Episode 350: Kukla, Fran and Ollie - "Water Glasses/Skater's Waltz" (November 27, 1950)
Kukla and company make their own kind of music
What I watched: An episode of the early children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. The series starred the titular Fran Allison, with all other roles being played by series creator and puppeteer Burr Tilstrom. "Water Glasses/Skater’s Waltz" was directed by Lewis Gomavitz and aired on Monday, November 27, 1950 at 7:00 PM on NBC. Video is available on the official KFO YouTube channel.
What happened: Cecil Bill and Mercedes are looking at a catalogue to pick out this year’s holiday lists. As is typical when two kids try to share a book, they get in a fight, and Lynwood has to intervene. Mercedes describes Lynwood as a knight in shining armour, and relates a story about him saving her from an evil magician back in her old princess days.
When Cecil Bill relates the story to Fran, she seems very skeptical. She looks at the catalogue some, with help from Fletcher Rabbit. Colonel Crackle pops up looking for a goblet, needing to prepare for his dinner with Madame Oglepuss tonight. Everyone leaves and Ollie finally pops up, describing his pleasant train ride back from Minnesota. (The train ride I wrote fanfic about.)
Kukla also pops up, wearing lion earmuffs, and the trio are finally reunited. Kukla leaves his earmuffs on, and Ollie has to pull them off with his mouth. Cecil Bill has been inspired by Mercedes’ knight fantasy, and goes after Ollie with a stick until Fran calms him down. All the talk about catalogues has inspired Ollie to bring out the latest RCA Victor record catalogue, including the KFO album.
Madame Oglepuss pops up, dressed in her finest opera outfit. Beulah soon pops up in an even fancier/sillier outfit, including a feathered hat as wide as she is tall. She brings out a whole bunch of glasses full of water and enlists Fran and Fletcher to play “The Skater’s Waltz” on them with drumsticks. Ollie wonders if RCA will ask them to record a song like this. I wouldn’t bet on it.
What I thought: This is another KFO episode that’s a bit of a grab bag. We have some catch-up from the weekend’s event in Minneapolis, Cecil Bill being convinced he’s a knight, a runner about missing drinkware, and a musical performance that kids could try replicating at home. It’s a little scattershot, but none of the bits overstay their welcome, and there’ sat least a little flow from one to the other.
Watching this episode I’m struck by how great a silent character Cecil Bill is. His “Tooie Talk” is an effective way to express his emotion (usually frustration) while still leaving him as a wall for other characters to bounce off. Mercedes’ crush on Lynwood, and his own inspiration from her delusions of grandeur (and possibly crushing on her as well), is a fun little wrinkle as well.
This episode is also surprisingly light on songs (I like the songs, because I don’t have to write much during them.) At the end we do get a little musical performance, with semi-full classes of water used as drums. I would imagine that every kid has done this, or been made to do this in a class, and it’s a nice example of KFO showing children something they could do on their own during a rainy day. Even when there wasn’t much going on in KFO, it still gave you something to take away from it.
Coming up next: We go back to the backlog with The Ben Blue Show.