The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 159

Page 7 DISCOVERY Sunday, September 8,1996 DailyHerald Kukla, Frank, Ollie thrived on imagination way up there in the pantheon of TV Greats, right beside Edward R. Murrow, Lucille Ball, Sid Caesar and Jackie Gleason. Perhaps you've heard of them, or are old enough to remember: Kukla, Fran and Ollie. "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" was a puppet show, pure and simple. Filmed in Chicago, tt first signed on in 1947, which makes next year its 50th anniversary, although Burr Tillstrom, the brilliant soul behind the puppets, created them during the years leading up to the TV debut.

Kukla was a clever lad with a puffy round nose, and surprised-looking eyebrows. Ollie was a dragon with one big tooth at the end of his snout. And Fran was Fran Allison, a real human being and one-time radio singer, who would rush up to the miniature proscenium whenever summoned and have long chats with the Kuklapolitans or join them in a song. That's all. That was it.

No fancy production, no cartoons, and only that one set. But for those of us who loved watching, the Kuklapolitans were bigger than Barney, better than the Muppets, more imaginative than any of the spectacular slam-bang animated shows that kids can watch today. Now, for the first time, some of the old "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" shows are going to be available in authorized versions on home video. Martin Tahse, a producer who worked with Tillstrom on the last batch of "KFO" shows Tillstrom did (Tillstrom died in 1985, Allison in 1989), bought the rights and had them transferred to tape. The first five editions will be in video stores next month.

From the late '40s to the mid '50s, the "KFO" show aired daily, always live and largely improvised. Tillstrom dismissed the idea of using a script from the beginning because he couldn't turn the pages while his hands operated the characters. Maybe it wasn't just a great puppet show; maybe it was also TVs first talk show. Allison knew basically where each day's episode was going and what songs would be sung. The rest of it was mostly spontaneous interaction between her and the puppets.

It's hard to explain now, especially perhaps to seen-it-all viewers of the '90s, but there was something so magical and charming about "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" that the experience of watching it has never really been equaled. Television helped popularize "KFO" but "KFO" also helped popularize television. It was designed to. According to producer- writer Max Wilk in his invaluable resource book "The Golden Age of Television," Tillstrom was approached by powers-that-were in 1947 because most TV sets then were in bars. People watched baseball games and boxing.

Executives knew that TV had to be welcome in American homes if it was going to succeed. "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" wasn't overtly educational and it certainly wasn't preachy. You never had the feeling you'd just seen today's lesson. But through the behavior of the Kuklapolitans, kids who grew up with them learned about compassion and compromise, about getting along in the world. Impetuous Ollie might grab Kukla's nose or conk him on the head, but reason and understanding always won out.

There were many other characters in the cast, including Madame Oglepuss, a snooty, frustrated opera singer; Fletcher Rabbit, a pragmatic hare who might have been Jim Henson's inspiration forKermit T. Frog; and the most rollicking member of the tribe, Buelah (cq) Witch, whose broom-flying exploits were haphazard and whose hocus- pocus was strictly benign. Especially the pocus. Will today's kids be able to appreciate the genius and gentleness of the program? Even if only a few do, it will be worth it. For those who saw the shows the first time around, revisiting the Kuklapolitans will be something like finding treasured old stuffed animals in the attic, still good as new.

All it took to make them walk and talk when you were a child was imagination and innocence, and that's what "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" was always all about. 1096, The Washington Post Co, MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS Roth, Van Halen get reacquainted from'thc Hollywood Reporter Freberg finally comes through with Volume II At 70, Stan's still the man when it comes to funny commercials TELEVISION BY JOHN ROGERS Associated Press NEW YORK For 35 years, they followed Stan Freberg around airports, restaurants, onto the sets of television shows. And they all had pretty much the same question: "When is Volume II coming out?" "I got to where I could see them coming," Freberg now recalls with a laugh. "They always seemed to have that gleam in their eye." They all had one other thing in common, too. Somewhere along the line, they had heard a comedy album the greatest comedy album of all time some would say titled "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume A quirky and hilarious sendup of history, it ended at the Revolutionary War and left Freberg fans pining for the foliowup its title seemed to promise.

Only one problem. Freberg, who was already a network radio star, television writer and "father of the funny commercial" when the record came out in 1961, got so busy with other projects that he never was able to get Volume II done until now. "It's like I went out for an unusually long lunch in between albums," he quipped during a recent phone conversation from his Beverly Hills, home. Indeed, after a string of hit comedy records in the 1950s, Freberg never released another one after "Volume until now. It was a hiatus that would earn the 70-year-old satirist a Howard Hughes-like mystique among some fans.

But he never was reclusive, just busy. For just about anyone with a radio or television has heard Freberg's distinctive voice again and again during the last 40 years. That voice somewhat nasal, sort of sarcastic, equal parts hipster and curmudgeon has pitched everything from encyclopedias to automobiles. It also has helped Freberg win 21 CLIO awards (the advertising Oscar) landed him in the Radio Hall of Fame and earned him the title "Father of the Funny Commercial" from Advertising Age magazine. "I got terribly involved with the satisfying feeling it gave me to prove that you didn't have to beat consumers over the head to get them to try a product," Freberg says of his advertising career.

