Episode 288: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – Fletcher Loses His Pumpkin (October 20, 1950)

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. “Fletcher Loses His Pumpkin” aired on Friday, October 20, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Kukla introduces the popularly-requested musician: himself, playing a xylophone (pronounced “zillophone.”) It sounds pretty good once the backing track kicks in. Cecil Bill comes out to put the kibosh on an encore. The next act up is Fletcher Rabbit showing us how to carve the Halloween pumpkin, although it looks more like a gourd to me. He tells us that he doesn’t approve of patterns, because everyone should use the opportunity to show their inner creativity. Well that’s nice.

It’s always the last place you look.

Fletcher goes to show how to use a knife, and in the interim Beulah Witch appears to snatch his pumpkin. When Fletcher returns, he asks Jack and other producers where the pumpkin went, but they don’t have any straight answers. Fran also doesn’t know where it is, and Fletcher gets very emotional about the missing gourd. This situation calls for Cecil Bill in his Sherlock costume to gather information to help solve the mystery.

Cecil Bill gives Fletcher the third degree, and drags him away, suspecting him of some sort of plan. Ollie and Fran pop up, and she lets him know what’s going on. Ollie smells ginger in Beulah’s stall, and she tells him not to come near her pumpkin pie. Meanwhile, Colonel Crackle pops up to say that Fran has been named the Sweetest Girl in Television. Should I add that to the Golden Potatoes categories? She receives a bouquet of roses.

Fran and Madame Oglepuss bicker about whether you can have a “quince” or “mince”, which sounds very British to me. Kukla visits Madame O making her pie off stage and brings out the RCA Victor record player. It’s a shame this isn’t a Sealtest day or they could have the pie a la mode. Kukla, Fran, and Ollie sing from a sheet about the greatness of the RCA Victor player, in one of the clumsier commercial segments that the show has done. They make up for it a little afterwards by giving Jack some funny backhanded compliments.

Madame O pops up again wanting to sing the song, but it’s too late. She tries throwing her weight around as the Director of the Kuklapolitans Ladies Auxiliary. Fran eventually agrees to re-do the song with Madame Oglepuss and Beulah. After this she sings another song to try to comfort Fletcher. He’s happy enough to do another RCA plug afterwards, but he never does find out what happened to his pumpkin.

What I thought: Fletcher Rabbit was sitting backstage at the Kuklapolitan theatre. He quickly tried to gather information from his surroundings. Ollie was raiding the costume department again, entertaining everyone by coming out in crowns and feather boas. Kukla and Cecil Bill were hammering away at a set for next week. It was an ordinary evening after the show. It was almost just like it had been before The Incident.

He tugged down his sleeve and found a message, written in permanent marker. Beulah W. stole my pumpkin.

“Fletcher?”

Given the daily, improvised nature of the show, I’m surprised we don’t see more sheet music on screen.

He snapped to attention and saw Beulah Witch. What had he been thinking about? “I’m sorry. I have a condition.”

“I know about your condition, Fletch, you’ve told me a thousand times,” said Beulah. “I was asking if you wanted some pumpkin pie.”

So that was the pleasant smell. Fletcher loved pumpkin pie, but something bothered him. He looked down and rifled through the group of photographs he had put together to jog his memory. One snapshot depicted Beulah stirring a mixture in her cauldron. Don’t believe her lies was scrawled in his own handwriting.

“I’m not supposed to believe your lies,” said Fletcher.

“Well, believe whatever you want,” said Beulah. “The pie is real.”

She was right. That pie did smell delicious. Fletcher couldn’t remember what he was so upset about. He stood up to get a piece.

Coming up next: Gene Autry meets “The Black Rider.” Sounds tough!

Episode 283: Kukla, Fran and Olle – Dolores and Beulah Witch (October 17, 1950)

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. “Dolores and Beulah Witch” aired on Tuesday, October 13, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

The girls are looking good.

What happened: We open on the titular Beulah and Dolores getting all dressed up. Dolores is very resistant to the bonnet she’s wearing. Beulah is tired of practicing music from the last episode, and wants to go out. Dolores doesn’t seem too excited, but Beulah drags her out anyway, taking her off on her broom.

The scene is soon occupied by Fran and Ollie, discussing their absence. Fran is mad/worried about Dolores going out into the city, but Ollie is sure she can handle herself. Kukla pops up to help something that’s gotten into Fran’s eye. Ollie is very insistent that Fran doesn’t use mascara, and to demonstrate his friendship he sings a song about wanting to shout “I love you!”

Kukla takes a brief lie-down, which alarms Ollie. Fran goes off to get the letters. Kukla says that he’s heard someone received a love letter, through eavesdropping on a phone call. This has something to do with people named Bobsy and Crawford, and Beulah’s sorority of witches that are visiting for Halloween. Ollie is worried that Beulah hasn’t even prepared for the convention.

