Kukla, Fran and Ollie: The First Episodes DVD

Buy both volumes together - 4 DVDs and 42 episodes with bonuses - just $25.00 with free shipping!

The Kuklapolitan Website and The Burr Tillstrom Copyright Trust are pleased to announce that due to popular demand, Volume 2 of Kukla, Fran and Ollie: The First Episodes will be available for purchase on December 15, 2011 through Amazon.com and the Chicago History Museum.

This second volume of the earliest episodes of the Emmy and Peabody-award-winning Kukla, Fran and Ollie, one of the most highly regarded shows of early television, contains 22 digitally restored episodes transferred directly from the 16mm kinescopes, most unseen since they first aired from 1949-54.

One of Burr's colleagues, Academy Award-nominated Lyle Conway, acted as Creative Director for this volume and has given the DVD a true "Kuklapolitan" look, featuring Ted Drake's original illustrations. He also worked with Buelah Witch to create a Wiki containing many details on the history of the show and its creators.

In addition, Burr's relatives opened his never-before-seen personal photo collection, which was used to create a Photo Gallery. The DVD also includes some of Burr's 5-minute Kukla and Ollie shows from 1961 and other treats.

The first volume, released in 2010, contains 20 episodes chosen by Burr himself for preservation. In addition, three episodes, Lemonade, First 15-minute show, and The Mikado have just been retransferred directly from the 16mm kinescopes to ensure the highest quality of these signficant episodes.

Step back in time to the earliest days of television, and you'll see why James Thurber once wrote that Burr and Fran Allison were "helping to save the sanity of the nation and to improve, if not even to invent, the quality of television."

Watch clips from the DVD on our youtube channel

Critical response to Volume 1:

Sun-Times story on the DVD release
"They've been unseen for the most part since they were first broadcast live in the early days of television, but episodes of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, one of the most beloved of Chicago children's shows, finally are making their belated way to DVD."

Tom Shales in the Washington Post
"Now, after decades of never being seen except in a museum, some of the earliest and most authentically classic episodes are being released and they are, encouragingly, as wonderful as a former fan is likely to remember them."

Dave Kehr in the New York Times
"Irresistibly appealing...the Kuklapolitans must have seemed like welcome emissaries from a world where violence was unknown, and tensions could be resolved with the nuzzle of a felt nose. They scarcely seem less so now."

DVD Talk review
"This is a great set that will hopefully find its way into a lot of DVD collections. A highlight in early television, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie are woefully ignored today, and hopefully this set will expose a new generation of viewers to the amusing comedy of this fantastic show. Highly recommended."

TVparty review
"This two-disc set includes two of what are considered the finest shows. Lemonade is a spot on satire of our over-hyped capitalist society (and this was the fifties!) while The Mikado is a hilarious send up of the back stage turmoil involved in putting on an opera, a catty and clever performance worthy of an episode of Frasier."

TV Worth Watching
"Kukla, Fran & Ollie is finally on DVD in its earliest form, demonstrating how even independent rights owners can use the internet's smaller scale to get releases to the public at low cost. This simple show couldn't be wittier or more clever. What a surprise delight!"

WGN radio interview

The two volumes include the following shows: Volume 1 Disc One 12/5/49 Salute To Television 8/17/49 Lemonade 9/26/49 Madame Ooglepuss Loses Her Wig 9/8/49 Screen Test 10/6/49 Ice Cream - with Dave Garroway 10/31/49 Halloween 11/30/49 Kukla Kiddish 12/20/49 Making A Christmas Tree Stand 12/28/49 Hansel and Gretel Bonus: Homecoming - with Gene Rayburn (excerpt)	Disc Two 6/28/50 Puppetry Festival 11/3/50 As You Like It 12/20/50 Winter Carnival 11/26/51 First 15 Minute Show 12/5/51 Guppies Gavotte 12/12/51 Fran Practices Christmas Singing 4/22/52 June Lockhart 5/2/52 Leaving New York 10/12/52 Fifth Birthday 1/3/54 Miss VUHF 2/21/54 "The Mikado" Dress Rehearsal Bonuses: Sweet William (excerpt) "Here We Are" (excerpt)

Volume 2 Disc One 2/28/49 Back From Richmond 10/4/49 Library Day 11/1/49 Milton Caniff 1/16/50 New York, New York 6/6/50 4th of July 8/20/50 Nightclubbing 9/10/51 Raking Leaves 10/11/50 Destination Moon 10/1/51 Carmen Bonuses: New Yorker Article (excerpt) Mercedes' Growing Pains (excerpt) Kukla and Ollie 5-minute shows	Disc Two: 12/11/51 Christmas Shopping 12/24/51 Christmas Eve 12/26/51 Ollie Has Amnesia 4/11/52 Jack Not at Piano 4/23/52 Modern Dance vs. Classical Dance 5/12/52 Mrs. Dragon Organizes the K.P. 8/24/52 First Half-hour Show 11/23/52 Thanksgiving 2/14/54 Valentine’s Day 2/28/54 Fletcher's Lament 4/10/55 Bunny To Bunny 6/25/52 Paul Pookenschlagl Visits 6/27/52 Last Show Before Summer Vacation Bonuses: Buelah Wiki, Burr's Scrapbook
Perhaps Burr himself best described the show: KFO is not a spectacular, nor is it a situation comedy. It is not a children’s show, nor is it a culture-conscious program for intellectual adults. It has a magic of its own which enchants not only the friends who watch it, but all of us who are responsible for its creation. It seems to attract all ages and all kinds of minds. We’ve never expected the largest audience in television, but we’ve had a consistently loyal and strong audience of moderate size. (As a matter of fact, when we ended our five-a-week show, two years ago, we had one of the top ratings for a strip.) Kukla, Fran and Ollie have quiet voices and gentle ways. If we have any purpose on the American scene, it is to satirize in a a kindly way, our lives, the lives of people everywhere, to kid some of the little annoyances and foibles that often grow out of proportion in the world today. We can comment on what we see, and give our impressions of what we think and feel about contemporary happenings and people. We don’t try to educate, we don’t claim any overwhelming philosophical undertones. We only hope to entertain.