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98 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting collection of 1950's Saturday morning TV shows, March 20, 2008
The Shout Factory, maker of this DVD set, has been the author of quite a few offbeat DVD and CD collections lately, often in partnership with PBS. This time Shout Factory has compiled a collection of typical Saturday morning shows from the 1950's. The set mimics what TV of that era did and starts out with the simplest shows for the smallest kids, then progresses to shows for older kids, assuming that the older kids get up later on Saturday. The following is the press release about the contents of the set:
DISC 1:
Episode from Kukla, Fran And Ollie 1948 - 1957
Kukla, Fran And Ollie debuted as a local Chicago show entitled Junior Jamboree and was renamed in 1948 when the installation of a coaxial cable linking the East Coast to the Midwest expanded its broadcast range. Established radio star Fran Allison played herself on the show as the perfect counterbalance to the antics of the puppets, and her uncanny ability to ad-lib allowed the show to run completely unscripted and unrehearsed.
Kukla, Fran And Ollie featured the creations of Burr Tillstrom, considered one of the greats in puppet history. He voiced and performed all of the puppet characters on the show and is credited with creating the puppeteering technique of watching the action on a small monitor while performing the characters, a practice still in use today.
Episode from Howdy Doody 1947 - 1960
Howdy Doody evolved from The Triple B Ranch, a radio program that featured the voice of "Buffalo" Bob Smith as himself and a character named Elmer who opened the show by saying "Howdy Doody." When Howdy Doody premiered on television it was an hour-long series that aired on Saturdays, but in 1948 it became the first network children's show to run five days a week, and eventually was broadcast in color in 1955. "Buffalo" Bob Smith created and hosted the show, as well as providing the voice of Howdy Doody.
For the show's final episode, Clarabelle the Clown--who never uttered a word throughout the program run--finally spoke the series' very last two words, saying, "Goodbye, kids."
Episode from Lassie 1954 - 1974
Originally created in 1938 by Eric Knight for a short story published in the Saturday Evening Post, Lassie became an immediate sensation that spawned a full-length novel, a feature film starring an 11-year-old named Elizabeth Taylor, a radio show and, in 1954, the Lassie television series.
The series--which ran for an amazing 20 years and won two of six Emmy Awards for which it was nominated--originally starred 13-year-old film veteran Tommy Rettig as Jeff Miller, Lassie's faithful owner and best friend for 110 episodes.
Episode from Annie Oakley 1954 - 1957
The real Annie Oakley, on whom this character was loosely based, was a sharpshooter with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the late 1800s. As a television series, Annie Oakley hit the entertainment bull's-eye every week for three years in the mid-1950s.
Having appeared in dozens of both big- and small-screen Westerns, including 14 features with Gene Autry, Gail Davis was a natural to play the title role in the television series. In fact, Autry's own Flying `A' Productions coproduced Annie Oakley's syndicated 81-episode run.
Episode from Flash Gordon 1954
Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon comic strip, which debuted in 1934, has been translated into radio serials, animated television series, numerous feature films, comic books and novels over the past 50 years. This incarnation--filmed in Germany less than a decade after the end of World War II--was the first, and only, live-action television series up until 2007 and starred chiseled Steve Holland as Flash Gordon, operative of the Galaxy Bureau of Investigation.
DISC 2:
Episode from Ding Dong School 1952 - 1959
Dr. Frances R. Horwich, known simply to audiences as Miss Frances, took a leave of absence from her position as chairman of the education department at Chicago's Roosevelt College to host Ding Dong School, which became monumental in paving the way for preschool television.
Originally filmed in Chicago, and later in New York, Ding Dong School was so popular that after just six weeks it was picked up by NBC and was soon seen by millions of children throughout the United States.
Episode from Time For Beany 1949 - 1954
While viewers may be more familiar with Bob Clampett's Beany And Cecil in their cartoon incarnations, the public was first introduced to the silly, seasick serpent and his beanie-topped companion when they premiered as puppets, voiced by the talented Daws Butler and Stan Freberg. Though the series began as a local show in Los Angeles in 1949, by the following year Time For Beany had gone national and continued with much success through 1954.
One of the most famous fans of Time For Beany was none other than Albert Einstein.
Episode from The Paul Winchell Show 1956 - 1960
In 1956 self-taught ventriloquist Paul Winchell starred in Circus Time, only one of his many television series. After a year Circus Time was revamped and renamed The Paul Winchell Show, a moniker it retained until the show ended in 1960.
Giving voice to his own Jerry Mahoney puppet, Gargamel on The Smurfs and Tigger of Disney's Winnie The Pooh animated films, Paul Winchell brought heart to the characters he created. A true renaissance man, Winchell was also an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early model of an artificial heart he built in 1963. He also studied and practiced acupuncture and hypnosis and wrote widely on theology.
Episode from The Roy Rogers Show 1951 - 1957
The "King of Cowboys," Roy Rogers was no stranger to America by the time he starred in The Roy Rogers Show, having already appeared in over a hundred movies by 1951.
In 1947 Rogers married Dale Evans, who became the "Queen of the West." Together they were one of America's most beloved couples. Along with many honors, they have the distinction of being the only married couple to serve as Grand Marshals of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade.
You can't think of The Roy Rogers Show, which ran from 1951 to 1957, without remembering "his golden palomino" Trigger and Bullet "the wonder dog." Visitors to the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri, can actually see a taxidermist-prepared Trigger, stuffed and mounted, rearing up on his back legs, as one of the museum's most popular exhibits.
Episode from Captain Z-RO 1951 - 1956
Captain Z-RO came to us from a remote, uncharted region of a planet called Earth. When Captain Z-RO debuted in 1951, it was a 15-minute local show from San Francisco. In 1954, however, the show became syndicated and went national, switching to a 30-minute format and continuing with original episodes until 1956. It stayed on in reruns through 1960.