After a brief interruption by Fletcher, Dolores comes back crying and screaming. Fran calms her by promising an ice cream sundae, because it’s Tuesday. This leads into a hard sell on the Kukla and Ollie ice cream spoons available through Sealtest. The phone starts ringing, and Kukla answers it. It turns out Beulah is in the clink! They said the 1950s were the new witch hunts. Fran gets on the phone to vouch for Beulah’s character, saying that she comes from South Carolina. This is apparently enough for them to get the police to release Beulah and send her back to the stage. Witch privilege, I guess.

Ollie is still freaking out about Dolores, despite Fran’s attempts to reassure him. Fran has a bit of a malapropism, causing Kukla and Ollie to lightly mock her. A now-exhausted Ollie heads off to bed, running into Fletcher’s leftover tambourine on the way. Fran sings “It’s A Marshmallow World in the Winter”, despite them talking the whole episode about how it’s unseasonably warm even for October.

Beulah returns, looking frazzled and with a bouquet of flowers. She says that she was arrested by an officer who mistook Dolores for an un-leashed dog. This led to an argument that led to Beulah’ arrest. Will this police violence never end? They resolve to calm down after this turbulent day with some Sealtest.

What I thought: This is another one of those KFO episodes which mostly feels like an omnibus of loose ends. The title comes from a story about Beulah taking Dolores out for a walk in the park, but they’re gone for most of the runtime. This is the most we’ve seen from Dolores, who is usually something of a bit character, and we even get to hear her make some sounds. The series gets a lot of mileage out of Dolores in the Rerun-like “younger kid” role that the basically childlike Kuklapolitans have to take care of, and this episode is no different.

Kukla on the phone oes a lot of the heavy lifting in this episode.

There are a few references to yesterday’s concert episode, but for the most part this episode is focused on the future. There’s a lot of talk around Beulah’s upcoming witch’s convention on Halloween, which she seems blissfully unaware of. I do like the idea of Beulah having a whole witchy past and witchy friends. I haven’t watched the Halloween episode they did the previous year, so I’m interested to see how they represent the other witches, if they do at all.

It’s somewhat unusual to see KFO setting up a story two weeks in advance, with Halloween set as the obvious climax of Beulah’s efforts. This seems more like something Howdy Doody would do, preferably with some mysteries and puzzles tossed in. I doubt that the next ten episodes will deal entirely with Beulah’s prep for the big reunion, but it will be interesting to see how much they empathize this thread.

Other than that, this is a fine episode of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, if not an especially memorable one. The nature of the show means that most of the action with Beulah and Dolores in the park has to be related to us instead of depicted on screen, but this isn’t too big of a hurdle. Ultimately, KFO is about hanging out with your friends and telling stories, and that’s what we have here.

Comng Up Next: Cisco and Pancho are chasing rustlers again.

Episode 282: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – Concert Day (October 16, 1950)

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. “Concert Day” aired on Monday, October 16, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel. This episode also features credits sequence, which identifies the director as Lewis Gomavitz.

What happened: Fletcher Rabbit opens the show, and is quickly joined by Fran. They get into a dispute over their recent musical practice, where Fletcher threw Fran off the beat. Fletch tries to make up with her by launching into a song about keeping the sunny side up. This, and some extreme flattery, seems to charm Fran and she does a song as well.

All of the classical musical instruments are here.

Kukla joins the conversation, and Fletcher quickly departs, but not before hitting his head on the stage the way out. Kukla also wants to talk about their musical performance, and brings a metronome to demonstrate how Fran has been off-time. It turns out that they’re all been playing together in a kind of classical orchestra, which I would really like to see. Beulah Witch is the star cellist, and she pops off as well to complain about Fran’s violin playing.

The women head out, and Kukla practices playing the oboe (that’s not a euphemism.) Ollie pops up, and discusses proper oboe technique. Kukla then tries his hands at the clarinet, trying to keep with the metronome’s time. Dolores Dragon appears to bother him a little bit. After hearing some of Dolores’ non-verbal words, Kukla is excited to learn that Dolores has perfect pitch, and tries to introduce her to the slide trombone, but she bites off the mouthpiece. That was me in middle school music class.

Kukla calls Fran in to witness Dolores’ natural talents. Fran turns out to be more interested in Dolores’ ability to spin her head completely around. Dolores drops down and her brother Ollie appears to tell everyone that she’s not a natural musician, but rather is just teething. He has a very fancy album he wants them to play today, which is a natural segue into the greatness of RCA 45 record players. They listen to the music for a little bit, and are inspired. Ollie even sings a little, inspired by our old friend Toscanini.

Fran brings out sheet music, and it’s time for the big performance. Kukla sets up the percussion section. Fran only plays the triangle for three pages of the song, and Fletcher bangs on the drum. Jack’s piano playing really carries the piece, if you don’t mind me saying. Things get more chaotic later, as Kukla joins in on the drumming, Fran plays the slide whistle, and Kukla and Fletcher both switch to the xylophone. It’s a cacophony, but they seem to enjoy themselves.

