Episode 311: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – As You Like It (November 3, 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. “As You Like It” was directed by Lewis Gomavitz aired on Thursday, November 3, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Kukla reminds Fran that today is the production of As You Like It, which Beulah Witch was inspired to put on after seeing Katherine Hepburn perform in the same way. It’s okay, I didn’t know about it either. Fran and Kukla aren’t in it, but she needs to sing a “Shakespearean song.” Fran gives an intro to the production, doing a Colonel Crackle impression. She gets a notice that the role of Phoebe will not be performed, as Mercedes has fallen into the dishwasher, necessitating a “capsule form” of the play.

The real Colonel Crackle begins the narrative with a soliloquy as Orlando, a man of noble station upset at his brother. He refuses to cut his speech short, and as such is yanked off stage. The Colonel notes that there was a competition for the role of Rosalind which involved both Madame Oglepuss (whose first name we learn is “Ophelia”) and Beulah Witch wearing boys’ clothes to see who could better pull off the cross-dressing scenes. I would have liked to see that.

The two women take the stage, and get immediately mixed up in their expository conversation. Fran interrupts to tell them to get a move on. Fran reminds the audience of an event promoting the KFO record in Chicago, and sings a brief song. Cecil Bill is freaking out because the set for the wood of Arden isn’t complete yet. Madame O (we’re still not on a first-name basis) delivers an ad for the RCA Victor TV cabinet in her near-incomprehensible high society accent, including an appearance from a silent Linwood.

We finally get to see Beulah in boys’ clothing, and she makes sure to rub her victory in over Oglepuss. Ollie finally appears in an extremely fancy hat and gives his version of the famous “All the world’s a stage” speech, before getting mixed up with other famous soliloquys and settling on a nautical song instead. Fran arrives and cheerfully tells him that the play is going terribly.

I need to organize my living room like this.

Things are going so bad that Beulah decides that she’s quitting. Katharine Hepburn would never. This causes the others to throw in the towel as well. This leaves Kukla and Fran to take up the roles of Orlando and Rosalind, singing a love song to each other. Ollie applauds them before they sign off to another RCA Victor ad.

What I thought: “If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and breaths that I defied not. And I am sure as many as have good beards, or good faces, or sweet breaths will for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.”

The curtain fell, then come back up for the bows, then fell again. Katharine Hepburn breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how many times she did the play, she was still certain that she would make a hash of it in every split-second before she took the stage.

Backstage, she found a bouquet of roses in her dressing room. When she turned around, her dear friend Laurence Olivier was standing there. Katharine embraced him. “Laurence! Why, you should have told me you were coming. I may have given a better performance.”

“No such thing would be possible, my dear,” said Laurence. “I just thought I would welcome you in person to the fraternity of us who have laboured for the Bard. He is a difficult master, but a rewarding one.”

“Yes, it has been a great change from Hollywood studios,” said Katharine. “It’s just…”

“And they had such beautiful outfits.”

Laurence raised a concerned eyebrow. “Something troubles you?”

“I was watching the television yesterday evening,” said Katharine. “And I saw a group of puppets performing the same comedy. And compared to them, I was but a child screaming his half-learned lines.”

“Oh Kate,” said Laurence. “We are but the Salieri to the Kuklapolitans’ Mozart. Every true actor must make their peace with the fact that, in this generation, the true thespians are all made of felt.”

Coming up next: We stay in Chicago for a wrestling show headlined by Gorgeous George.

Episode 310: The Lone Ranger – “Thieves’ Money”

What I watched: The eighth episode of the second season of The Lone Ranger, a kid-friendly Western created by George Trendle and starring Clayton Moore as the titular hero and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. “Thieves’ Money” was written by Curtis Kenyon, directed by John H. Morse, and featured guest stars John Doucette, Charles Watts and David McMahon. “Drink of Water” aired on Thursday, October 26, 1950 on ABC at 7:30 pm., and is available on YouTube.

What happened: A gang of crooks is examining some counterfeit money, marveling at the accuracy of the forgery by the ringleader Pierre Dumont (like the TV channel). However, they’re arrested by treasury agent Jim Collins (McMahon), who promises them they will be mistreated in prison. He was able to follow Dumont because of his fancy lad affectations, including wearing gasp cologne. But there’s one more crook, who shoots Cobb in the back. Dumont hatches a plan to impersonate Collins to keep the feds off their trail.

