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Kukla, Fran and Ollie/At a Glance

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Contents

Basic Information

  • Full Name: Kukla, Fran and Ollie
  • Premiere Date: October 13, 1947
  • Finale Date: August 30, 1957
  • Networks:
    • NBC (1948-1954)
    • ABC (1954-1957)
  • Airtimes:

(all times Eastern except where noted)

    • WBKB Chicago (local): Weeknights at 6:00-7:00PM Central Time (as Junior Jamboree).
    • NBC: Weeknights at 7:00-7:30PM (November 29, 1948 through November 23, 1951. Midwestern network only until January 12, 1949, full network afterwards).
    • NBC: Weeknights at 7:00-7:15PM (November 26, 1951 through June 27, 1952).
    • NBC: Sundays at 4:00-4:30PM (August 24, 1952 through June 13, 1954).
    • ABC: Weeknights at 7:00-7:15PM (September 6, 1954 through August 30, 1957).

Crew

Writers

Directors

Producers

Music

Cinematography

Film Editing

Casting

Art Direction

Set Decoration

Joseph Lockwood

Costume Design

Joseph Lockwood

Makeup Department

Production Management

Sound Department

Casting Department

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Editorial Department

Music Department

Other Crew

International Viewings

Trivia

  • The first publicly announced broadcast in the compatible color system that the FCC eventually approved as the NTSC color standard was a 1953 Kukla, Fran and Ollie performance of St. George and the Dragon. The program had made a test broadcast in color as far back as 1949.

Existing episodes

Although the kinescope process of recording live broadcasts to film was introduced in 1947, the earliest kines of Kukla, Fran and Ollie were not produced until February 1949, the month after the show was introduced to the national NBC network. Consequently, no filmed record of the show before February 11, 1949 (including the entirety of the pre-network WBKB run) is known to exist. Only a handful of the ABC episodes are accounted for and the rest are presumed lost.

In addition to a handful of episodes available through collectors' circles, Burr Tillstrom's collection of KFO kinescope recordings included over 700 episodes comprising a large part of the NBC run from 1949 through 1954. These films were contributed to the Chicago History Museum and were the basis of the First Episodes DVD releases in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Many of the unreleased films are in a fragile state, and in 2015 the producer of the DVDs started a crowdfunded project to transfer the remainder of the History Museum's holdings to a digital format.

On February 24, 2020, the YouTube account set up for promotion of the DVD series began posting a complete episode a night, beginning with the earliest existing episodes. The goal is to make as much of the KFO archive available as possible free of charge.

Before discontinuing the program, 20 of the 42 KFO episodes listed in the online catalog of the Museum of Broadcast Communications were available for streaming via their website. Their off-line holdings also include several of the five-minute Kukla and Ollie episodes NBC aired in the early 1960s.

A selection of episodes from the 1970 revival series, produced in color and on videotape for public television, was made available on VHS video in the 1990s, and a handful of those episodes were released on DVD. For home video release, the revival shows were overdubbed with a laugh track and new music.

Awards and Accolades

Emmys

1950

(1 Nomination)

  • Nominated: Best children's show

1951

(1 Nomination)

  • Nominated: Best children's show

1953

(1 Nomination)

  • Nominated: Best children's show

1954

(1 Nomination, 1 Win)

  • Won: Best children's show

1955

(1 Nomination)

  • Nominated: Best children's show

1956

(1 Nomination)

  • Nominated: Best children's show

Peabody Award

1949

  • Won: for "whimsy and gentle satire of the James Barrie-Lewis Carroll sort."
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