What I thought: In past episodes, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie has been great at encouraging and recapturing the creative play of childhood. As a kid, art and music aren’t just something you consume but something you do, as easy as grabbing a piece of paper and crayon or strapping some rubber bands around a shoebox. Nobody really cares if it isn’t good as professionally-produced media – after all, you’re just a kid.

But when you get a little older, you realize how inadequate your skills are, and how much actual work is involved in improving them. Making art that other adults actually want to see involves doing the same thing hundreds of times, and doing it badly every time in hopes you’ll do it slightly less badly the hundredth time. Most people will hit a wall where they can’t make the thing that’s in their head, and give up, or pursue the things they have more of a natural talent for instead. That was me with art and music as a teenager. I was lucky enough that writing is an art where mediocre craft isn’t as immediately visible to observers.

Kukla really gets some stank on that oboe.

“Concert Day” is exactly about these kinds of menial tasks that make up an artist’s working life. The group wants to perform a concert, but they can’t get on the same rhythm. The use of classical instruments here helps to drive home the hard work involved in music. Only Dolores, the most childish character, has the natural genius of perfect pitch, and ultimately the group has to perform without her.

The final concert, of course, is complete pandemonium. The limitation of only being able to have two puppets on stage at once, which the show usually works round pretty deftly, is a bit of a hindrance here as we can’t actually see Ollie and Madame Oglepuss joining in the cacophony. But Kukla and Ollie make enough chaos on their own, switching back and forth between instruments, to make it clear that the band isn’t going to record a RCA Classical Record any time soon.

But that’s okay. “Concert Day” may focus a little more on the exacting craft of music than previous episodes of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, but ultimately it’s still about encouraging creativity and having a fun time with your friends. Getting better at any skill is a serious and often tedious business, but it helps to have a little fun along the way.

Coming up next: Beulah & Dolores take a trip on another Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

Episode 278: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Third Anniversary Show”

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. “Third Anniversary Show” aired on Friday, October 13, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Kukla is in the bath, getting ready for the third anniversary of the show. He chats with Jack and gets sentimental about the occasion, even launching into a song about how lucky he is. Fletcher delivers a stack of telegrams wishing the show happy birthday. There’s also a cake on the way, and I’m already hungry.

Next up in the bath is Madame Oglepuss, who does some vintage shower singing. Fran is afraid that the noise will collapse the cake. Ollie hops in the tub, and starts singing too, an old “dragon madrigal”. Kukla dries his hair, and conveys the “no yelling” rule. The cake will take another 40 minutes, which is an issue as there are only 17 minutes left in the episode. Dolores also gets in the bath and gets her clothes and ribbons wet, which causes a very maternal Fran to jump in and try to clean her up. Even Beulah jumps into the tub before a quick refresher before it gets taken off stage.

Kukla brushes Ollie’s hair while he inquires about the cake. He goes over the anniversary messages they’ve received, including a big broadsheet signed by the entire crew of their Philadelphia affiliate station, and a rhyming scroll from WTMTJ-TV in Milwaukee. The reminisce on their first show, a “very long” hour-long edition, and thank RCA for their support. Fran sends us off with a song about how “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime.” It’s very sweet, and another oddly romantic song.

This is the raciest episode yet.

The time has finally come to take the cake out of the oven. No ice cream, because it’s not a Sealtest day. Fran puts on the three candles, and Ollie suggests that they make a wish. Whatever it is, they keep it to themselves, and blow out the flame before sending it to a RCA Victor plug.

What I thought: There are a lot of things you can do with an anniversary show (which, for shows operating on a standard schedule, is usually just a season premiere.) You can have an especially dramatic episode with big plot moments, or an especially funny premise you’ve been sitting on for a while. You can bring back a beloved guest star, or a bunch of guests for a big celebration. Or, if you’re Kukla, Fran, and Ollie you can spend most of it on your characters singing in the shower.

This kind of low-key episode is perhaps the best summation of KFO‘s appeal. The show could certainly put together a lot of high-concept productions, as in its various revues and operettas, but it was always basically about hanging out with your TV puppet friends. And the songs are very nice, even if they seem disconnected from the occasion. Maybe KFO did something more elaborate for its first or second anniversaries, but by the this year the series was well in its groove, and confident that its viewership would stick around even if there wasn’t a laugh a minute.

At this point, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie was at the peak of its popularity. The thanks that pour in from station managers aren’t entirely pro forma — the show was a big draw with both children and adults, as demonstrated by its range of advertisers. The 30-minute, five-day-a-week format would only last for another year, however, with a mixture of network meddling and the inevitable decline in popularity setting in. But we’ll get to that when we get to it.

One interesting facet is that this episode actually covers the preparation for the Kuklapolitans’ anniversary party, not the party itself. It’s a testament to the reality that Kukla, Fran, and Ollie were able to conjure that it’s easy to imagine the puppets celebrating well into the late hours of the night, even after the cameras have stopped rolling. I can just see the gang late at night, as Ollie goes for the last piece of cake, and Kukla gets a little loose and talks about how much he loves everyone. Everyone is exhausted the next day, but they all think it’s worth it.