Men, what is stopping you from dressing like this?

The Ranger and Tonto finally ride into the story looking for a place to camp, where they find Collins’ body with Dumont’s papers on him. The Ranger has met with Dumont before, and notices that the body doesn’t match his memory. In town, Dumont’s impersonation has fooled the local sheriff, Andrews (Watts). The Ranger and Tonto arrive in the office, and act friendly with Dumont, handing over the papers and asking him to identify the body.

In the morgue, Collins gives a positive ID. The Ranger and Tonto search the area they found the body, finding a covered up trail. They follow the trail to the outlaws’ cabin, which stinks with cologne, and find briefcases of counterfeit money. The Ranger tells us that “counterfeit money can do just as much damage as the most vicious outlaw.” They resolve to set a trap for the crooks.

The bad guys have obtained a hotel room, and the goons hide in the closet while Dumont welcomes the Ranger and Tonto. The Ranger tells them that they found the hideout cabin and the counterfeit money. Dumont invites them to join in an ambush at the cabin. Of course, it’s actually an ambush against the heroes. The Ranger has already convinced the sheriff that Dumont is disguised as Collins, based on the whole cologne thing. He resolves to send a telegram to Washington to get a description of Collins, but this will take time, so the Ranger decides to go with a quicker and more violent method.

The heroes walk towards the ambush, but instead of heading in disarm Dumont. They tell him to put on his own Lone Ranger mask and head in (hey, there’s another mistaken identity.) Meanwhile, the Ranger sneaks in the back. Dumont yells his true identity at him, providing the proof that the authorities need (although the Sheriff is nowhere near, but whatever). We get some fisticuffs with the two goons, which ends with the two men tied up and taken into custody. The sheriff jovially informs them that they’ve been caught by the Lone Ranger, and it’s hi-ho Silver, away.

What I thought: This is another Lone Ranger episode that really relies on the charm of the villain of the week to distinguish it from the usual fare. Dumont is notable for his supposed intelligence and intellectual sophistication. The show has characters repeatedly comment on his wits, but ultimately he’s undone by his very illusion of being high class, as well as the Lone Ranger’s less ostentatious intelligence.

“Men, hand me my Axe Body Spray.”

The script for “Thieves’ Money” really doesn’t seem to trust the audience too much, making sure that every step in this duel of wits is explained in dialogue multiple times. It also takes the relatively easy shortcut of trying to make people care about the relatively banal crime of counterfeiting by having the perpetrator also do a murder.

Still, there are some good performances, featuring Lone Ranger all star (and Golden Potato winner) and John Doucette as Dumont as well as Charlie Watts imbuing all of the sheriff’s limited role with down-home bonhomie. Even Jim Collins makes a relatively big impression. So, even when the scripts are a little dumbed-down, the Lone Ranger’s troupe of regulars feel like they’re doing their best.

Coming up next: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie attempt a little Shakespeare.

Episode 309: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – Oliver Dragon, Interior Decorator (November 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 Tilstrom. “Oliver Dragon, Interior Decorator” was directed by Lewis Gomavitz aired on Thursday, November 2, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: The show opens with a conversation between the show’s least comprehensible characters, Cecil Bill and Dolores. In the grand cartoon tradition, they naturally understand each other perfectly. Bill leaves, and Kukla comes up to ask what she’s doing. Kukla calls Fran in to hear what she has to say. Apparently she’s been learning “toolie talk” from Cecil. Kukla is jealous of her for being able to learn the language as a child.

Ollie pops in and pays tribute to director Lewis Gomavitz, or “Gommy”, who just turned 23. It was a lot easier to get into TV back in the day. On the topic of learning foreign languages, Ollie reveals that he sometimes thinks in “dragon language.” Um, according to my D&D books, it’s called Draconic.

They get on the subject of decorating the house. Fran and Ollie say they like to decorate their own houses, but Ollie objects, saying that they’re costing professional interior decorators their jobs. Ollie decides to take on this role, telling Kukla and Fran to take on the made-up roles of “Edgar” and “Lucille.” Ollie will be both husband George and the decorator.

