Today, when people talk about puppets, visions of the old Punch and Judy theater come to mind, or at best we think about the prop assistants used by ventriloquists. These latter characters are also referred to as dummies because without their master they are nothing. Ventriloquists’ dummies usually have an opening in their back for the human to place an arm through and manipulate the mouth, eyes, and sometimes a limb.
Some dummies also have an electronic box with switches or pushbuttons like a calculator that can control other functions such as raising eyebrows or a limb, blinking or winking of the eyes, and in the case of animals, change the motion pattern of a tail.
Puppets have long been a favorite with kids, and in a bit we’ll talk about the show that got this whole field going. In the beginning, puppets were simple “sock type” characters that fit over the hand and arm of either the show’s lead character or a hidden, off-screen manipulator. In the early 60s, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, a British couple, teamed up with Lord Lew Grade to bring to the home screen a new type of puppet show whose story lines were deeply imbedded in science fiction, fantasy, and action adventure.
The Andersons’ first few shows were works in progress, and you can almost always see the strings that operated the characters. By the late 60s, their puppets featured complex (for that era) electronics and strings were rarely, if ever, seen. Let’s become kids again and relive those great puppets shows.
Kukla, Fran and Ollie (NBC, November 1948-June 1952, ABC September 1954-August 1957) Future NBC legend Hugh Downs started out as the announcer for this show that created interaction between puppets and people. It was just as popular with adults as it was with kids because of its sophisticated satire. Fran Allison was the host, Ollie was a buck-toothed dragon, and Kukla was a clown. Just about all of the shows were unscripted and totally improvised, with the subjects to be handled being decided shortly before air time.
The Shari Lewis Show (NBC, October 1, 1960-September 28, 1963) This talented lady and her puppet Lamb Chop were a much respected pair in the world of children’s entertainment. She won twelve Emmy Awards, and overall, including the prestigious Peabody Award, her show garnished 35 awards, remaining one of the most decorated kids’ shows in TV history. This program also gave a major push to a young future star named Dom DeLuise, who played an inept private eye named Kenny Ketchem. Fans of the original Star Trek will no doubt know that Miss Lewis wrote the screenplay for that series’ show titled “The Lights of Zetar”.
Fireball XL-5 (NBC, premiered October 5, 1963) This was the first British show to appear on American network TV. There were 39 episodes of this show set in 2067. Colonel Steve Zodiac led his crew around the cosmos, keeping the peace and exploring. The complexities of handling multiple characters on strings meant that the crew was kept at a minimum. It included Zodiac’s romantic interest, Venus, Professor Matic, Robert, a completely transparent robot, and Venus’ pet Zoonie. Creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson provided voices in this show whose plot lines were fairly complicated at times.
Supercar (Syndicated, premiered January 28, 1961) The predecessor to Fireball XL-5, the Andersons set this show’s storyline in the present (at the time of production). Supercar was the ultimate multi-purpose vehicle, able to fly, run on or under water, and glide barely above the ground. Driver/pilot Mike Mercury was based in a secret lab located in the Nevada desert, and Supercar was constantly being upgraded by its creators Professor Popkiss and Dr. Beaker.
Stingray (NBC, October 4, 1964-June 27, 1965) The first puppet action-adventure series to be filmed in color followed the adventures of the title’s submarine craft, part of the fleet maintained by the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. The WASP headquarters were in Marineville, an inland city built on hydraulic stilts that enabled it to drop underground if an attack was coming. Pilot Troy Tempest was actually based on the features of James Garner. His navigator, a Southern gentleman nicknamed “Phones”, was always at his side. This show featured a highly advanced plot twist that was probably lost on the kids. Tempest was part of a love triangle, being coveted by both Atlanta Shore, who was the daughter of WASP’s commander, and a mermaid named Marina, who was the subject of the show’s closing theme.
The Muppet Show (CBS, September 27, 1976-June 8, 1981) Characters from the Sesame Street series headlined this variety show that introduced the romance between Kermit and Miss Piggy. It also spoofed many of its TV contemporaries with bits like Pigs In Space, The Swedish Chef, Veterinarian’s Hospital, and At the Dance, a parody of “Laugh-In”. Some of the human guests were the biggest stars of the day and included Vincent Price, Candice Bergen, Milton Berle, Steve Martin, Rudolf Nureyev, Elton John, Liberace, and Christopher Reeve.
