Cartoon Teletales

Cartoon TeleTales is a television series on ABC from 1948–1950. The show was the first children's series on ABC.[1] It began in May 1948 as a local program in Philadelphia, before moving to New York as a late-afternoon program in June, and expanding to the national network in November.[2]

Cartoon Teletales
StarringJack Luchsinger
Chuck Luchsinger
Country of originUnited States
Production
Running timeapprox. 30 minutes (per episode)
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseNovember 14, 1948 (1948-11-14) –
September 24, 1950 (1950-09-24)

The show consisted of an original tale told by Jack Luchsinger, illustrated by 10–12 drawings that his brother Chuck Luchsinger did as the story unfolded. Episodes were filmed with a small in-studio audience of children who listened and made suggestions. Musical accompaniment was provided by organist Rosa Rio.[3] Viewers were encouraged to do their own drawings of the story and send them in to compete for prizes and be shown. At the conclusion of each episode, Chuck gave a drawing lesson. Contests drew as many as 5,600 entries a month during 1949.[2]

The story characters included Maurice the Mouse, Melody the Hummaing Bird, Leon the Lightning Bug, Usta the Rooster, Bamboozle the Ostrich, Mimi the Mole, Bumsniff the Bloodhound, Bigstuff the Elephant, Roscoe the Raccoon, Bungle the Beaver, Dipsy the Dolphin, Pinto the Pony, Cletus the Caterpillar, Alice the Alligator, and a human boy named Hezekiah.[4]

Besides Rio several others involved with the show went on to have notable careers in entertainment.[5]

These include:

The Luchsinger family own copies of 1 or 2 episodes, and some are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.[5]

Two similar shows, Tele-Comics and NBC Comics aired from 1949 to 1951, showing still images of cartoon panels with accompanying voiceover.[8]

References
  1. Cartoon Teletales
  2. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. Ballantine Books. p. 224. ISBN 978-0345497734.
  3. Cartoon Teletales (children)
  4. Woolery, George W. (1985). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 0-8108-1651-2.
  5. Telling the 'TeleTale' of Network TV's first "Cartoon"
  6. Ed Nofziger
  7. Who was Lee Orgel?
  8. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. The Scarecrow Press. pp. 285–286. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 5 March 2020.

Further reading
  • Kevin Scott Collier. Chuck and Jack Luchsinger's Cartoon TeleTales. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018. ISBN 1718944659
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.