The story begins at breakfast time, with “Edgar” and “George” getting upset at things not being ready. Husband and wife bicker about their annoying relatives. The subject of complaint turns towards all the furniture and appliances that need to be replaced. Edgar and Lucille browbeat George into asking for a raise. When George gets dispirited, Lucille sings a song about how much she loves him. This cheers up George enough to agree to hiring an interior decorator.

Fletcher Rabbit appears as the mailman, delivering an already-opened package of Kukla and Ollie ice cream spoons. This leads into the typical Sealtest plug. When we get back to the story, Fran has adopted a smart hat, while Kukla has made his voice even more shrill. Edgar and Lucille visit Mr. Dragon the decorator.

Mr. Dragon instructs Lucille to throw out her favourite picture, a statue they got for their wedding, and even the curtains of the stage. He brings out some fancy rugs to show them. Lucille blanches at the price of the redecoration, but decides that they can raise money by going back to their old standard of selling lemonade musically.

What I thought: This episode really highlights the diversity of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. We open with a little bit of old-fashioned silent comedy razmatazz between Dolores and Cecil Bill, followed by a fairly lucid conversation about the value of learning a second language. We then get into the meat of the episode, which is a combination of domestic drama and a satire of consumer culture. All of this with musical numbers and ad breaks too.

The conversation about learning “toolie talk” and “dragon language” particularly hit home for me. As someone who has been hacking through learning basic Japanese off and on for my adult life, and occasionally adding Russian or Spanish to the rotation, I often wish I had picked up a second or third language when I was young. (Although childhood French classes didn’t make me fluent.) The same applies to physical sports or visual art or any number of things I brushed off as a kid when my neuroplasticity and time to study was at a lifetime high. I assume that this segment of KFO was born out of a similar adult thought or conversation, with perhaps sending a message to kids to take advantage of their growing brains while they have them.

The interior decorator is basically Ollie in as much of a button-up shirt as he can manage.

The little two-act play with Ollie as an interior decorator was also pretty interesting. We get a little domestic drama that paints household life as a bit of a nightmare. Husband and wife hate each others’ families, and the baby is a screeching goblin in the way only Kukla can be. It’s not exactly The Glass Menagerie, but it’s a lot darker than it probably needed to be.

The actual appearance of the decorator is a nice bit of satire that harkens back to “Lemonade”, one of the series’ best episodes. Both episodes draw on the way that things which were once a simple domestic duty have become professionalized industries, with personal taste being drowned out by collective fashion and commercial appeal. It does feel like they didn’t leave themselves enough time to fully explore the premise, but overall it’s a very fun bit of comedy.

Coming up next: The Lone Ranger investigates some funny money.

307: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – “What To Do For H. Allen Smith” (November 1, 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. “Halloween” aired on Friday, October 31, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: We open with Beulah cleaning up from last night’s Halloween festivities, including passing off the still uncarved pumpkin to Jack and an old mask to Lynwood. Beulah sings a song inspired by her post-Halloween melancholy. Kukla pops up to explain to us how to give a backhanded compliment. That’s a crucial social skill to teach the children.

Fran visits Kukla, and tells him that they have a guest from near New York. Kukla makes some outlandish guesses, but of course it’s H. Allen Smith, noted “humourist.” Kukla is worried about being the butt of the joke, and swears to be nice to Allen. Ollie pops up and shamelessly flatters Fran. He hits his head looking for his mother’s brooch, and Kukla has to give him a cold compress. The Lone Ranger isn’t the only show with concussion risks.

Kukla wants to do something special for Allen, such as putting on a big show. He doesn’t really have any good ideas though, and at one point suggests doing “an Indian show.” Please, I just got done wagging my finger at Howdy Doody. They resolve to think on it. As Fran is preoccupied, Ollie interrogates him and urges him not to let Fran talk him out of their ideas.

We get a sidebar from Fletcher. Now that Halloween is over, he’s switching his focus from teaching how to carve a pumpkin to teaching how to carve a turkey. When Kukla shuts this down, he decides to instead lecture us on the 1951 Ford.

Ollie does have a great hat for the occasion, though.

Once the ad break is over, Fran presents Ollie and Kukla with their parts in a play, where she rejects their attempts at romance but keeps their gifts. The puppets find this script unacceptable and throws them away. They want to do a Western play called “Westward, Ho”, but there aren’t a lot of roles for women. Fletcher is back on about wanting to do “The Bohemian Girl” with his drum, but Kukla again shuts him down.

