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Post by Cinemaniac on Apr 7, 2024 3:30:56 GMT
This should be a fun discussion for all.
One of the many things my friends and I would often talk about is puppet shows on TV we vaguely or else distinctively recall that not many other do. There are some shows with puppets that I have seen in the past that didn't feature Jim Henson's Muppets, rather puppets that were undoubtedly rather strange and kind of scary.
An example I recall was from (I believe) some art show on PBS that had some large talking paintbrush who wore a do-rag around his bristle hair and dark tinted sunglasses. He would speak in a loud raspy voice and would demonstrate different arts and crafts for the viewers to try at home. Apparently, Bob Ross's "happy little" art show wasn't good enough for viewers, they had to make a program with a giant paintbrush creature that was way too unnerving to be entertaining and enjoyable. I don't know what show this has come from, but it sure scared me after having seen it at least twice.
What strange puppet shows on TV do you recall?
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Post by NoShear on Apr 7, 2024 15:58:01 GMT
This should be a fun discussion for all. One of the many things my friends and I would often talk about is puppet shows on TV we vaguely or else distinctively recall that not many other do. There are some shows with puppets that I have seen in the past that didn't feature Jim Henson's Muppets, rather puppets that were undoubtedly rather strange and kind of scary. An example I recall was from (I believe) some art show on PBS that had some large talking paintbrush who wore a do-rag around his bristle hair and dark tinted sunglasses. He would speak in a loud raspy voice and would demonstrate different arts and crafts for the viewers to try at home. Apparently, Bob Ross's "happy little" art show wasn't good enough for viewers, they had to make a program with a giant paintbrush creature that was way too unnerving to be entertaining and enjoyable. I don't know what show this has come from, but it sure scared me after having seen it at least twice. What strange puppet shows on TV do you recall? Not obscure if you had been in the right city nor strange to me as I was just 4 when it was my favorite viewing, Cinemaniac, but this show might qualify just the same: |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Apr 8, 2024 12:34:35 GMT
Andy's Gang with Andy Devine was popular in the late 1950's, with Froggy the Gremlin being one of the most popular recurring characters. Froggy's "Hiya, kids. Hiya. Hiya." became a popular catchphrase.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Apr 11, 2024 12:54:11 GMT
This probably isn't obscure in the sense of unknown, but they've definitely faded into history. Fran Allison and the two puppets operated by Burr Tillstrom were a regular part of TV during the 1950's and into the 1960's. The puppets, particularly Ollie the dragon, were a little odd but Fran was the perfect vehicle for engaging the audience with them.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Apr 11, 2024 13:24:14 GMT
Howdy Doody is probably too famous to mention, but there were other puppet characters on the show too, the nuttiest being The Flub-A-Dub.
Phineas T. Bluster ("Mister Bluster") was another, a guy you could always count on to get things wrong.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Apr 11, 2024 19:12:23 GMT
Beany and Cecil were early TV puppets too. Beany was a kind of gnome-like guy with a propeller on his beanie and Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent was his pal on different adventures. This clip also features Captain Scuttlebutt. It's weird seeing it so many years later, but for a kid they were fun. Puppets were a cheap way to produce TV content so that's why they were so many in the early days, I guess.
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Post by Cinemaniac on Apr 13, 2024 2:46:55 GMT
Beany and Cecil were early TV puppets too. Beany was a kind of gnome-like guy with a propeller on his beanie and Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent was his pal on different adventures. This clip also features Captain Scuttlebutt. It's weird seeing it so many years later, but for a kid they were fun. Puppets were a cheap way to produce TV content so that's why they were so many in the early days, I guess. "TIME FOR BEANY" was created by Bob Clampett, who had directed some of the wildest Looney Tunes cartoons of the 1940s. I believe I saw on some PBS documentary about classic TV shows that Clampett originated this show in his own garage on a particularly low budget. Along with Clampett himself, the other puppeteers on the show were Stan Freberg (a brilliant voice artist who worked in several Looney Tunes cartoons) and Daws Butler (who has voiced numerous characters for Hanna-Barbera productions such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Elroy Jetson, etc.). Groucho Marx was a big fan of this program, and believe it or not, so was the "Father of Relativity", Albert Einstein (E=MC2). It's been said that Einstein once excused himself from a meeting having stated "I've got to go. It's time for "Beany!". Here's a rather strange show that I vaguely recall seeing when I was young. A friend of mine is fondly familiar with this program and has informed me a lot about it. It's "THE LETTER PEOPLE", and was a puppet show from the 1970s having aired on many PBS affiliates. Does anyone else remember this show? To me this show seems as though it was a somewhat low-budget rendition of "SESAME STREET" and "THE ELECTRIC COMPANY". The sets look quite similar to those of the latter-mentioned program. Is it just me, or does Mr. H sound very much like John Ratzenberger as Cliff Claven on "CHEERS"? That is with a deeper voice and a New Yorker accent in place of a Bostonian dialect. How about that cool Yiddish-sounding theme song of his? Great music to swing that head of horrible hair to. |
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Post by Cinemaniac on Apr 29, 2024 3:24:04 GMT
Since I had mentioned "THE LETTER PEOPLE" before, and thanks to my friend for introducing me to this strange yet fascinating series, I thought I'd include this episode -
Apparently, this is the series finale episode focusing on sentences and punctuation marks. You can see that this show has evolved quite a bit since the "Mr. H" episode. There seems to be some improvement on the scenic designs and much nicer looking puppets have been introduced since. I like that puppet character named Monty with the Paul Lynde-like voice. He looks almost like a "MUPPET SHOW" kind of Muppet. Check out that exciting and catchy musical number performed by many of the Letter People at the end of the program. It took me a couple of times viewing that segment to realize all 26 Letter People were not present. Do you know which Letter People are not included in this final episode? You must look very carefully.
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