Daily writing prompt
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
Thinking back and believe me it is a tad blurry, there likely were many television shows I watched as a kid. Or as many as we could get on over-the-air television at that time. We never got cable TV until much later in my youth. As such, our programming availability would have been entirely Canadian in content.
The two shows that same to stand out are "Mr. Dressup" and "The Friendly Giant."
Mr. Dressup starred Ernie Coombs(as Mr. Dressup), along with two main puppet characters. The basic premise of the show involved Mr. Dressup leading children through a series of songs, stories, arts, crafts and imagination games, with the help of his puppet friends - a child named Casey and a dog named Finnegan - who lived with him and often played in the tree-house in Mr. Dressup's backyard.
Among the many highlights or elements of the show over the years was whether Casey was a boy or a girl. The puppeteer(Judith Lawrence) who designed and built "Casey" wanted both boys and girls to be able to relate to the character. She once said, "Whenever I am asked if Casey is a boy or a girl, I would respond - yes."
Amazon Prime aired a documentary about Mr Dressup that premiered at the 2023 "Toronto International Film Festival" called "Mr. Dressup - The Magic of Make-Believe." It emphasizes and documents his career and its massive impact on Canadian culture and entertainment. The film also goes very in-depth into the tremendous impact and significance that puppeteer Judith Lawrence had(but was never really known about) in bringing Casey and Finnegan to life and being such an integral component of the show.
The second show was The Friendly Giant. It ran on the CBC from 1958 through to 1985. The shoe featured three main characters. First a giant named Friendly(played by Bob Homme), who lived in a huge castle, along with his puppet animal friends Rusty(a rooster who played a harp, guitar, and accordion and lived in a book bag hung by the castle window), and finally Jerome(a giraffe who was tawny with purple spots and poked his head in the window).
The show format was often some musical bits which may have included The Giant playing a recorder or other music played by other minor characters from time to time. It also usually included a story from a book that Rusty the Rooster would produce out of the "book bag" he lived in. But, mostly it was the three characters having a chat.
The episodes(about 15 minutes in length) were mostly ad-libbed, and based around a one-page summary developed for each show. They felt it gave the show an unusual spontaneity, like three friends just getting together and having a conversation. It always seemed that it was just a gentle chat back and forth between The Giant and Rusty and Jermone.
Two television shows from my youth.
--as always with love--
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