Coming up next: Gene Autry’s got to save a kid again, in a more literal way this time.

Episode 275: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Destination Moon” (October 11, 1950)

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. “Destination Moon” aired on Wednesday, October 11, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Kukla and Ollie are looking through the telescope, which isn’t helped by Ollie holding it in his mouth and dropping it. Kukla asks if the moon is really like it is in the movie Destination Moon. Ollie takes the opportunity to play science teacher, referencing a recent Life magazine article about the galaxy. Ollie offers to tell more about the moon if Kukla tells him about flying saucers. This is how all scientific conventions work, I assume.

Fran comes in to join the conversation, and Ollie comes up with the idea of putting on a play about going to the moon. He also wants to add “more romantic type roles” to the story. They come up with the names Luther (Kukla), Lena (Fran), and Lionel (Ollie) for their trip to Luna, and Ollie and Kukla both volunteer to be in love with Fran. Ollie nixes the love triangle by making Kukla her brother. Presumably a young George Lucas was watching taking notes.

Serious men with serious hats.

We jump into the action, with both Ollie and Kukla wearing makeshift space helmets. Lionel wants to prove himself by making the trip before he marries Lena. They hide the truth from her for a moment before their silly hats give them away. Lena wants to come on the trip, but there’s only room for two. She’s sad, but not too sad to join in a song about “Leaving for Luna.”

Meanwhile, Buster Rabbit and Cecil Bill are working at a radio lab on Earth. They get a strange signal, and have to call in Beulah to interpret it. It’s a message from Lionel and Luther, who are stuck on the moon without fuel to get back. They all apparently know Lena, and call her in. Beulah breaks the news while working in some insults to the two men. Once again, Lena soothes her feelings through song, this time a slower and sadder number. Beulah then pitches her on a new Ford car, which will help take her to the moon. Even car salesmen don’t normally exaggerate that much.

Wielding both space helmets (one with a bow) and the old car prop, Lena and Beulah travel to the moon, singing “Leaving for Luna” again. On the moon, Lionel and Luther are unhappy, with Lionel launching into an operatic lament for Luna. Fortunately, Lena arrives with the Ford to save them. They sing about how nice it is to be back on Earth. Burr even dons the space helmet for his usual sign-off.

What I thought: This is the second episode we’ve seen in our project that relates directly to the 1950 movie Destination Moon, after the Hollywood behind-the-scenes show City at Night. This is probably just a weird coincidence relating to what shows have survived, but it’s an unusual footprint for a movie that was successful but not a massive hit. By contrast, 1950’s top-grossing movie, the Cecil B. DeMille epic Samson and Delilah, hasn’t been mentioned in any of our programs, and indeed has mostly been forgotten. There’s almost something charming, in this day and age, about two programs talking about a moderately successful sci-fi film several months apart.

I haven’t watched Destination Moon but, based on my exhaustive study of its Wikipedia page, it seems to be a strange artifact. It was based on a book by legendary sci-fi author and weirdo Robert A. Heinlein, who imagined that space travel would be taken up by private corporations instead of governments. (In this, as in other things, he may have been an inspiration for the Bezoses and Musks of the world.) The film was an earnest attempt to depict what space flight might actually look like, roughly a decade before Russia put a man in orbit and John F. Kennedy pledged to put one on the moon.

Even the spacesuits are gendered.

The Kukla, Fran, and Ollie episode “Destination Moon” is not really about any of that. Instead, the episode uses the movie’s rough premise to jump into its own style of extraterrestrial adventure. The fantasy, while presented as a spontaneous bit of imagination, is surprisingly developed, with character names, a romance, props, and catchy songs. It fully embraces the romantic aspects of space travel while gently poking fun at them at the same time.

The thing that makes “Destination Moon” great is that, even though the story the gang comes up with is silly, it’s still a good story. The plot element of Ollie’s Lionel feeling he has to prove himself before he’ll be accepted by the one he loves is a meaningful one, and there’s a surprising poignancy to his dialogue, even if it’s a romance between a puppet and a human on a show within a show. A lot of KFO‘s let’s-put-on-a-play episodes are mostly about backstage chaos, but there’s a genuine commitment to this one that makes it work even when the climax is Fran driving a car to the moon.

Ultimately, this is one of my favourite Kukla, Fran, and Ollie episodes I’ve seen, and one that reflects the show’s best quality: its ability to completely transform itself into something else for half an hour. (It also envisions a space prpogram that has much more significant roles for women than the real one would decades later.) So, while I may or may not ever watch the movie Destination Moon, I’m glad it inspired this fantastical puppet show.

Coming up next: We stick with the Kuklapolitans for the potentially much more controversial “Columbus Day.”

