The Silver Shroud (franchise)



The Silver Shroud was a multimedia franchise featuring the eponymous noir superhero fighting villains in a modern-day Boston. It was popularized as a Galaxy News Radio radio drama that aired in the Boston area before the Great War. It was written by Tina Hopkins for Hubris Comics and Galaxy News Network.

Radio show
The Silver Shroud radio show consisted of 420 episodes (419 regular and one holiday special) written with Tina Hopkins as lead writer. Crossovers with other Hubris properties were very popular, particularly ones in The Unstoppables continuity (for example, the 2071 episode, The Silver Shroud vs. Captain Cosmos).

It also included a number of minor characters, such as the cryonic villain Mister Abominable from Episode 83.

Known episodes

 * Mechanist story arc
 * 1) A Slaying in Scollay Square
 * 2) The Mystery of Mayor Murphy
 * 3) In the Parlor of Mysteries
 * 4) Fat Fahy’s Folly
 * 5) Into the Robot’s Den
 * 6) The Mechanist Unmasked!

TV show
Although the radio show was a staple of Boston popular culture, it lacked appeal outside the city. In order to tap into these markets, Hubris Comics decided to create a television show based on the drama, bringing in Aaron Babowski, a noted television producer, to aid with the shooting.

The work on the show started around October 2077, with Babowski managing to almost instantly alienate Tina Hopkins with his method and the changes he introduced. Babowski made stealth revisions to the shooting script, such as introducing an English butler (Jarvey Blake) for the Silver Shroud. This was one in a long line of alterations that Hopkins believed would alienate the core fans of the series. On October 11, Hopkins involved Vivian O'Dell in her desperate attempt to contain Babowski and his changes. Although O'Dell supported the changes as necessary for the series to get to the small screen, she promised to talk with Babowski.

Her concerns were not noted by Hubris Comics, which was more concerned with the general success of the series rather than retaining their user base. When Hubris agents managed to convince Claire Redelle to accept a role as the Mistress of Mystery on October 14, Evans Richelli and Aaron Babowski decided that such a high profile actress would ensure the success of the TV series. Losing her to Wisemans or other competing companies due to Hopkins standing in the way was unacceptable, and so they would have to ensure that Hopkins would leave the project. Her contract with Hubris was ironclad, so the only way they could achieve it was by making her quit of her own accord. As expected, their choice did not go down well with Hopkins once she received the news the following day. The actress did not fit the Mistress of Mystery in her opinion, no matter what the gross for The Tomb of Amun-Ra was. Apart from being a redhead (as opposed to a brunette, as Mistress was envisioned), she had a shrill, waif voice, completely unfit for a character who's supposed to be a confident match for the Silver Shroud. She preferred Shannon Rivers for the role, who voiced the Mistress in the radio series and even looked the part despite being older than Claire. She promised to quit should Claire remain on the project, much to the satisfaction of the executives. O'Dell promised to intercede on their behalf, and reached out to Babowski via electronic mail to protest Redelle's casting.

Babowski was adamant in the reply, claiming the contract with Claire is signed and it's impossible to reverse course. He also casually dismissed Shannon Rivers as unsuitable for the role, based on her age: 20 years late for the role, with a face made for radio, in his own words. Then he also asked for more romance scenes between Mistress and the Shroud. And if the lead writer won't make them, she can be replaced by one of his associates from Hollywood. Peter Shiner, the executive of Hubris Comics, got involved in the project two days later, on October 18, backing Babowski's choice of Claire for the role and the alterations to the costume, while stating that both O'Dell and Hopkins were right: Redelle needed to become a brunette for the series and her voice just didn't fit the character. He proposed dubbing Claire over in post-processing, with Shannon providing the voice.

Rather than acquiesce, Babowski decided to gamble. His message from October 20 was a calculated attempt to push Hopkins over the edge. Beyond adding a monkey in a wig to the script (mocking the suggestion that Redelle wear a wig to cover her fiery red hair), he suggested that the wig be dropped entirely and that Shannon Rivers be dismissed, so as to not annoy the actress (after she delivers her lines as the Mistress, of course). Hopkins' response to such treatment was immediate: She quit, deciding to accept a job offer from Manticore, a competing company. All according to Hubris' plans.

However, their triumph was short-lived, as on October 23, the entire world was scorched by nuclear flame. The TV pilot was never completed.

Appearances
The Silver Shroud franchise first appears in Fallout 4 and has since been included in Fallout 76, its add-on Wild Appalachia, and Fallout Shelter Online.

Behind the scenes

 * The Silver Shroud, given his appearance and start as a radio program, is heavily influenced by the radio drama and comic book character the The Shadow. Both characters are stealthy vigilantes with a mysterious demeanor, along with similar costumes, gleaming weaponry (The Shadow's M1911 pistols were named "Silver Heat" in the 1994 film reboot of the character), and catch phrases. The Shadow also has an analogue to Shroud's Mistress of Mystery in the form of his confidante, Margo Lane.
 * The Silver Shroud appears to be based on The Shadow and The Green Hornet. Like the Silver Shroud, they both had popular radio serials and wore a trench coat and fedora.
 * Silver Shroud's Thompson sub-machine gun may be a tribute to World War II hero Mark Tennant, who was nicknamed the 'Green Hornet' by his fellow soldiers based on the radio serial character.
 * When Silver Shroud and Mistress of Mystery are spying on the robot-mobster meeting through the skylight, it is revealed that the creator of these robot-mobsters calls himself The Mechanist, similar to the Fallout 3 and Automatron DLC character, the Mechanist.