A successor to the NPR series Earplay (1971-1981) and an expansion (as a sort of umbrella title for several dramatic projects) of National Public Radio's commitment to radio drama, the various series under the Playhouse aegis were essentially discontinued in September, 2002. Among the component series by its final season: the science fiction and fantasy fiction anthology 2000X and the Los Angeles-based Open Stage . The dramatic-reading series, Selected Shorts , continued as essentially the only national program devoted to regular offerings of radio drama, leaving aside the sketches on A Prairie Home Companion and Le Show and the intermittent presentation of drama on the largely-documentary series The Next Big Thing.