Bob Elisberg Pays Tribute to Kukla, Fran, and Ollie — and to Burr Tillstrom

Posted on December 7, 2014 at 3:11 pm

Be sure to take a look at this wonderful tribute to Burr Tillstrom from my friend Bob Elisberg. Bob is a marvelous writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of the best of popular entertainment. And in the early days of television, no one was more popular than Burr Tillstrom, the man behind Kukla, Ollie, Madame Oglepuss, Cecil Bill, and many more. The puppets’ witty, charming, and completely endearing conversations were entirely unrehearsed. Burr was a friend and client of my dad’s, so I got to attend some of the shows in person and Bob tells one of my favorite stories about a comment I made to a reporter about the puppets. I’m especially glad that Bob talked about what an influence Burr was on people like Jim Henson, how he inspired the movie “Lili” and the play “Carnival,” and about Burr’s innovative “hand ballets,” including the one about the Berlin Wall that won him an Emmy. Many thanks to Bob for this beautiful reminder of Burr’s artistry and his heritage.

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Behind the Scenes Television

A Lost Song from “The Music Man”

Posted on March 10, 2013 at 8:00 am

“The Music Man” is my all-time favorite musical, so I was especially intrigued by this great blog post by Bob Elisberg about the “lost song” from the show. It is hard to imagine that a musical that seems so organically perfect went through a trial-and-error stage — and a good reminder that it is the only way to create something so perfect it seems effortless.

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Behind the Scenes Musical

Rocky and Bullwinkle Celebrate their 50th Anniversary

Posted on November 20, 2009 at 8:54 am

My friend Bob Elisberg has a marvelous salute to the sensational Rocky and Bullwinkle, “from the maniacally clever mind of Jay Ward,” who yesterday celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first broadcast.

My parents were very strict about television, but this was one of the few shows they let us watch. They not only let us — they watched with us. It was one of the first television shows for children to have jokes for adults. As I grew up, there were innumerable times when I would learn something new and suddenly have the retroactive pleasure of understanding some past Rocky and Bullwinkle joke. There’s an opera called “Boris Godunov?” Aha! That explains the name of R&B bad guy Boris Badanov! And remember the name of their alma mater? Wassamata U? Remember “fan mail from some flounders?” And “watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat?” (“That trick never works!”)

Few people today will get the joke about the Kerward Derby (a play on the name of then-minor-celebrity Durward Kirby), but this is still purely delightful.