Jabberwocky (TV series)
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| Jabberwocky | |
|---|---|
 Jabberwocky main title |
|
| Genre | Children's |
| Starring | Tucker Smallwood JoBeth Williams Robert Prosky Carl Thoma Joanne Sopko Peter Johnson |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original run | mid-1970s – |
Jabberwocky was a Boston Saturday morning children's TV show that aired for two seasons in the early 1970s, but was rerun in the wee hours of Saturday mornings by many TV stations up until the 1990s.
[edit] Synopsis & History
Filmed and created by Harvard University and broadcast on WCVB-TV 5, Jabberwocky featured real actors and puppets and various interstitial cartoons. Actress JoBeth Williams -- in one of her earliest roles -- and actor Tucker Smallwood played roommates who moved in together, yet never seemed to unpack all their crates.
The friendly antagonist in most episodes was puppet character Dirty Frank, who popped up from whatever packing crate was convenient. He apparently lived in the half-open boxes, jumping from box to box as if all were somehow connected. Dirty Frank's inquisitive nature and his sloppy behavior drove the plot of most episodes.
Another mysterious box-dweller was the helpful and venerable Mr. Buchanan (actor Robert Prosky), a human handyman whose workshop lay in one particularly large packing crate. In many episodes, Mr. Buchanan's vast knowledge led the characters toward answers to their questions.
The characters' apartment was a studio set, but episodes often took them out into the greater Boston area for miniature documentary segments.
Carl Thoma and Joanne Sopko, two other local actors who, presumably, were alumni of the Harvard drama department, were also featured actors on the show. They appeared on-screen as Carl and Joanne in various epsiodes where Smallwood and Williams did not.
Tucker Smallwood was also a writer for the show.
John P. Utah from Ithaca College also contributed.
WCVB-TV continued to air Jabberwocky well after it went out of production, as it became part of the station's past legacy of original local programming (something WCVB was known for doing a lot of). By the mid-to-late 1980s the show could always be seen Saturday mornings at 5am, followed by off-network reruns and later, in the 1990s, by syndicated children's programming that lead up to ABC's Saturday Morning lineup (most notably Cappelli & Company). However, 'CVB did venture into original Saturday kids shows once again, when in 1989 they premiered A Likely Story, an imaginative show that encouraged reading.
By 1999-2000, after a continued airing of more than 25 years, Jabberwocky (along with classic airings of another 'CVB '70s original, The Nature World of Captain Bob) vanished off the station's schedule.
[edit] Theme Lyrics
Brothers and sisters
Happy and growing
Hammers and blisters
Things you'll be knowing
(Boy: I have a feeling in my mind that i've been here before...)
Flying machines,
In space and time
Words and their meanings
Gaze towards the mind
Touching and feeling
Inside and outside
Hands on the ceiling
My feet are on my side
(Children: All the world is Jabberwocky if you want it to be...)
Building a sound
to sing when you're near
No need to frown,
your friends are all here
(Child: Oh, this is Jabberwocky, hee-hee)