Jack eventually supplies them with a Western-themed number to do, “Them Dudes.” They perform it happily, but are still looking for a big enough show for Allen. Ollie promises us a big surprise at our local Ford dealers. Surprise: it’s the 1951 Ford, with Ford-o-matic drive. I’ve gotta get me one.

What I thought: H. Allen Smith is described on the Wikipedia search bar as an “American journalist, humourist, and chili fancier.” His humour books were tremendously popular during the 1940s, where they were passed around among WW2 soldiers. He claimed to have drank the first legal drink following Prohibition, and later competed in the first-ever chili cookoff. He sounds like a fascinating figure, but he’s not actually in this episode.

Instead, this is kind of a guest star episode without a guest star. The characters debate about what they should do to welcome Smith, and in true KFO fashion spend most of the time arguing about it. I’m not sure if this is leading up to an actual Allen Smith appearance, as the forthcoming episode titles don’t mention him, so maybe this was just for a dinner later in the night or something, but it makes for a fairly entertaining episode.

We also have a little bit more of the weird quasi-romantic relationship between the two main puppets in Fran. Kukla does a lot of flattery to the point of flirting with her, whereas Ollie seems to talk to him as a henpecked husband. There certainly wasn’t any real attempt to entertain the idea of romance, nor was there any such relationship between Fran Allison and Burr Tilstrom, but it seems to be a role that they occasionally slip into. With the size and species difference between Fran and the puppets, they could sometimes be mother and child, sometimes co-conspirators, sometimes adolescent boys and the older woman entertaining their flirting. But they always, in one sense or another, loved each other.

Coming up next: We go back to ringside to watch boxing champ Sandy Saddler in a tough fight.

Episode 306: Howdy Doody (November 1, 1950)

What I watched: A 1950 episode of children’s puppet show Howdy Doody., created by Roger Muir. The series starred “Buffalo” Bob Smith as the host and voice of the puppets and Bob Keeshan as Clarabell, with additional voices by Dayton Allen, Rhoda Mann and Bill LeCornec (although I’m not sure who played this episode’s guest character). This episode was directed by Bob Rippen and written by Ed Kean. It aired on November 1 at 5:30 PM on NBC and is available to view on the Internet Archive.

What happened: After the customary opening song, Howdy regales us with “the Howdy Doody Rumba”, including a couple of culturally questionable “ay carumba”s. We then launch into this week’s mystery, as “Chief Chickapaw” was drawing a picture of his “Indian Reservation” and inadvertently revealed something. This leads to a tableau of the chief being held hostage by Buffalo Bob and Clarabell. Bob thinks the Chief was drawing a map of the Howdy Doody Circus instead, and his suspicions are soon confirmed.

Bob can’t believe this script either.

The extremely European-sounding Chief says that he was drawing the picture as a gift, and only didn’t want to show it because it wasn’t ready. Bob seems to buy this completely. The Chief signs the picture with a “T” instead of a “C”, which gets Bob’s suspicions going again. Bob tries to relate him to the other Native American characters they’ve had on the show. This leads into another song on the piano, “The Friend Song.”

Chief says he needs a little more time to finish his work, which leads into today’s old time movie, which involves a couple of dudes trying to catch a horse while hanging from a harness. Chickapaw explains how his warpaint is very significant, which leads into Buffalo Bob encouraging kids to get the Howdy Doody colouring book, where kids can draw their own face on the last panel. Howdy appears with an unsettling-looking parrot puppet, and sings to encourage kids to get their parents to buy things.

The Chief is finished with his very simple drawing, and says that his tribe, the Chigoochies, were caught in a conflict between the Sigafoose and Tinka Tonka. Not sure these are historically accurate names. Apparently there’s also a princess with a magic necklace in there. Clarabell sprinkles water on the drawing to simulate the upcoming rainy season. The Chief ultimately decides he’s going to help “the Feather Man” and the Sigafooses, as it’s easier to attack downhill in the rain. He presents Bob and Howdy with a ceremonial necklace, but ends up giving it to Mr. Buster instead.