Episode 273: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Ollie’s Chemistry Set” (October 10, 1950)

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. “Ollie’s Chemistry Set” aired on Tuesday, October 10, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Ollie is reading his big book of 301 Things A Bright Boy Can Do. He takes interest in one entry, “the boy chemist”, which says that he just needs a few apparatuses and some chemicals from the corner drug store to get started. The 50s were wild, man. At least we know he already has a Bunsen burner. Cecil Bill interrupts, and Ollie threatens him a bit. The dragon is uninterested in testing acids and bases, and is instead aiming for something more ambitious, inspired by “Mr. Sealtest”, the inventor of ice cream.

This book could spawn a lot of plot lines.

Cecil Bill alerts Fran that Ollie is up to something. Fran interrogates him, noting that he’s leaving the house because he had his hair done up. She offers to help with the experiment, singing about what a lovely day it is to do something. Pretty broadly applicable song, that. Ollie gets her to leave by saying that he has a problem related to his appearance, relating to an earlier conversation about Fran saying his hair lacks volume.

Kukla has started conducting his own experiments with the set, filling a beaker up with dark liquid. Ollie finds his set in use and tries to figure out the culprit without alerting Frances. Kukla calls Fran over to check out what he’s doing. Kukla gets a phone call, which turns out to be for Beulah. She talks for a while, claiming that she’s “The same old Beulie-loolie”, and mentions that the 3^rd anniversary of the show is coming up.

Madame Oglepuss, Kukla, and Fran all gossip about the contents of Beulah’s call., with Fran thinking it might be her old flame Crawford. Fran shows off her dessert for the night: angel food cake, topped off course by Sealtest, and she and Kukla discuss Ollie’s strange behaviour. Kukla and Ollie finally get up to some chemistry, pouring the liquid into a different container and immediately running away scared. Beulah comes around and takes a glass of the mysterious liquid to drink.

Ollie reveals to Fran that he was making lotion to help straighten his hair. Fran comforts him as Kukla tears out his hair pins. After a little combing, Ollie is totally revitalized, singing about Old King Cole. For some reason, I always think of that one as a Christmas song. Everyone is happy again, apart from Beulah, who is presumably lying poisoned somewhere.

What I thought: I had a certain image of this episode in my mind after reading the episode title. Ollie would get a chemistry set and, after mixing up something terribly, it would all blow up in his face. leaving him covered in ash. After all, that’s what usually happens in cartoons when someone messes with chemicals, especially someone as goofy as Ollie. An explosion would normally be beyond the realm of KFO‘s special effects, but I’m sure they could have cooked something up.

Of course, I should have remembered that Kukla, Fran, and Ollie never goes the obvious route. Instead, the story we get is only one that loosely involves the titular chemistry set, and is more about the hurt feelings from an offhand comment Fran made about Ollie’s hair. This is becoming a pretty standard KFO plot, also seen in previous episodes featuring Beulah and Madame Oglepuss: somebody (actually Fran, in all three cases) accidentally offends another member of the cast, and has to find a way to apologize to them and make them feel better.

I think his hair looks nice, personally.

This is nice emotional education for kids, to learn that sometimes you will hurt someone’s feelings without meaning to and the onus is still on you to make up with them. It’s also a fine line to walk: the offending comment has to be light enough that Fran doesn’t look cruel, and serious enough that Ollie doesn’t look ridiculous. (Well, more ridiculous than he should.) I think these episodes have mostly walked that line, although erring a bit on the side of lightness.

This episode also works to set up what could be future stories. You have Fran mentioning her old beau, and also ra reference to the upcoming 3rd anniversary of the show. And of course, Beulah drank a whole flask of mystery liquid, so presumably she’s going to be on the toilet for all of tomorrow’s episode. It’s not exactly Lost, but it works to reward the viewer who works every day. Assuming they aren’t offended by hearing that their hair lacks volume, of course.

Coming up next: Maybe we’ll get an explosion on The Cisco Kid.

Episode 270: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – “Dragon Prep Rally” (October 10, 1950)

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. “Dragon Prep Rally” aired on Friday, October 6, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: We open on Kukla waxing the newly-installed floors on the Kuklapolitan stage. It’s so slick that the puppets start sliding across it, including Fletcher Rabbit, who nonchalantly jumps into Kukla’s arms, and Beulah Witch, who does a belly flop into a stage-left exit.

Cecil Bill has to go through quite a bit of effort to actually get the beanie on Ollie’s head.

Ollie gets the main plot started by finding a chest with all of his old souvenirs from Dragon Prep: a beanie, a Bunsen burner, a corsage and the school scarf. He notes that he went to the school at the height of the Depression, which I think puts Ollie in at least his mid-30s.

Kukla comes along after he’s gone and finds the book of pep songs he’s left behind. He shows it to Fran, who does a decent job of miming slipping on the floor. Jack just happens to know the music, letting the duo sing a salute to the school. Ollie joins them and explains that the school was very fancy and had its own style of architecture, Dragon Gothic. Sounds like my fashion sense in high school.

This turns into a story about Ollie’s dad embarrassing him by playing his zither. He also belonged to a dragon fraternity, which was founded by his family. Ollie joins them in another round of “We Salute You, Dragon Prep.” He also explains that he used his family influence to allow for the admission of female students, or “dragonettes”, beginning in his second year.