'You could just entertain them into try- Entertain them he did, with TV Some say that Stan Freberg's comedy album "Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume is the best of all time. Associated Press Photo and radio commercials often funnier than the shows they were wrapped around. Picture, for example, a ritzy Manhattan cocktail party with 100 of the beautiful people munching on frozen pizza rolls while the William Tell Overture blares in the background. Who barges in to complain about the music? The Lone Ranger. "Man, I had a terrible time talking Clayton Moore into doing that," Freberg recalls of using television's authentic Lone Ranger for the ad.

But anybody else, he knew, would have just been some impostor in a mask. And a generation that grew up cheering the "real" Lone Ranger would have felt cheated. But while he was busy selling everything from tomato paste (How did they get those eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?) to encyclopedias (the smart-aleck River Phoenix lookalike in those late-night encyclopedia commercials is actually Freberg's son, Donavan), he never really gave up on Volume II. People wouldn't let him. He tells of how two actors, Tyne Daley and John Goodman, joined the cast of Volume II after approaching him and demanding parts and reciting passages from Volume I to prove they deserved them.

"I've always been amazed at the sweep, the demographic sweep, that this album has had over the years," he muses now. "I mean how could you write something that was memorized by a conservative governor of California, like Pete Wilson, and also by a screenwriter, like Joe Eszterhas, who did films like 'Showgirls' and 'Basic Films that might make you conclude that, you know, he might be a liberal." The musicologist and nationally syndicated radio personality Barry Hansen (a.k.a. Dr. Demento) proclaims the record either the greatest history album in comedy or the greatest comedy album in history. The Los Angeles Times has called its creator "a national treasure." "But I don't think too much about those things, man," says Freberg, who is as irrepressibly funny on the phone as on record.

"I mean like Satchel Paige once said, "Don't look back, something may be gaining on you." Indeed, it looked hike time might be gaining on Volume II, as one thing or another caused it to fall through the cracks over the years until Rhino Records brought it out last month, both separately and in a companion CD package with Volume I. At one point, there was a plan to stitch Volumes I and II together as a Broadway musical. It fell apart amid creative differences, and Freberg still fumes when he recalls how legendary theatrical producer David Merrick told him: "Take Lincoln out of the Civil War. He doesn't work." "I told him you can't change history," the satirist recalls. "He said, "You're one to talk But he was wrong.

Everything I do is historically accurate." True enough. So maybe Francis Scott Key didn't really write "The Star-Spangled Banner" as an ad jingle for Rumplemeyer's Horseshoes before it caught on as the national anthem. And maybe the Indian chief who sold Manhattan to the settlers didn't really plagiarize the songwriter Richard Rodgers by saying, "If you take Manhattan, you can have the Bronx and Staten Island, too." But trust Freberg, the stuff that really happened occurred on the dates he says it did. He checked, double checked and then triple checked. If he hadn't, he says, history teachers never would have taken his work seriously, playing it as they did for one generation after another of students.

For that matter, neither would he This is the guy, after all, who in a Volume II sketch on Samuel F.B. Morse's invention, brought in a telegrapher to type out Morse's original message "what hath God wrought" for a sound effect. "He told me there are only 700,000 people in the world who know Morse code now," Freberg said. "He said, 'You're doing the joke for only 700,000 people' and that's if everybody hears it. I said I'd do it for only seven.

Hey, if just one guy heard this and turned to his wife, or whoever, and said, 'Geez, Freberg had that guy tap out the exact Then it's worth it to me." Now, at 70, Freberg, whose long, silvery hair frames a cherubic-looking face, says he's nowhere near ready to quit. He turns out three radio commentaries a day for a syndicated program heard on stations across the country. He's got more commercials in the works. And, best of all for Freberg fans, he's got Volume III in the works, too. It will tell, among other things, how during World War II Gen.

Douglas MacArthur tried out various phrases, including, "See ya later, alligator," before settling on "I shall return," "Now that I've finally recorded Volume II, I feel an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Freberg says with a chuckle. "All that guilt that people have been heaping on me at airports all across the country. It's all gone now." SOAP OPERA REVIEW BY NANCY JOHNSON UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE ALL MY CHILDREN: Gloria told Michael that there is nothing romantic between her and Tad Dimitri warned Erica that Bianca feels inferior to her. In the stable alone, Bianca was unaware she was being watched. ANOTHER WORLD: Rafael forged a letter, telling Nick that Maggie is not pregnant.

Felicia told Cass that she will help him deal with Frankie's death. Jake told a stunned Vicky that Bobby is an ex-con. AS THE WORLD TURNS: Ben was named head of neurology at Memorial Hospital. Sarah pitched Zoe as spokesperson for Paul home shopping network. Martin told cohort Mai-Ling he will soon control Lisa's business.