Bob goes over to the “Shoedoodle” to advertise an array of Poll-Parrot children’s shoes, including “really rugged he-man Oxford, like dad wears.” He reflects on the episode’s events, and finds it strange that the Chief gave beads to Mr. Buster. The camera pans down to find the Chief writing in his notebook, with Suspense organ music playing. What a gripping cliffhanger, a shame we’ll never see the ending.

What I thought: Look, I genuinely don’t go into these articles looking to condemn 73-year-old TV shows for being racially insensitive, because it’s a waste of time. But I don’t think you need to be a social justice warrior to be a little uncomfortable with the appearance of the nefarious “Chief Chickapaw” in Howdy Doody. The series seems to have created a whole cosmology of made-up “Indians”, rendering them as a kind of fantasy world. It makes The Lone Ranger look like Reservation Dogs.

The plot of the episode is that Chickenfoot is being suspicious but the credulous Bob and Howdy buy into everything he’s saying, believing he’s going to be friendly. This requires the Chief being shady in a way that will be detectable by small children, resulting in Howdy and Bob looking like total idiots. It’s an interesting tack, making the children’s show host an unreliable narrator, but it also has the effect of training kids to see Indigenous people as untrustworthy even if they seem to be benevolent.

This is like the map at the start of a fantasy book.

But, as always, the main purpose of Howdy Doody is to sell shit to kids. At this point the ads and merchandise have metastasized to take over a big portion of the show. Howdy is largely separated from the main action, sitting at his piano to play songs from the recent record, also featured on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Today’s main sponsor, Poll Pocket Shoes, now has its own puppet and set, blending into the larger action.

Obviously every show on traditional television depends on advertising. As a medium, it exists to sell shit. But there’s something especially uncomfortable when Buffalo Bob urges young kids to ask their parents to buy them a particular model of shoe. Together with the Native American stuff, all of this makes this episode of Howdy Doody a very weird and somewhat insidious watch.

Coming up next: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie plan to put on a show for a visiting humourist.

Episode 305: The Cisco Kid – “The Will”

What I watched: Season 1, episode 10 of The Cisco Kid, a Western drama starring Duncan Renaldo as the eponymous Cisco and Leo Carillo as his sidekick Pancho. “The Will” guest starred familiar faces Gail Davis, Riley Hill, and Robert Livingston. This episode was written by Royal K. Cole, and was directed by Derwin Abrahams. This episode has an air date of October 31, 1950, although as a syndicated series exactly when it aired would have varied by market, and it is currently available on Tubi.

What happened: Pancho is writing a letter to Sister Maria, asking Cisco how to spell “fried chicken.” There’s a kind of vague joke about them actually having fried rabbit. A man in a red shirt is harassed by two horseriders in plaid, who promptly begin shooting at him, leading to a chase. Cisco and Pancho chase the assailants off, and the man explains his story.

This leads to a flashback scene where the man, Bob, is working as a freight driver, carrying money back and forth to the bank. However, the banker finds that the boxes are full of rocks and dirt, and Bob gets locked up for stealing the money. Bob’s boss Cantwell eventually bails him out of jail. Cisco agrees to help prove Bob innocent, while Pancho jokes about Cisco being a good friend to everyone but him. Ouch.

There’s a fun spot where Pancho puts a guy on a dolly and sends him into a stack of crates.

Cisco and Pancho interrogate Barker, the boss of the freight line, which includes holding him at gunpoint and locking him in a cabinet. It’s okay, because they know he’s a bad guy. The shooters from earlier come in and break out Barker, leading to a fistfight. Sadly, our heroes do a crappy job tying them up, so the bad guys escape.

It turns out this was intentional, so that Cisco and Pancho can follow the goons. They find that Hanley, who seemed to be helping Bob, is also in on it. It’s now time to introduce this episode’s pretty lady, Bob’s sister Ruth (Davis). Hanley says he’ll be taking her to his farm, but Cisco and Pancho give chase, and shoot Hanley. Ms. Drake doesn’t trust Cisco for obvious reasons, but doesn’t put up too much resistance to going along with them, where she meets Bob and has her suspicions assayed.

This turns out to be a plot for Cantwell to inherit the Drakes’ estates, having already got Bob to sign away his power of attorney when he was bailed out of jail. The sheriff is skeptical of this story but agrees to help Cisco and company. There’s a brief exchange of gunfire, and the bad guys flee. Pancho and Cisco do some more quasi-humour before bidding us farewell.

