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 Tilstrom. “Sweet William Gives His All” also featured guest star Marlin Perkins and aired on Friday, October 27, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.
What happened: We open once again to Kukla on the phone, calling a friend of his named Crawford. He’s looking for Beulah Witch, who hasn’t been seen all day. Next on the list is Robert, or Bobsie, who doesn’t know either. Ollie wants to call the cops, but Kukla dissuades him, citing Beulah’s history with the po-po. Fran comes in to try and brainstorm some ideas.
Beulah is apparently involved in the Halloween celebrations at the local zoo, which leads to Kukla referring to a story in the newspaper about an angry chimpanzee. The group decides to start practicing their parts for the Halloween show, including a surprisingly cheery song about the spooky holiday. Kukla pops in, speaking in a very Beulah-y voice, reporting on vapour trails in the sky. Hopefully he wasn’t watching YouTubes about chemtrails.
The witchy woman finally arrives, and explains that she was away performing in a show in New York. It was even for another network, since she has a non-exclusive contract. Kukla encourages her to stick to her obligations to KFO and to the zoo. Beulah panics a bit and flakes out offstage.
In the meantime, Fran has been meeting with someone named Sweet William, a friend of Mr. Perkins and an eccentric fellow. Madame Oglepuss pops up, saying that she found a rat in her dressing room, which may or may not be Sweet William. Kukla was also disturbed by seeing his coat walk across the floor. Fletcher is similarly freaked out by what he describes as a large cat after him. Kukla calms him by transitioning into a RCA Victor ad spot.
This leads to the introduction of the real Mr. Perkins and his pet Sweet William, a skunk. Beulah manages to keep her nerve as Mr. Perkins explains that William is tame and de-stinkified. Sweet Will is here to represent the zoo committee, and clambers up onto the stage arch. He starts misbehaving, whipping his tail around, peeing on the stage, and possibly biting Perkins. I’m pretty sure this was unplanned.
Kukla blames Beulah’s feathered hat for scaring the skunk, and she briefly threatens to leave for New York again. He cleans the arch and notes that this was Margaret Truman’s favourite show, up until now. Fran comes back and is pretty transparently breaking about the goings-on. This leads us into the credits, and to Burr Tilstrom describing himself as “the janitor.” Even the announcer is breaking up.
What I thought: Normally this would be Fanfiction Friday an I would try to write some bespoke narrative based on today’s KFO episode, but what can one really add to a skunk peeing all over a puppet stage? This episode is a perfect example of the beauty of live television. No one would have planned for Sweet William’s appearance to go this way, but it adds a layer of comedy onto the already funny show, seeing Fran and Burr really react to the show going wrong.
For his part, Burr Tilstrom acquits himself pretty well, immediately working the accident into the story by having Kukla clean up the mess. It’s moments like this that show you how good of an improviser Tilstrom was. Fran gets a little bit more flustered, but she still keeps a positive energy, unable to stop laughing. I’m sure this was a memorable episode for those watching at home, but probably no one ended up disappointed or scandalized.
In addition to Sweet William, this episode features one of the first human guests we’ve had in a while in the form of Marlin Perkins, the beleaguered zoomaster. Perkins was himself a Chicago area TV star who hosted Zoo Parade, which stars the assorted animals of the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was a perfect example of quaint 1950s programming, particularly from the Sunday-afternoon educational block: we’ve got some animals, let’s look at them.
It’ll be a while before we get to any episode from the series, but it was already on its way to winning a Peabody Award. This also wouldn’t be the last time Marlin would be taken by surprise by the animals, as he would be bit by a rattle snake preparing for the show in 1951 and have to be taken to the hospital.
This episode also continues to build to Beulah Witch’s big Halloween celebration. Again, it’s not a very involved storyline like Howdy Doody or other series would do, but it helps to add a little bit of continuity and rewards for everyday viewers, as do little nods like the reference to Beulah’s run-in with the law. We’re coming up on Halloween, but we’ve still got one non-spooky KFO episode to do first.
Coming up next: We make a long-awaited return to the UK with the documentary The Debate Continues.
The Eternal Couch Potato 