There’s a brief commercial diversion when Madame Oglepuss pops up to show off a magazine ad for RCA Victor. Call it a meta-ad. She even plays a record with a trance-like “call of the bayou.” It’s very silly. Madame O is moved to dance with Kukla, with which the slippery floor turns into just slamming him against the sides of the stage.

Ollie re-emerges, wearing his scarf, to sing the old dragon fight song. Fran sings the dragonette part. He offers to bring them back to the school. Kukla briefly plugs some sort of Sunday special with a KFO-related feature before one final cheer for RCA.

What I thought: Dear Parents,

We are pleased to welcome you back to another exciting year at Dragon Prep. After two years of long-distance learning and masked classes, we are pleased to see your smiling snouts again. Firebreathing class will be returning to the syllabus. However, all teachers, janitors, kitchen staff, and other school employees will remain masked for your children’s protection.

Dragon Prep is also pleased to implement a new curriculum based on our discussion with Diversity ,Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultants. We will be retiring our mascot “Squinty the Kobold”, and all of our non-male sports teams will now be known as the Dragonxs instead of the Dragonettes. Dragon Prep remains committed to including dragons of all types, whether they be metallic, chromatic, crystalline, long, pseudodragons, or wyverns, as long as they can pay tuition.

The official Dragon Prep School Song Book is mandatory, and can be purchased from the school bookstore for $99.99.

This year’s school trip will be to Aspen, Colorado. Students will learn essential skills such as skiing, high-altitude flight, wine tasting, and horde construction. We are currently looking for parent volunteers to act as chaperones.

Note that peanuts and peanut products are banned on campus due to allergies. Please do not send your little dragons to school with peanut butter-covered mice in their lunch boxes. Our school kitchen provides an assortment of healthy treats with vegan and vegetarian options. On a similar note, bows and arrows are barred from campus, outside of the annual Smaug’s Night festivities.

As one of the first female dragons to be admitted to Dragon Prep, I have seen this school change a lot. What remains, however, is always the expression of joy on children’s faces, the creativity of youth, and the school spirit best embodied by the ringing voices singing “We Salute You, Dragon Prep.” Here’s to anther exciting year ahead.

Sincerely,

Dolores Dragon, Headmistress

Coming up next: Somebody’s poisoned the watering hole!

Episode 267: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Apples Today – Mother Goose” (October 5, 1950

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. “Apples Today – Mother Goose” aired on Thursday, October 5, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Fran is reading to Kukla and Ollie from a Mother Goose book of fairytales. Ollie likes the stories so much that he launches into a song based on “little Jack Horner”, with Kukla contributing a solo telling the story of Little Bo Peep. Fran puts them to sleep momentarily with her version of “Little Boy Blue.” Ollie raps out one I don’t know about a kind lady at Banbury Cross. There’s not much to the lyrics, but I like Ollie’s British accent.

Ollie and Kukla both get a familiar scent through their very differently-shaped noses. It reminds them of home and their mom’s cooking. Ollie finds a little baby puppet, which he rocks back and forth in his mouth. It’s meant to be a doll in the puppet-world, which raises all sorts of epistemological questions. The doll is a gift sent in from twin girls for Dolores, who quickly snatches the gift off the stage. Dolores also got gifts from a woman in Akron, who sent her little ballet slippers.

Just a little smooch between friends.

A messy-haired Beulah Witch pops up and assumes the slippers are for hers. Madame Oglepuss shows up just as she’s wrapping herself up in a fur. Ollie pops back up to promote his commemorative spoon, expertly throwing it to a voice-over announcer. Beulah is back, and also notices the smell. Ollie comes up with a gift: a large apple, part of a bushel shipped to them from a farm in Connecticut along with a very nice sign. Beulah takes it down out of the frame and noisily eats it.

Fletcher arrives with yet more mail: some “very interesting letters” have arrived. No one seems interested, so Fletch has to interact with himself a bit, reading off the names of senders. There’s even a letter from El Salvador with pictures, although they don’t have television down there. Kukla and Fran sing a sweet song to send us off. (No, not the Sealtest jingle.)

What I thought: I’ve described in the past how Kukla Fran & Ollie appealed to a broad audience, with its 7 PM timeslot bridging children’s and adult’s TV time. This episode is one of those more aimed at children, with the opening sequence revolving around fairy tales. Fairy tales are one of the last example of stories that are still passed down orally, despite their more codified version in books and movies. (My sister and I may be the only people in the world who associate the Three Little Pigs with take-away pizza.) It was interesting to see that I recognized most, but not all, of the nursery rhymes used — it seems some things do change over time. However, even in this section there are a few nods to high culture and more adult subject matter.

On Howdy Doody, they’d try to sell you the book.