What I thought: Another day, another mistaken identity Western episode. Here, we have an innocent man framed to appear guilty by a conspiracy of a number of very interesting-looking man. The plot is a little too complicated, but it’s all in service of the larger idea of the Western: the nominally outlaw hero, in this case the dreaded Cisco, lives in an upside-down world where he is the only squeaky-clean hero. Unlike the Lone Ranger, Cisco never goes on at length about how he has a feeling something is off, but rather his inherent roguishness just leads him to correct injustice.

The action in this one is pretty good, but a lot of the seemingly required elements of a Cisco Kid episode, like a pretty girl for Cisco to woo or some humorous situations for Pancho to misunderstand, are introduced in a particularly unenthusiastic manner here. I’m normally a bit of an easy marker for comedy, but I’m not sure the quasi-wordplay between Cisco and Pancho would make even a kid laugh. Ah well.

Coming up next: November’s gonna find us returning to the big top for Howdy Doody.

Episode 304: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – “Halloween” (October 31, 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. “Halloween” aired on Friday, October 31, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

I guess Fran is in costume as an usher or something.

Ollie tries to spook the audience from behind a pumpkin, then sings a song about being happy Halloween is here. He sings that he’ll wear “his new tailor-made white sheet”, which could come off the wrong way. Beulah is unhappy, despite this being her night, and Ollie tries to cheer her up. Despite his efforts, she persists in saying “Halloween, humbug!” Ollie recalls past experiences of Beulah enthusiastically doing magic tricks on Halloween. She alludes to problems in her life but won’t elaborate.

Fran enters to try to help solve the mystery. Ollie leaves and is replaced by Kukla, who calls on Beulah to try to get to the bottom of things. Beulah is still not talkative, but says that the other witches aren’t coming, and that there was trouble at the recent witch convention in Chicago. Just wait until 1968, girl. It gradually comes out that the witches voted to move the convention, and put an inexperienced witch in charge.

Kukla and Ollie put on some rather grotesque-looking human masks and sing a song about trick or treating. The title trio make plans to make some ice cream, and disappear off stage. While they’re gone, Fletcher Rabbit comes in, eager to finally have time on the show with a pumpkin. Again, another statement that could be taken the wrong way. He starts giving a very dry lecture on how to carve a pumpkin. He’s about to start in with a hammer, but Kukla snatches the pumpkin away, leading Fletcher to conclude that it’s a waste of time.

Beulah finds that someone’s been playing with her test tubes, and gets good and angry. She pours all the contents of the tubes into a measuring cup, and is delighted when they fizz up. The now cheered-up Beulah sings “That Old Black Magic.” She pulls out her vacuum-powered broomstick and is ready to celebrate Halloween. The title trio celebrate their plan to cheer her up, and resolve to go out trick or treating.

What I thought: In my somewhat foolish attempts to impose an ongoing narrative onto Kukla, Fran and Ollie I’ve focused on a few previous episodes which seemed to be building up to a big Halloween episode with a convocation of Beulah’s witch coven. I wondered how the series would pay this off with its limited set-up. Would there be new puppets to represent the other witches? Human guests? In the end, KFO gets around the limitations by not doing a big Halloween episode at all, and having the non-event of Beulah’s gathering be the main plot of the episode.

I side with Fletcher’s frustration that this pumpkin is not carved.

Beulah’s friends standing her up never really feels like that much of a let-down for the viewers. We still get to see all of our favourites doing Halloween things, including some genuinely unsettling puppet masks, and we also get the kind of emotional narrative that Kukla, Fran, and Ollie is best at. Watching the crew try to cheer up Beulah could help kids understand how to deal with disappointments in their own lives. (And aren’t holidays usually disappointing in one way or another?)

In a sense, this episode isn’t a subversion of expectations at all. The most archetypical holiday narrative is about someone who doesn’t want to participate in the holiday, whose skepticism can be despondent or angry – think of the Grinch, Scrooge, Charlie Brown. Over the course of the narrative, the protagonist learns how to appreciate the holiday, despite its imperfections. And so, at the end of Halloween, Beulah is ready to get back to her witchy best.

Coming up next: A probably not Halloween-themed Cisco Kid.