THE BOLD AND THE BEAU- TIFUL: Taylor counseled Jessica, who is determined to find out who raped her. Grant was stung when Brooke said she loves Ridge and wants to be with him. Taylor told Brooke that she may go after Ridge. THE CITY: Richard realized he is Sydney and Nick's son after Sydney said her and Nick's baby did not die at birth. Molly learned Sydney arranged a Broadway role for her.

Everyone is worried about a missing Jocelyn. DAYS OF OUR LIVES: Marlena and Sami flew to Paris to search for Will. Mary made plans to sell Will. Kristen used hypnosis to get John to make love to her. Billie joined Austin and Carrie for their wedding.

GENERAL HOSPITAL: Alan gave Robin news about a promising HIV treatment before she left for college. Hoping to save her marriage again Bobbie suggested that she and Tony adopt a child. Laura learned Luke is spying on Stefan. GUIDING LIGHT: Matt refused to believe that Vanessa is dead. Billy Lewis returned for Vanessa's memorial service.

Roger insisted to Leo that Vanessa, who left to spare her family her illness, is alive. ONE LIFE TO LIVE: Still pretending to be pregnant, Alex told Carlo that he cannot touch her because she has sensitive skin. Carlo told a stunned Elliot about his plan for Elliot to hypnotize Viki Kevin. THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: Victor and Ashley, reminisced about their past marriage. Nate has not been able to deal with Nathan's death.

Kay admitted to NikM that she told Victor that Nikki is seeing Josh. David Lee Roth, garnering a huge ovation when he appeared as a presenter Wednesday at the MTV Video Music Awards with his former Van Halen band mates, announced, "This is the first time we've appeared onstage together in over a They presented an award to Beck, who said he had another first: "This is the. first time I've ever won anything." The reunited Van Halen then appeared backstage, with Eddie Van Halen affirming, "We're actually friends now." Of the band's plans, he said, "We have a greatest hits album coming out in October with two new songs with Dave. It's been 12 years. We're just getting to know each other again.

The next step' is videos. Then I have a hip operation, and we'll take it from there." Roth, asked about rejoining the band, wasn't exactly shy. "I'm already packed. I'm ready to go," he said. "I have nothing at home.

I have no property. I was fired from two hotels in Las Vegas. I have nothing to do." Responding to one journalist's laughter, he cracked, "What's the biggest thing you were ever fired from? Home Depot?" Asked about touring plans, Eddie was firm. "We will not tour as a nostalgia act," he said. Concerning the recent departure of frontman Sammy Hagar, band member Michael Anthony said, "It's very simple.

Sammy left the band. He wanted to go back to being a solo artist. He didn't want to be a team player." Asked for his comment, Roth shyly demurred: "What do I know about losing a high-profile job?" he said. Gavin Lonsdale of Bush said the band was thrilled to receive the award from the fans. "It's the biggest one, really, because they're who you're playing for." The other of the band were obviously in a whimsical mood.

What would they be if they weren't musicians? "Critics." Who would they most like to tour with? "The Jimi Hendrix Experience." And who's their favorite video director? "Orson Welles." Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, responded to recent reports that he has resumed drug use after years of being an anti- drug role model: "It's rumors. It's a load of malarkey. I don' think the people out there believe it for a second," he said, "We'll offer free urine samples." Rap artist Dr. Dre, talking about the new direction in his work, said, "Gangsta rap is definitely a thing of the past. I've just moved on." The new album, he added, is "not going to be a 'Chronic It's called It'll be out in stores Oct.

15." Wyclef of the Fugees, who won for best video, said of the award: "It's all about the teamwork. You've seen 'The right?" When asked about the group's future output, he answered, "We have millions of songs. This is only 1 percent of it. This is Genesis. So everyone catch Exodus, all right?" Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Paris, the directors of the award- winning Smashing Pumpkins video "Tonight, Tonight," said they were inspired by the silent film "A Trip to the Moon." To achieve the video's distinctive style, they said they used a 100-year-old hand- cranked camera.

Toni Braxton said that Tennessee is one of the most interesting places she's ever played. Why? "Because the audiences were mostly white, and I was really surprised," she said. Jason Newsted of Metallica, when asked about the band's relatively brief sets at Lollapalooza this year, said the guys didn't mind at all. "It gave us a lot of leisure time to go and read, and to go to bible readings," he said. Alanis Morissette said she doesn't like awards, though she allows for the possibility that MTV's are OK "It's less formal, there's less pressure to be here," she said.

"(But) it still doesn't change the concept of art being judged." Ambigenderous hoopmaster Dennis Rodman of the Bulls and budding film star showed up decked out in a velva-sheen brown shirt and sunglasses: "I didn't want to be too decadent tonight," he said. Even performers seemed more geared toward the show than the awards. Members of Foo Fighters smiled when asked if they thought they'd win. Darius Rucker shrugged and said he expected to lose. compiled by Frank Scheck RQSEMONT THEATRE SEPT.

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