Most of the half-hour, however, is more of a mailbag episode, with the puppets reacting to various things the viewers sent in. It’s fun to imagine people around the world sending in whatever they had on hand — freshly-grown apples, toys they had outgrown, and so on and so forth — into a somewhat baffled TV crew. Maybe the kids thought they were really giving presents to their favourite characters, or maybe it was just a way to show how widely appreciated the show was.

I’m almost as tickled about the letter from San Salvador as the cast are. There was no television service in El Salvador, but apparently a local magazine had chronicled Kukla, Fran and Ollie and readers had liked the look. It can be easy to overlook how much demand there was for American-style television and programming in smaller countries, even before it was available. Wikipedia tells me that El Salvador wouldn’t get TV until 1956, with the launching of Canal 6. I would imagine there aren’t going to be many Salvadorean programs available to cover on this blog, at least not for a good while, but at least I have plenty of time to practice my Spanish.

Anyway, that’s the show for this week. It’s hard to really come up with stuff to say about fairly quotidian episodes like these, but I did enjoy it. There’s such a natural dynamic between the members of the Kuklapolitans — Fran and Ollie’s gentle teasing of each other, Fletcher’s eagerness to be recognized by the others, Dolores and Beulah’s quasi-romance. It’s fun to spend time with these characters, even if they’re not doing much.

Coming up next: A show I definitely still know what to say about, The Lone Ranger.

Episode 265: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Who’s On The Cable” (October 2, 1950)

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. “Who’s On The Cable” aired on Monday, October 2, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Colonel Crackle announces tonight’s occasion to us: because of the coaxial cable being hooked up to more cities, the show is now being broadcast live to cities that were previously using Kinescope recordings. He gets on the phone to make sure that the broadcast is happening in various cities, including St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Omaha. The plan is to do a pageant to salute all the areas that are tuning in for the first time.

This show is keeping the puppet-sized wig industry in business.

First up is a general tribute to the Southern states by the show’s female cast. Beulah and Madame Oglepuss get into the spirit with some big wigs. Colonel names off some of the Southern stations that are now live, including Birmingham, Jackson, and Charlotte. Fletcher Rabbit and Cecil Bill do a tribute to Omaha and Indianapolis. Fletcher has taken the phrase “Indian” too seriously and has put on a Native American headdress. They do their best rendition of a pow-wow. Oh no, Fletcher Rabbit is cancelled now.

Kukla is stressed out because the show is behind schedule. Fran has put on a bonnet that she describes as an “old plantation type.” Everyone’s getting problematic tonight. She sings about “That old Southern comfort.” Another city being linked up tonight is Davenport, from Fran’s home state of Iowa, but she doesn’t have a song ready for the occasion. Not a lot of songs about Iowa, to be fair. Fletcher pops up to remind Colonel Crackle to plug RCA Victor records, and shows off the latest device to Cecil Bill. Fran reads a poem about Davenport, which is mostly traffic directions.

Continuing on the Southern theme, Ollie presents a “tableau” which is him in a dress monologuing to a cotton plant. Beulah sings a brief song about the Carolinas. But there’s still a problem. Colonel Crackle’s phone calls still can’t find reports of the show being broadcast in the new markets. Fran and Ollie do a song encouraging people to send a message, to the tune of “Oh Susannah.” They sign off, hoping their show will reach someone. Me too.

What I thought: I was just writing about the regional unevenness of early TV when discussing Miss Television, and here it is again. This episode of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie commemorates a mostly-forgotten moment in television history, when the installation of coaxial cables allowed for the networks to send live feed across the east coast and into the mid-west. As this episode expresses, it’s not that clear how quickly the regional stations actually got “on the cable” — one source I’ve found online shows an Atlanta station commemorating the occasion on October 4. But the technology was now in place. This was part of a still-ongoing expansion. The first “networks” had stretched only from New York to New Jersey, and the west coast and southwest were still to come.

I’m not sure about all of the technical details — relay stations carrying over-the-air microwaves were still involved — but this dispatched with the need to mail Kinescopes of every series to stations that were now “on the cable.” There were immediate practical benefits to this arrangement. Before, seasonal or time-sensitive programs had needed to be taped in advance, as we’ve seen with KFO‘s Fourth of July episode. Viewers in Florida or Nebraska could now keep up with news coming out of the Northeast in real time.

The change doesn’t seem to have drawn much notice, only receiving a short article in The New York Times and getting brief mentions in histories of television. This was an era of great technological innovation in TV: CBS was applying for permission to broadcast in colour, and other companies were trialing early pay-per-view and cable technology, although it would take much longer for these inventions to be widely implemented. But the ability to broadcast live to a larger audience would have profound implications, amalgamating regional cultures into a larger American identity. For instance, in 1950 Major League Baseball was essentially concentrated in the northeastern region that had previously been served by the network. With wider live television, it would expand into the south and west, knowing that fans in the new markets wouldn’t be watching the World Series on tape days later.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie mostly uses the occasional for silly skits and musical numbers, of course. Instead of a universal American culture, “Who’s On The Cable” represents the new markets as regional cultures which can now be welcomed to the small screen: bonnets and cowbell for the South, teepees for the Midwest. Colonel Crackle’s frantic attempt to figure out who can actually watch the show may have mirrored the uncertainty felt throughout the nascent television industry about the expansion of their reach.