Episode 301: Kukla, Fran and Ollie – “Angie” (October 30, 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. “Angie” aired on Monday, October 30, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.

What happened: Kukla begins by thanking the announcer Charles for emphasizing his name. He calls up Dolores, but she sneaks around behind his back to tease him. Kukla shows her a small walking bear as a gift. Fran also has a new hat to present, but it’s a big struggle to get her to actually wear it. This is very relatable to dealing with an actual toddler.

This gift-giving gets Kukla and Fran looking forward to Christmas, with Fran singing “Angie the Christmas Tree Angel”, apparently an original song. It clearly did not become part of the holiday songbook, but it’s a nice little tune. Fran invites Kukla to join her in the full song. Ollie pops up in a workman’s hat and proclaims that he’s doing “professional work” with the RCA service company. He’s helping them to put up with an antenna. Fran and Kukla are both concerned about Ollie hurting himself or others up on the roof, but he assures them he’s familiar with the “vertical frim-fram.”

Ollie has to have quite the hatstand by now.

For this week’s RCA Victor plug, Kukla says he’ll just put on the first album he touches, and it turns out to be “Howdy Doody’s Laughing Circus.” Ollie doesn’t know quite what’s going on, and is worried about adding another guest to the show. They listen to the first track while staring at the camera with eyebrows raised. (Mind you, Kukla’s eyebrows are always raised, but still.) A talking giraffe eventually makes Kukla start guffawing.

Fletcher is upset about the water being turned off in his shower, and Kukla insists he had nothing to do with it. Kukla and Fran remind us that Halloween is coming up – tomorrow, in fact. Ollie says something that momentarily breaks Fran, but she and Kukla end up singing “Sweet Angie” again. Ollie pops up asking for a wrench, and is apparently responsible for all the plumbing difficulties.

What I thought: I was expecting this day’s episode of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie to focus a bit more on building up to tomorrow’s Halloween episode. Instead, we get… Christmas! Fran has a song about a Christmas angel that gives the episode its title. Come on, even today the Christmas decorations don’t go up until November 1. I guess it shows me what I get for trying to predict what will happen on KFO.

The opening scene is a bit of classic behind-your-back physical comedy.

This week’s episode also deals with the distinct physicality of the technology of television. It can be hard to remember, watching all these episodes on YouTube, but you had to get pretty hands-on to get a television signal in 1950: turning the dial, fixing the bunny ears, aligning the antenna, and even then the picture might be blurry or out of focus. Ollie, of course, proves himself not very adept at making everything wrong, a plot which I could have used even more of.

This episode also highlights Kukla, Fran, and Ollie’s relationship to its sister show of sorts, Howdy Doody. The two shows crossed over at times, and both aired on NBC aimed at a young audience. Nevertheless, there was a major gulf between their sensibilities. Whereas Howdy Doody was hyperactive and pitched directly to a young audience, KFO was more erudite while being simultaneously gentle, appealing to a wider age range.

Hence we get the odd moment where Kukla and Ollie listen to a Howdy Doody record in almost silence. This is, on the face of it, simple cross-promotion, both between the two shows and the RCA Victor record player, but the puppets’ muted reaction suggests that they find the whole Howdy Doody thing kind of silly. Maybe I’m projecting too much onto felt characters, but it’s almost a Jim Halpert stare-at-the camera moment. Of course, as we’re also reminded with the Ollie subplot, KFO could be very silly in its own right – with the potential to become much sillier tomorrow for Halloween.

Coming up next: We get a glimpse of a new anthology series, with Lights Out.

Episode 300: The Gene Autry Show – “Gun Powder Range” (October 29, 1950)

What I watched: The fifteenth episode of The Gene Autry Show, a kid-friendly Western starring the titular singing cowboy and his sidekick Pat Buttram. “Gun Powder Range” was directed by George Archainbaud and written by Kenneth Perkins, with guest stars Gail Davis, Dick Jones, George J. Lewis, and Kenneth MacDonald. The episode originally aired at 7:30 PM on Sunday, October 8, 1950 on CBS, and is available on Shout Factory TV.

