smith newspaper comic strip The Gumps.
WGN executive Ben McCanna believed that a dramatic serial could work on radio just as it did in newspapers.
After reworking these characters for Amos 'n' Andy in 1928–29, while borrowing certain elements from The Gumps, they were on their way to becoming millionaires, and the radio serial format they created soon became the model for many other serialized radio dramas.
[2] After The Gumps were finally heard on WGN in 1931, the series moved to CBS for a four-year run (1934–1937), produced and directed by Himan Brown with scripts by Irwin Shaw.
Shaw had been scripting the Dick Tracy radio series, when Brown asked him if he thought he could write comedy.