There were few laugh-out-loud jokes per show KFO relied on the humor of familiarity. The humor was quite tame by the standards of later comedy. KFO's humor relied on building a relationship between its characters and the audience over time. The series' music was written and performed by Jack Fascinato, who first accompanied the troupe on solo piano and later conducted the show's small orchestra. īuelah Witch, Fran, and Madame Oglepuss in 1961

Dragon', a roguish one-toothed dragon (who would slam his flat chin on the stage in frustration or roll on his back to be endearing) Madame Oglepuss, a retired opera diva Buelah Witch, a brash, madcap witch Fletcher Rabbit, the troupe's mailman and resident fussbudget who in keeping with the show's unrestrained use of puns, also worked at 'The Egg Plant' Cecil Bill, the troupe's union stagehand who spoke in an unintelligible 'tooie talk' Colonel Crackie, a Southern gentleman Dolores Dragon, Ollie's younger cousin and a number of others. The puppet cast included 'Kukla', the earnest leader of the troupe 'Ollie', or 'Oliver J. The design style of puppets was that of Neapolitan puppet shows, or Punch and Judy without the slapstick, but their personalities were less caricatured. 'Fran' was Fran Allison, a radio comedian and singer who was typically the only human to appear on screen, filling the role of big sister and cheery voice of reason as the puppets engaged each other concerning their foibles. Central Time, Monday through Friday from Chicago. The first NBC network broadcast of the show took place on January 12, 1949. The program was renamed Kukla, Fran and Ollie ( KFO) and transferred to WNBQ (the predecessor of Chicago's WMAQ-TV) on November 29, 1948. After the original run, the team appeared in other productions over several decades.īurr Tillstrom was the creator and only puppeteer on the show, which premiered as the hour-long Junior Jamboree locally on WBKB in Chicago, Illinois, on October 13, 1947. Comedienne Fran Allison starred, interacting with puppets, Kukla and Ollie (and sometimes other puppets) whose puppeteer was the show's creator, Burr Tillstrom. It was broadcast from Chicago between Octoand August 30, 1957.

It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed. It was created for children, but was soon watched by more adults than children.

Kukla, Fran and Ollie is an early American television show using puppets.

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