What happened: We’re introduced to Jim (Jones), a dishwasher at a picturesque cafe who wants to be a “bad man” and carries a gun. After showing off his sharpshooting skills, a man from the “Red Wolf Bunch” named Chipote (Lewis) expresses interest in having Jim (Davis) join his gang. His sister Millie, a waitress at the cafe, tries to warn him about getting involved with a bad crowd. He gets passers by to bet on whether or not Jim can shoot 4 out of 5 silver dollars out of the air.

Gene and Pat ride into town, looking for the waitress, who has written him a letter. Along the way they run into a bank raid, and get into a shootout. One of the bad guys falls off a cliff and surely dies. The sheriff, Jack (MacDonald), suspects that the Red Wolf gang planned the raid, and used Tim’s shooting show as a distraction. The sister protests his innocence, but Jack arrests him anyways. Tim puts up a fight and escapes.

Gene really missed his calling as a hockey enforcer.

Millie meets up with Gene, and we learn that she wrote him a letter to try to talk some sense into the adventure-hungry Tim. Gene hasn’t seen him since he was 5, but he is very persuasive. Gene and Pat catch up with Tim entering a cabin in the wilderness. They decide to teach Tim “what a bad man’s life is really like”, and Pat is very excited about getting to be evil for a change. Nonetheless, Tim quickly shoots off his hat.

Gene sneaks up behind Tim, but doesn’t draw on him. He claims to be a member of the Red Wolves, looking to recruit him, but warns that outlaws’ lives are lonely and dangerous. Pat bumbles in, acting like he’s shooting someone. He’s already notched his gun to suggest that he’s killed almost a dozen men this season. Tim thinks this is very cool and agrees to walk the “outlaw’s trail” with them. Tim’s enchantment quickly dries up after hiking up a harsh trail with no water, in the name of trying to avoid the law. Gene sings about being in the middle of the desert without a drop to drink. Sounds like my dating life.

Meanwhile, the real Red Wolves find out that someone else is going around using their water holes and claiming that they’re with them. Tim finds two famished men by the side of the road, and gives them his canteen of water. After he leaves, the Red Wolves get into a shootout with the two men and kill them. Gene and Pat laugh at Tim’s generousity. Sheriff Jack find Tim’s canteen at the site of the shooting and assume he’s guilty. They arrest our fake outlaw trio, fooled by the notches on Pat’s gun. Gene knocks out the officer of the law and takes off.

Chipote arrives with one of his henchmen to testify against the remaining heroes, and the law makes like it’s going to hang Tim and Pat right there on the spot, until Gene comes back with the surviving desert rat, who says that Chipote is to blame. The bandit leader flees, but Gene chases him down and gets into a shootout. Eventually Chipote falls down trying to climb some rocks, leading to his capture. Tim has learned his lesson, but still seems pretty trigger-happy.

What I thought: This episode basically echoes the first Gene Autry episode I saw, “The Star Toter”. In that episode, Gene helps a young boy break away from the influence of his outlaw father. At the time I felt this was a refreshing change from the less character-focused Western stories I had been inured to from 50+ episodes of The Lone Ranger.

“Gun Powder Range” revisits this premise, but with an older boy and a more action-packed episode. Instead of a wayward child with torn loyalties, Tim is simply foolish, and needs to be “scared straight” by Gene and Pat. It’s a pretty thin story, but it does have some moments, especially when Pat tries to impersonate an outlaw (perhaps the first time he’s actually been funny.)

Again, we see that, while the story is ostensibly about the need to keep on the straight and narrow, the forces of law and order are not terribly reliable. One piece of false testimony is enough to get the sheriff’s men to almost string up a teenage boy on the spot. When I was watching this scene I assumed that Gene and Pat had arranged this impromptu execution as part of their lesson-teaching plan, but apparently the sheriff’s department really are just this bloodthirsty.

You can’t be an outlaw with a flowery shirt.

In the end, the day is saved, but Tim still seems pretty unbothered. Maybe not everyone can be perfectly redeemed, no matter how many times you try to scare them straight.

Coming up next: I’m going to be presenting the long-delayed 3rd Golden Potato Awards, but after that it’s the KFO gang to kick off the week with Halloween Eve. They probably won’t call it Devil’s Night.

Episode 297: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie – “Sweet William Gives His All” (October 27, 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. “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.

NGL, this is a pretty cool-looking radio.

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.

The skunk invades the stage.

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.