Shark Bytes

Don't rain on KFO -- it was a wonderfully educational and creative show that gave kids the respect they deserved instead of dumbing everything down. The reason that adults loved this show is because it spoke in a language that both kids and adults could appreciate.

The CBS Film Festival "version" of the show was not the same thing as the original. The original KFO featured better writing and didn't have the focus on showing the films. While the Film Festival was still well-done and offered an opportunity for kids to see something beyond the insipid cartoons of the Saturday Morning wasteland, it was nothing like the original KFO.

For anyone wanting a good retrospective of the show, along with some video clips, see the kukla.tv site.

I'd love to see KFO released on DVD -- there are literally hundreds of hours of the show that could be released.

I believe that in the film That's My Name, Don't Wear It Out, it isn't a mentally challenged younger brother, but a legally deaf friend.
The one about the giant English sheepdog is Digby: The Biggest Dog in the World.

The poster who compared KFO to "Teletubbies" has clearly not seen the show since it first aired, and his memories couldn't be further from the truth. "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" was sophisticated, witty and watched by more adults than children throughout the 1950s. Fans like Orson Welles and John Steinbeck wouldn't religiously watch something intended only for children.

As to later incarnations, such as their appearances on the "CBS Children's Film Festival," many people loved the films that were shown, as evidenced by the many posts at the forum created for the show at kukla.tv/cbs.html

I found these later appearances less interesting, as the show was no longer ad-libbed and lost its spontaneity. But in its first incarnation, it was sharp and anything but childish.

I was in rompers when this was first on in the early 50s. In terms of mind-numbing insipidity, it was that era's equivalent of "Teletubbies." If you were toilet-trained, you had already outgrown it


What bothered me most about it was how people - adults, mostly - praised the hell out of it. "Brilliant!" "Artful!" "Sheer genius!" My dad used to laugh his head off at it. I didn't think it funny at all.

In short, I agree with Jimmy James. Puppets are stupid and I hold them in contempt.

Well, I was born in 1969 and have very faint memories of this show. I remember it being referred to as KFO, but it was actually called CBS Children's Film Fest. They didn't really show the puppets all that much. As I got older, I think they didn't show them at all. I can only remember it starting out with a guy putting letters up on one of those theatre marquees and his ladder falls out from under him.

The films themselves were weird. I hated them. The only one I liked was the Red Balloon one. This was the days before Cartoon Network. The only other thing on the tube in those days was college football and I didn't like that. The other thing I should mention is that I watched this in the colder seasons when it was rainy cold outside. Funny, but the movie resembled the local weather.

Off topic-There is a poster down the list that went into a real digression about A&P supermarkets. I remember those ads. The post was kinda funny. Anyway, A&P( Atlantic and Pacific ) is really a coffee/tea company. The grocery biz wasn't really their line. I think they still are around but went back to selling beverages.

Good day everybody...

I remember KFO from the childrens film festival. I don't remember alot of the movies.Mostly just KFO, as well as the stories being strange. One I remember parts of is when children were being killed and hurt because they were playing in a mine field.But the films just gave me the opertunity to see that life was not always WONDERFUl, as tv back then made you think it was. I never had nightmares or anything like that. I used to watch it with my grandfather on sat morning, and if I had any questions , he would answer them.

I hate puppets. I hated this show.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie had other stints than CBS Children's Film Festival. I used to watch their segments, then go play while most of the movies were on. But I can understand why Tillstrom wanted to be a part of this show.
Now that I've seen clips of their early show via The Unofficial Kuklapolitan Web page. I understand why I loved them so much even though their original show was canceled 5 years before I was born.

I don't agree at all that these films were disturbing. They were provocative and they made you contemplate life in a different way.....much different than the often ridiculous scenarios presented to us during that era, ie. The Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, etc. Americans can be very superficial and they want to see that reflected back to them when they watch TV. Those European films were artistic and often taught us lessons in a very beautiful way.

I don't remember the children's film festival, but the original show fascinated me as a kid. Never jumped in its original form, regardless of what they later went on to do.

While I remember Kukla, Fran, and Ollie on The CBS Children's Film Festival, I don't remember anything they said or did. What I do remember is some of the films like the animation of Paul Bunyan and John Henry. In Bunyan's film, perhaps because of its budget, various voices imitated sound effects and in the Henry film, a female singer warbled about the man's constant digging of a tunnel and his resultant death. Truly touching. I also remember the film about an old bag lady who was revealed to have been an old stage actress who got harassed by a couple of lady teens then would eventually be friendly with one of them. Another one I remember is "That's My Name (Don't Wear It Out!)" about a teen boy and his younger retarded brother. Their relationship is a little antagonistic until the other brother got into an accident after which the younger bro says to strangers, "Nick fall down!" After one takes the two boys to the hospital, the show ends with Nick saying the title (The only other time I've heard that phrase was when John Travolta said it in Grease!) I think CBS cancelled the show after that, so I switched to ABC's Weekend Special which had more appealing children's films especially since it was hosted by Kids Are People Too's Michael Young.

I agree with the previous posters. The CBS Children's Film Fest. showed some pretty weird and sometimes depressing films. I remember that this show came on right after the cartoons had wrapped up. I told my wife about one the other day and she started bawling. It was called "Clown" about a boy and his dog. The dog, Clown, gets lost and the boy spends the entire show looking for his friend. At the end, he finds him, but he now belongs to a blind man who depends on Clown's help. The little boy just turns and walks away because he knows that the blind man needs the dog more than he does. What a heartbreaker! Then, there was the one about the Native American boy who trades his ancestral jewelry and stuff for a TV. He proudly presents the TV to his grandfather, but when they sit down to watch it, a cowboy movie is on showing Indians being shot down. Pretty provocative stuff for Sat. mornings. I did want to see more of Kukla, Fran and Ollie though. Still, the movies were weird enough to keep me glued to the TV.

IT NEVER JUMPED! The puppets were great, even the lesser-seen characters from the original series, though I didn't see that until I was grown. I watched them on the Children's Film Festival when I was a child, and I want to say that all you guys who thought those films were bad are CRAZY! Those films fired my imagination more that anything else from my childhood. I would love to get them for my kids. The one where the sheepdog turns into a giant dog? The one from France where the girl wants to race in the soapbox derby so she and her friends make the boy driver drink soda pop until he has to pee, then steal his racer? The one called "My Father is a Cosmonaut?" There was another one that did creep me out, though; it was about a boy going on a boat with some cartoon companions down into a cave through the drainpipe, or something? Gave me the willies.

When they started showing the depressing movies! The CBS Children's Film Festival was designed to repulse on contact. Very dreary films from Europe--that always looked like they were filmed in poverty stricken area. The best one was the classic "Red Balloon". Other than that--they were horrible. The show was on in the early Saturday afternoon. Cartoons were over. It was like "OK--time to go out and play now and stop watching TV! ". I don't know anyone who has fond memories of this show. YUK. Those puppets always creeped me out anyway. I always thought Kukla (or was it Ollie? the one that was supposed to be a dragon) looked like a big sun flower seed.

The CBS version really did show some strange movies. They usually originated from England. There was one where a boy thwarted an assassination attempt on a member of royalty and there was another where a young boy and girl were hiding a lion. The kids were in their boarding school uniforms and I remember a scene where the boy said to the girl, "before we do anything, we need to fix your tie so that's its tied on straight." (Gee, wasn't there someone in the wardrobe department to make sure the girl had her tie on straight?)