Fran With the Wind?

Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison were themselves beneficiaries of the national expansion of the networks, going from a regional Chicago show to a corner stone of NBC. But for the most part, as television grew it was much more New York and LA influencing the rest of America (and really the world) and not vice versa.

Coming up next: We have a brief gap in KFO episodes (maybe due to all the technical chaos), but The Cisco Kid is still here.

Episode 257: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – Fashion Show (September 28, 1950)

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. “Cinderella” aired on Tuesday, September 28, 1950 at 7:00 PM  on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Madame Oglepuss gives a preparation to her lady’s group, shooing away any menfolk watching. I’d love to Madame O, but I’m committed to this completionist thing. The main order of business tonight is a fashion show. These plans are interrupted by Kukla banging round behind the curtain. He’s still trying to fix the broken floor from earlier in the week.

I would not give Kukla power tools.

Madame O moves on by introducing her “dear friend Frances Allison”, who is wearing the same feathered hat. It takes the two of them a couple takes to realize the fashion faux pas. They both received the hat from the same man, one Mr. Fred. Fran tries to resolve the situation by putting on a sun hat, although Madame O thinks her face is too round for it. After some more chicanery with Kukla’s hammering, Fran sings a very nice song about the coming of autumn.

Kukla and Ollie both listen rapturously in their workman’s hats. They’ve been working hard, but now they want to be in the fashion show too, screwing up Fran’s plans. She reads off a cue card about the importance of fashion and fall trends. Beulah Witch is the first model, but she’s dressed in a dowdy country outfit, contrary to plans. Madame Oglepuss is a bit more on brand, showing off a fancy coat called “The Suburbanite.” Beulah is back with something called “The Relaxa”, lingering to her turn in the spotlight a little too long.

Fran promises us that “the luncheon spots will be the gayest they have been in years.” I hear that people were going back to brunch. Things are interrupted again by the appearance of Fletcher Rabbit, who says he’s going to quit the show based off the carnage done to the mailroom by Kukla and Ollie’s shoddy workmanship. This makes Fletcher the third person to threaten to quit in the past week. Dolores is the next to interrupt, and Fran says she can’t be part of the show, no matter how many hats she puts on.

Ollie also interrupts, showing off his own creation: a hat with four KFO ice cream spoons strapped to it. Kukla has made a whole ice cream sundae hat. Fran is fed up, leaving the screen and letting them shill Sealtest ice cream scoops t their heart’s content. Fran tries to get things back on track, but Beulah spoils things again by swinging her unwieldy hat around. Madame Oglepuss chases her off stage, leaving the show with no models. Ollie comforts her with a cowboy hat, launching Fran into a rustic song about going home to Texas that culminates in a fusillade of yodeling.

What I thought: We haven’t seen too much fashion on television, unless you count the Lone Ranger’s mask or Gene Autry’s plaid shirts. That’s not because it wasn’t there. There was a fashion show on the very first experimental NBC broadcast, and there were likely a lot of fashion segments on daytime television. TV offered clothes companies a way to depict their wares in motion to a domestic audience, on a person who seemed more real than a magazine photograph. But that was all on programs aimed at housewives and other women, which haven’t been preserved or made available, assumed unimportant and not worth archiving.

I can’t say I’m immune to the gendered nature of discourse around fashion. It’s something I always dismiss, and one of the few things about which I have little to no curiosity. (The others are cars, drugs and alcohol, so at least I’m not a total stereotype.) I’ve watched two and a half seasons of Project Runway, but I still throw on whichever monochrome T-shirt is at the top of the pile. So while I may bemoan the condescension of television archivists, it’s not like I could have made heads or tails of 50s fashion anyway.

Fortunately, I need no fashion knowledge to enjoy this episode of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, which like most of the series is less about the show and how it goes wrong. Fran introduces the show as specifically a kind of “girls’ night.” But of course, the boys who are in the title of the show intrude, first with the typically masculine activity of construction, and then by wanting to join in the show. Of course, their actual outfits are horrible, but it’s somewhat endearing that they even try.

This is a terrible Unconventional Materials Challenge.

(One could perhaps speculate that this story of boys seeking to break with gender norms and embrace the allure of fashion could be personal to Burr Tilstrom, a gay man who certainly had a sense of style. But I wouldn’t want to stereotype.)

The display is lightly satirical, with Madame Oglepuss and Beulah’s ridiculously-named outfits and vanity. But there’s definitely a level of craft put into the little puppet clothes they have on, which may not be re-used. Considering the number of costumes and accessories that are regularly used as part of the Kuklapolitans’ shows, I can imagine that Tilstrom and the other producers probably spent a lot of time designing and sewing puppet clothes. Now there’s a type of fashion I can get behind.

Coming up next: The more typically masculine world of The Lone Ranger.