ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050056
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tom Shales
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
They're way up there in the pantheon of TV greats, right beside Edward R. Murrow, Lucille Ball, Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason. Perhaps you've heard of them, or are old enough to remember: Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
``Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' was a puppet show, pure and simple. It first signed on in 1947, which makes next year its 50th anniversary, although Burr Tillstrom, the brilliant soul behind the puppets, created them during the years leading up to the TV debut. Kukla was a clever lad with a puffy round nose, and surprised-looking eyebrows. Ollie was a dragon with one big tooth at the end of his snout.
And Fran was Fran Allison, a real human being and one-time radio singer, who would rush up to the miniature proscenium whenever summoned and have long chats with the Kuklapolitans or join them in a song.
That's all. That was it. No fancy production, no cartoons, and only that one set. But for those of us who loved watching, the Kuklapolitans were bigger than Barney, better than the Muppets, more imaginative than any of the spectacular slam-bang animated shows that kids can watch today.
Now, for the first time, some of the old ``Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' shows are going to be available in authorized versions on home video. Martin Tahse, a producer who worked with Tillstrom on the last batch of ``KFO'' shows Tillstrom did (Tillstrom died in 1985, Allison in 1989), bought the rights and had them transferred to tape. The first five editions will be in video stores next month.
From the late '40s to the mid '50s, the ``KFO'' show aired daily out of Chicago, always live and largely improvised. Tillstrom dismissed the idea of using a script from the beginning because he couldn't turn the pages while his hands operated the characters. Maybe it wasn't just a great puppet show; maybe it was also TV's first talk show.
Allison knew basically where each day's episode was going and what songs would be sung. The rest of it was mostly spontaneous interaction between her and the puppets. It's hard to explain now, especially perhaps to seen-it-all viewers of the '90s, but there was something so magical and charming about ``Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' that the experience of watching it has never really been equaled.
Television helped popularize ``KFO'' but ``KFO'' also helped popularize television. It was designed to. According to producer-writer Max Wilk in his invaluable resource book ``The Golden Age of Television,'' Tillstrom was approached by powers-that-were in 1947 because most TV sets then were in bars. People watched baseball games and boxing. Executives knew that TV had to be welcome in American homes if it was going to succeed.
``Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' wasn't overtly educational and it certainly wasn't preachy. You never had the feeling you'd just seen today's lesson. But through the behavior of the Kuklapolitans, kids who grew up with them learned about compassion and compromise, about getting along in the world. Impetuous Ollie might grab Kukla's nose or conk him on the head, but reason and understanding always won out.
There were many other characters in the cast, including Madame Oglepuss, a snooty, frustrated opera singer; Fletcher Rabbit, a pragmatic hare who might have been Jim Henson's inspiration for Kermit T. Frog; and the most rollicking member of the tribe, Buelah Witch, whose broom-flying exploits were haphazard and whose hocus-pocus was strictly benign. Especially the pocus.
Will today's kids be able to appreciate the genius and gentleness of the program? Even if only a few do, it will be worth it.
For those who saw the shows the first time around, revisiting the Kuklapolitans will be something like finding treasured old stuffed animals in the attic, still good as new. All it took to make them walk and talk when you were a child was imagination and innocence, and that's what ``Kukla, Fran and Ollie'' was always all about.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB