August 30, 1957…Ten Years Of “Kukla, Fran & Ollie” Come To An End

On August 30, 2016 - TV History

August 30, 1957…Ten Years Of “Kukla, Fran & Ollie” Come To An End

At the link is KFO creator Burr Tillstrom’s timeline of the shows milestones, starting with their October 13, 1947 debut as “The Junior Jamboree” on WBKB in Chicago, to their last show, which was also on WBKB.
http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/kuklapolitans/kuklapolitan_chronology.html

In the five years that the show ran on NBC nationally, fan mail averaged 5,000 letters a day, and the show’s ratings rivaled Milton Burle’s and even Ed Sullivan’s at CBS. Be sure and click through the attached images…there is a surprise on one of them.

Thanks for the memories, Burr, Fran, Kukla and Ollie! By the way, KFO are also a big part of a post here from earlier today on an NBC color milestone, so visit the page by clicking on the blue EOAG text at the top left of this post. -Bobby Ellerbee


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13 Comments

  1. Gary Lowery August 31, 2016

    I remember this show as a little child. Question…I wasn’t born until ’56 was it in syndication after’57? probably so. Saw it on WIS Columbia SC.

  2. Judy Watson August 30, 2016

    Loved them!

  3. Michael Bruchas August 30, 2016

    I can remember watching that last show. Probably crying…

  4. Bob Sewvello August 30, 2016

    I didn’t have the opportunity to watch Kukla, Fran and Ollie as a young child. I did, however, watch them in my early teens. In the late 1960s, they hosted a TV series entitled the “CBS Children’s Film Festival”. The trio introduced films made for children from around the world. I enjoyed watching the show on weekend afternoons.

  5. Richard Bauer August 30, 2016

    Good bit of tv history.

  6. Tom Williamson August 30, 2016

    I loved this show when I was a kid. I think some of the shows aired on Sunday afternoons, but my memory may be failing.

  7. Dave Dillman August 30, 2016

    One of the greatest joys of my career was working with Burr in the early days of WFLD.

  8. Mark Milano August 30, 2016

    There’s also a detailed timeline at my site, where these photos came from.

    http://kukla.tv/history.html

  9. Rich Seidelman August 30, 2016

    http://www.kukla.tv

  10. Robert Barker August 30, 2016

    I wish I’d seen it. I was a bit too young to enjoy its network run. Somehow I knew of it in the early 60s, but it wasn’t broadcast anywhere in Indianapolis at that time.

  11. Cliff Johnson August 30, 2016

    Had forgotten about ole KFO…. brings back a flood of memories.

  12. James M Patterson August 30, 2016

    KF&O was a necessary part of my day when I was a young tot.

  13. Lucian Tomes Jr. August 30, 2016

    The show ended in ’57? They must’ve reran episodes, because I remember watching it when I was littler kid and I was born in ’61