Captain Z-RO received much praise for its outstanding educational value, including honorable mention at the Twentieth American Exhibition of Educational Radio-Television Programs in 1956.
Roy Steffens, who also created and wrote the show, portrayed the title role of Captain Z-RO.
DISC 3:
Episode from The Rootie Kazootie Club 1950 - 1954
Created by Steve Carlin, who at the time was in charge of RCA's children's phonograph records, The Rootie Kazootie Club met over the airwaves from 1950 to 1954 with "Big Todd" Russell, Mr. Deetle Doodle and, of course, Rootie Kazootie!
"Big Todd" Russell wasn't just comfortable with the juvenile members of The Rootie Kazootie Club. He also hosted quiz shows on radio such as Double Or Nothing and Strike It Rich and is perhaps best remembered as the creator and producer of The $64,000 Question.
Rootie Kazootie was extremely popular and led to a series of Rootie Kazootie Golden Books.
Episode from Winky Dink And You 1953 - 1957
Get out your Winky Dink kit, because it's time for Winky Dink And You--a show you didn't just watch . . . you actually got to play! Winky Dink And You was the first interactive television show, allowing children the opportunity to be a part of the show by placing a clear "magic window" on the television and drawing on it with crayons.
Jack Barry, who already had a successful run with Juvenile Jury, hosted the show. Barry later went on to emcee the 1970s game show Joker's Wild, but is perhaps most famous as the host and coproducer of the wildly popular Twenty-One, which created a great scandal by providing answers to contestants, nearly ruining Barry's career and prompting Congress to develop new laws that prohibited the fixing of quiz shows.
Winky Dink And You ran from 1953 to 1957, and if Winky Dink sounds a bit familiar, it's because the voice was provided by Mae Questel--best known as the voice of Olive Oyl and Betty Boop.
Episode from Super Circus 1949 - 1955
From 1949 to 1955, the small screen was transformed into the big top during Super Circus featuring Ringmaster (and former radio announcer) Claude Kirchner.
Ringmaster Kirchner, clowns Cliffy, Nicky and Scampy, and the various circus acts thrilled the kids. But it was bandleader Mary Hartline who became the real attraction.
Mary Hartline had a certain appeal, and suddenly fathers were happy to watch television alongside their kids. Hartline wasn't just popular with the dads, however. Kids adored her, which led to an abundance of merchandise such as Mary Hartline dolls, paper figures, apparel and books--even comic books titled Super Circus Featuring Mary Hartline.
Episode from Andy's Gang 1955 - 1960
"Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" Andy's Gang was an immensly popular variety show...
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kukla, Fran and Ollie-still misunderstood!, June 1, 2008
I think it is commendable that Shout Factory puts out DVD box sets of obscure old shows that don't have a studio home. But if they're going to do "rare," they should go all the way with it. Case in point: the Kukla, Fran and Ollie show included with this set has been around and available for many years from other companies. It isn't even the best of the black and white shows available. I can understand the company wanted to use the earliest KFO available (this one is from early 1949), but another, available episode from Feb. 1953 is much more entertaining and shows off the talents of Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison much better than the one included in this set.
I also had a problem with the information that the box "mimics what TV of that era did and starts out with the simplest shows for the smallest kids, then progresses to shows for older kids." Kukla, Fran and Ollie was a "prime time" show for much of its run, appearing 5 days a week at 7 pm eastern. It's contemporary Howdy Doody ran in the afternoon. Yet Shout Factory includes it first on Disc 1 as a show for young children, followed by Howdy Doody. Kids enjoyed the puppetry of KFO, but it also included among its fans people like Tallulah Bankhead, Adlai Stevenson and Lillian Gish. None of whom could be called a child. One only has to look at the show itself to see that it has a much more sophisticated premise than other "kid" shows like Howdy or Rootie Kazootie. How many children (or adults, for that matter) in the 20th or 21st century could tell you what "high brow" or "low brow" meant (hint: it has nothing to do with hairstyle or plastic surgery!)? Yet the background of this episode of this "kid show" is Kukla and Fran trying to figure out the meaning of a Life magazine article on cultural classifications. Not really in the same league as Howdy Doody being forced to pay the bad guy 500 marbles a day, or else lose his show, is it?
Of course, people see "puppets" and think kids show. Tillstrom and Allison's unique talent always puzzled their networks and sponsors. Apparently this hasn't changed, as the programmer for this box set proved.
Finally, to the fellow who gave the set a "1" because he didn't like the puppets, I highly doubt you were around when these shows originated. True there are no special effects, no computerized animation, but the stories are cute. If you do some research on Jim Henson, you'll find out his early puppets looked like socks too.
I wish Shout Factory would put out a box set of Kukla, Fran and Ollie stuff only. There are some real gems among the 700 shows done in the '50s, if they just would take the time to check them out.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good For a Laugh, February 24, 2009
I bought this for my parents (born in 1942 & '49) because there were many cartoons in this 4 disk set that they have talked about for years. This was a fun surprise for them - not a birthday gift or anything because I was afraid of exactly what did happen. The cartoons they remembered so fondly were really quite dumb. Once they got over their surprise, they watched more and had a great time laughing at them. Now they've let their friends borrow them and they are all laughing. Soon we'll take it to my in-laws.
Overall, they are glad they had the chance to see these again, but they can't ever imagine pulling this DVD out again so they are happy to just pass it around to everyone. It's a one-time watch so rent it or borrow it from the library if you can. If we ever get it back, we'll donate ours to the local library. For me, it was worth the $28 to see them laugh, but they said they'd never have paid that much for it.
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