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. “Committee Day” aired on Thursday, September 14, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.
What happened: Kukla starts the show unhappy with the pace and pronunciation of the announcer’s introduction to the show. Given that the show’s been back for three weeks, he expects more. He’s also unhappy about the lighting, which looks much better on Fran. Ollie comes in to make fun of his perfectionism. The lighting seems to dim during this segment, which may be part of the bit or may just be the Kinescope.
Ollie gets behind the camera and plays director, talking about how great Fran looks but acting like he’s unable to see Kukla. Kukla wants to hold the regular fall meeting about the show. They take the minutes, with everyone identifying themselves. Fran thinks the whole thing is silly, obviously not understanding the importance of Robert’s rules of order.
The first order of business is the Treasury Report, which consists of Ollie dragging up an old cash register and opening this up. There’s some argument about who can second a motion or not. Ollie wants to add a constitutional amendment, which leads to the question of whether or not they have a constitution.
Kukla and Ollie vote to adjourn, but just as they do Fletcher Rabbit arrives, with a report on the “mail situation” Fran tells him he shouldn’t be speaking as the meeting is not in session, but he proceeds anyway. He brings in letters that several children have written to the show. The letters all look to be quite extensive, and are from across the US. They all encourage more people to write in, despite the mail seeming pretty overwhelming already.
Beulah Witch also shows up to give a report, although she’s not sure what about. She decides to make an ice cream soda on stage, to demonstrate the uses of Sealtest ice cream. Beulah demonstrates the method of making an ice cream soda (what I’m used to calling an ice cream float), putting particular emphasis on placing the glass on the table. Beulah takes off before Fran can load in the ice cream, so she lets Cecil Bill stir it. The glass begins to overflow, but Beaker still wants to add more syrup. Damn, now I’m hungry.
Ollie comes back to take the floor. He gets the camera to show off the people behind the show, including cameraman Kumar and pianist Jack. They sing a call-and-response song I’m not familiar with. Everyone votes to adjourn once again, and tell everyone to buy Sealtest. After that float, they don’t really need to convince me. Burr drinks from the float as the show signs off.
What I thought: This is another Kukla, Fran, and Ollie episode that is essentially housekeeping, tying together a bunch of neccesary small tasks into a half-hour whole. For all that, it’s a fairly fun and breezy watch. The structure of a committee meeting provides a good way to integrate miscellaneous items like the reading of fan-mail and an extended advertising demonstration, and also allows for some good jokes about the absurdities of bureaucracy. The little fourth-wall breaking jokes like Kukla being disappointed in the announcer and Ollie turning the camera back on Jack Fascinato, the musician who both composed and performed most of the show’s accompaniment.
These jokes would seem to be some of the show’s more adult-oriented humour. Kids probably hadn’t sat in meetings dominated by questions about the right order to do business in and the difference between sponsoring and carrying a motion. Then again, kids certainly understand what it’s like to be involved in something boring that has pointless rules. There’s a kind of bureaucracy-driven humour here that wouldn’t be out of place in the works of Terry Gilliam.
The most business-like part of the episode is the reading of fan-mail, but in a sense it’s also the most tender and heartfelt. In a pre-Internet era, fan mail was genuinely one of the only ways to communicate with an artist, and there was even the hope that they might actually read it. It was also one of the few ways TV shows (and comics, newspapers, etc.) could get feedback from ordinary consumers, and give them a sense of what was working and what wasn’t. By naming letter writers on show, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie helped to build a sense of community with their viewers. Just hearing their name on TV could also be a surreal treat for kids around the country.
Most of the rest of “Committee Day” is dedicated to a demonstration of how to make an ice cream soda. There are a couple of jokes here, but this is also a perfectly reasonable and usable set of instructions on how to make a simple kid-friendly dessert. Call it proto-food television. In any case, it’s a fairly fun integration of an advertiser, and an enjoyable end to a grab-bag of an episode.
(Motivated by this episode, I made an ice cream float with the root beer and ice cream I already had in my fridge. It may be because I was missing a couple ingredients, but it didn’t quite have the magical fizz I remember from root beer floats in my Nana’s kitchen. I guess you really can’t go home again.)
Coming up next: It’s the second-season premiere of The Lone Ranger. Wait, didn’t we just finish the first season?
The Eternal Couch Potato 