Howdy Doody (NBC, December 27, 1947-September 30, 1960) This is it, the granddaddy of all kids’ shows. It has the prestige of being the first network TV show to air five days a week and the first network show to be aired in color, a feat which sold so many NBC-related RCA color TV sets in the 1950s that RCA’s color broadcasting system became America’s standard. Buffalo Bob Smith was the host of the program set in the fictional town of Doodyville. About four dozen kids made up the live audience, referred to as the peanut gallery. Other citizens of this town that was home to humans and puppets included the mute clown Clarabell, who communicated with horns, and Chief Thunderthud of the Ooragnak tribe, who originated the expression “Kowabunga. Clarabell was portrayed by Bob Keeshan until 1952 when he jumped ship to become Captain Kangaroo. The puppet characters were led by Howdy and his sister Heidi Doody, Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally, Indian princess Summerfall Winterspring, and an odd character made up of eight animals and called the Flub-a-Dub.
Thunderbirds (Syndicated, September 30, 1965-December 25, 1966) Ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy and his five sons are the main members of International Rescue, a group of men dedicated to adventure and achieving that goal by performing almost impossible rescues of people in trouble. They accomplished these daring missions by using highly advanced machinery, much of it created by resident scientist “Brains”. They operated from a remote Pacific island, launching the required equipment after receiving word of trouble from Thunderbird 5, which was a space station monitoring all audio and video transmissions around the globe. Derek Meddings, who went on to do the special effects in Christopher Reeve’s Superman films, was in charge of the visuals in this show. A live-action pathetic theatrical remake of this program was attempted several years ago but it failed miserably because it aimed itself at young kids instead of what its audience should have been: people who were school kids in the mid-sixties.
Captain Scarlet (Syndicated, September 29, 1967-May 14, 1968) A show definitely not for the young kiddies, this Anderson production featured the most advanced versions of their puppets as well as the most adult oriented storyline. Spectrum, a security agency charged with defending Earth against the invading Mysterons, loses its leading agent, Captain Scarlet, who was killed by the invaders. The Mysterons use dead human bodies to insert their life force into and operate as covert agents for the invasion force. Something goes awry with Scarlet, and he is able to recover his own personality while maintaining the Mysteron “retro metabolism” to return to life after being killed, making him Spectrum’s best weapon against the Mysterons. Legend has it that the Scarlet puppet’s features were based on those of Roger Moore, and there is a resemblance with the future James Bond star. After this series, the Andersons concentrated on the live-action series “UFO”.
Winchell-Mahoney Time (Syndicated, January 1, 1965-January 1, 1968) This show is all but forgotten because original production company Metromedia was involved in a court battle for syndication rights in the mid-1980s. In 1986, Metromedia ordered all the master tapes erased, an action that led a jury to award show creator Paul Winchell $17.8 million for the destruction of the 288 shows in the archives. Winchell’s two main puppets, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, which are now in the Smithsonian Institution, helped him run this kids’ variety program, cleverly voiced by Paul’s ventriloquist skills and set in a barn environment. Since the 1960s, Winchell had been the voice of many cartoon characters, including Tigger, Dick Dastardly on “Wacky Races”, Fleagle of the “Banana Splits”, and the famous “scrubbing bubbles” in TV ads.
Wasn’t that a great trip down Memory Lane? Do you still think of puppet handlers as people who aren’t necessarily great minds? If you still think that, perhaps a bit more information about Paul Winchell will set the record straight. He was not only a premier ventriloquist, but also a prolific inventor. He invented the original disposable razor, but when shaving company executives told him such a razor would never sell, he scrapped the idea, which was picked up a few years later by someone else. He also has to his credit a flameless cigarette lighter, the first illuminated ball point pen, and battery powered heated gloves for cold climates.
His greatest invention was no doubt the artificial heart, which he patented. He eventually donated the patent to the University of Utah, where Dr. Robert Jarvik was working. Jarvik made very minor improvements on the device, and he is often credited with the device’s origin. Winchell’s family still watches over the late Paul’s legacy, however, and in a series of recent commercials featuring Dr. Jarvik, his status was forced by Winchell’s family to be stated in the ads as “creator of the Jarvik artificial heart” instead of just “inventor of the artificial heart” as the first commercial claimed.
