Search - Kukla, Fran and Ollie - The First Episodes: 1949-54 on DVD
Kukla Fran and Ollie - The First Episodes 1949-54 Actors:June Lockhart, Dave Garroway, Hugh Downs, Marlin Perkins, Gene Rayburn Director:Lewis "Gommy" Gomavitz Genres:Television Here they are, back with you again! — The Kuklapolitan Players and their creator, Burr Tillstrom, in the first DVD of the earliest episodes of the Peabody and Emmy-award-winning "Kukla, Fran and Ollie." — KFO is unique in te... more »levision: a live, ad-libbed, daily puppet show watched by more adults than children. Filled with references to the theater, opera, and current events, it counted Orson Welles, Katharine Hepburn, John Steinbeck, Tallulah Bankhead, and Adlai Stevenson among its many adult fans.
Today, it's hard to imagine a puppet show being so popular, but KFO evoked loyalty and a deep belief in its characters from viewers. After Kukla sneezed in one early episode, over 250 fans sent in handkerchiefs. At its peak, the show received 10,000 fan letters in one week.
Burr Tillstrom's ability to create over twenty distinct characters and voices (he was the only puppeteer) and his rapport with Fran Allison were essential to the show's humor and believability.
The 20 black-and-white kinescopes in the set have undergone extensive audio and video restoration to provide the best possible presentation of the early films included in this two-disc set: