On Saturday Mornings in 1967

August 26, 2013 10:39 AM

In 1967, Fran Allison, along with her friends Kukla and Ollie, began hosting The CBS Children’s Film Festival. It offered many American children their first look at foreign films, and their contemporaries from other cultures.

There is:
The Blind Bird – Soviet Union
Boy catches pelican, loses girl.

Tony and the Tick Tock Dragon -- Hungary
Boy needs time Goes to bathroom.

Mr Horatio Knibbles - Britain
Little girl, big rabbit.

Six Bears and a Clown - Czechoslovakia
What it says on the tin.

The Angel and Big Joe
Because it’s the garlic guy from Goodfellas.

Tjorven, Batsman and Moses -- Sweden
A girl’s closest friends are a 220lb watchdog and a baby seal. She faces a dilemma.

And in its entirety, from Japan the heartbreaking back to school tale
Skinny and Fatty. (<== get a tissue)

posted by timsteil (15 comments total)

Also, Clown
posted by various at 10:56 AM on August 26, 2013

Oh my god my childhood
posted by rtha at 11:06 AM on August 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

SWEET ELVIS IS HIS BLACK, '68 COMEBACK SPECIAL LEATHERS, THIS IS A REAL THING AND NOT SOME WEIRD FEVER DREAM OF MY CHILDHOOD!
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:09 AM on August 26, 2013

My mom wanted us so desperately to like Kukla, Fran and Ollie, but it was so DULL! And I just remember that damn Red Balloon all the time.

Much more a fan of Josie and the Pussycats.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:45 AM on August 26, 2013

Much more a fan of Josie and the Pussycats.

I managed to slip the cartoons ( both seasons ) onto the video server, and The Girls watched it without incident. AND that managed to set them up to appreciate -- in some small way -- the immensely underrated J&TPC live action movie...
posted by mikelieman at 11:59 AM on August 26, 2013

I occasionally wonder how my life may have differed if my Three Stooges : Kukla, Fran and Ollie exposure ratio had been higher.
posted by gimli at 12:15 PM on August 26, 2013

K, F, & O might have introduced foreign films, but Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop I remember as being more fun. Lamb Chop had a lot of attitude, I wonder if she was an influence in the creation Miss Piggy.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:16 PM on August 26, 2013 [2 favorites]

That giant rabbit is nightmare fuel.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:24 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thanks for re-introducing some childhood trauma here. My third- or fourth-grade class was shown Clown. When the movie was over and the lights came back on, I was the only one crying my ass off. Sensitivity is not a highly-valued trait among grade school boys, and it took me a while to live it down.

I used to love catching K,F&O on Saturday afternoons, though. Even as a young kid, I thoroughly enjoyed foreign movies.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 12:47 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

And I just remember that damn Red Balloon all the time.

but that was my favorite

unfortunately, i didn't always get to watch that show - sometimes it would be pre-empted for golf or the tigers - or something else would be on another station that my sports-fanatic dad would have to watch

and then sometimes i'd not only get to watch it, but the shows after it - the lone ranger, william tell, or detroit's own big time wrestling (on ch 3, kalamazoo)

"you know that's fake, don't you?" said dad ...
posted by pyramid termite at 12:49 PM on August 26, 2013

That first clip is some amazingly bad puppetry.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:17 PM on August 26, 2013

Man, I had totally forgotten about the existence of Kukla, Fran and Ollie until this moment. In fact, I'm uncomfortable — there's a store of childhood memories I sense when I scratch that itch of half-forgotten experience and I don't know what they are.

...aaaannnnd....yep. Watching a couple of videos verifies that, yes, as a matter of fact, I don't like those puppets. I really don't like those puppets.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:03 PM on August 26, 2013

Looks like I'm pretty much still the only weirdo that loved this show. Just never really liked cartoons all that much (except for the early morning ones like Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle, Underdog, and Fractured Fairy Tales).

I grew up in an isolated small town (pop. ~5000), and I guess I always had dreams of going out and seeing the world. Like Benny above, I still have a preference for quiet foreign films. I sometimes wonder if I was born in the wrong country.

A few years ago I tried to track down a Czechoslovakian film I saw on KF&O, based on the story of Cinderella, as I recall. This is what I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRWjcQ2QdEU, but not sure if that's the one. Anyone know?
posted by jenh526 at 7:18 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

jenh526, this is the Cinderella story you saw on KF&O. It's alternately "Three Wishes for Cinderella" or (as I think Fran referred to it) "Three Nuts for Cinderella." Cindy asks her friend who's going on an errand of some sort to "bring me the first thing that hits you on the nose." Three nuts fall out of a tree, and they turn out to be magical.

It's odd, isn't it, what sticks with you from long-ago childhood?
posted by bryon at 7:43 PM on August 26, 2013 [1 favorite]

And then in 1987, we got Contra, Fawn, and Ollie.
posted by scottymac at 9:38 AM on August 27, 2013