What I watched: An episode of the early children’s show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. The series starred the titular Fran Allison, with all other roles being played by series creator and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. This episode aired on Wednesday, September 13, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.
What happened: Tonight’s episode is sponsored by Ford. It opens with _, who says this is the first time he’s speaking to the audience this year. He has short hair which looks a bit like a modern undercut. Instead of letting us know about the Kuklapolitan theatrical productions, which is his usual beat, he’s here to invite us to the county fair – KFO‘s recreation of fairs that are happening all around the country.
Fran, Madame Oglepuss, and Beulah are all here in big hats. They sing “Come to the Fair” off sheet music. Ollie and Kukla are also here. Kukla is excited for the fair, but Ollie is down in the dumps. He says he’s a city guy now, and just wants to stay home alone. Fran thinks he’s sick and trying to keep it from them, while Kukla thinks he’s still embarassed about a situation last year when he had to judge between jams made by the other Kuklapolitans.
Fletcher Rabbit is bringing a big peanut plant. They head to the fair in a big cardboard cut-out of a Ford car. Fran and Kukla have also prepared exhibits for the fair. Meanwhile, Ollie is brooding, but interrupted by a young female dragon, Dolores. Worried about her, Ollie puts on a flowery hat to imitate her mother and take her to the fair.
This disguise proves effective, and Ollie enjoys the opportunity to visit the fair as someone other than himself. Beulah, Madame O, and Fran all seem to not recognize him, as they search for a place to have their peach-plum jelly judged. When they have a glimmer of recognition, Ollie says that “my face is a common one you could see in any crowd.”
The three jelly-makers meet and decide on the mysterious woman as the perfect impartial observer to judge who has the best jelly. Ollie, predictably, is distressed by this, claiming that he has no sense of taste. Fletcher is just interested in the hoedown, prompting Fran to sing a distinctly non country-style song about country-style dancing. The story doesn’t really have a conclusion, but we are reminded to visit our local Ford dealer. This seems like a big step up from buying Sealtest ice cream.
What I thought: I was a city kid through and through, not to mention Canadian, so I never experienced the bucolic world of county or state fairs dominated by agricultural competitions, small midways, and well-past-their-prime musical acts. My family did, however, go to the Canadian National Exhibition as a yearly ritual. The Ex, as we called it, had its roots in just such a county fair, but the rides and games and spectacle had grown to more or less take over any agricultural aspect, save for a show-riding ring where I first learned what manure smelled like and a few other out-of-the-way exhibits.
When I was young, I always looked forward to the Ex, which seemed magical and bigger-than-life. It was a day of excitement that distracted from the evaporating final days of summer. But as I grew older, I realized that I enjoyed the anticipation of the day and the concept of a big day out more than the event itself. I was intimidated by most of the rides, I knew horses were a girl thing, and there weren’t enough tickets to play skewed midway games all day. As the reality of a day full of family bickering and logistical hassles set in, I would become surly, thinking to myself that I’d rather have stayed home and had a day to myself. As I entered my teenage years, this emotion seemed to encapsulate more and more supposedly fun things.
All of this is a very personal and round-about way of saying that I had a brief moment of intense identification with Oliver J. Dragon while watching this episode. It’s amazing how well Tilstrom’s puppets convey emotion, even with static facial expressions, and the same Ollie that was a rakish salesman in yesterday’s episode today reminded me of just the same sullenness I subjected my family to.
As it turns out, the perfectly sociable Ollie simply wants to avoid being put in a position to avoid having to choose between his friends, not whatever adolescent bullshit I was going through. He ends up disguising himself and, in true sitcom fashion, this leads to exactly the situation he was dreading. The episode ends before it feels like the story can be properly resolved, which is perhaps a consequence of the improvisatory nature of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Still, it’s a fun episode, and one that tells a simple but affecting emotional story.
I’ve still never been to a real county fair. The closest that I’ve come is probably the Winona Peach Festival, another childhood tradition that I was bored by. Maybe one day I’ll move out to the country and have to judge between peach-plum jellies. Probably not. But if I do, at least I’ll know that a puppet dragon has been through the same thing.
Coming up next: I’m taking a one-week break to get some of the site’s infrastructure up to date, and then we’ll be back with another exciting KFO adventure.
The Eternal Couch Potato 