The Friendly Giant

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The Friendly Giant

The Friendly Giant (Bob Homme) and puppets Jerome the Giraffe and Rusty the Rooster
Genre children's show
Creator(s) Bob Homme
Starring Bob Homme
Rod Coneybeare (puppeteer)
Country of origin Canada
No. of episodes 3,000+
Production
Running time 15 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel CBC Television (1958-1985)
Original run September 1958 – March 1985

The Friendly Giant was a popular Canadian children's television program on the CBC from September 1958 through to March 1985. It featured three main characters: a giant named Friendly (played by Bob Homme), along with his puppet animal friends Rusty (a rooster who lived in a book bag and played a harp) and Jerome (a giraffe). The two principal puppets were manipulated by Rod Coneybeare.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

The program started in 1953 on Madison, Wisconsin radio station WHA-AM. Shortly thereafter, the show was moved to the UW-Madison's WHA-TV. Kinescopes of these shows were distributed to a few other non-commercial stations, and some of them made it up to the CBC headquarters in Toronto. At the invitation of Fred Rainsberry, the head of Children's Television at the CBC, in 1958 Bob Homme moved the show north to Canada, where it became a staple show for several generations of young viewers.

[edit] Format

The short, 15 minute show was perhaps most famous for its opening sequence. Each episode would begin with the camera panning over a detailed, animated model of part of a village as Friendly could be heard observing the goings on in the town below. Suddenly, his giant boot would come into view and Friendly would ask the viewers to "Look up, look waaaaay up!" and the Giant would invite everyone to come visit his castle. The traditional tune Early One Morning would be heard being played on the Giant's recorder, while the camera slowly zoomed into the Giant's castle, whose drawbridge and doors opened wide in welcome. Once inside, The Friendly Giant would put out miniature furniture for his viewers beside his feet (with only his feet and hands visible), saying, "One little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in, and for someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle." Typically Jerome the Giraffe would visit by poking his head through a high window, and Rusty the Rooster would emerge from his small bag hanging from the wall adjacent to the window.

The rest of the show focused on gentle, humorous chat between Friendly, Rusty and Jerome, followed by a story or a musical performance. When extra instrumentation was needed, a pair of otherwise silent puppet cats - Angie and Fiddle, the Jazz Cats - joined in. At the show's conclusion, Friendly would put his miniature furniture away and his large, kindly hand would wave goodbye as the camera would zoom out and the castle's drawbridge would be raised; as a silvery moon rose into the sky a cow would jump over it. Once, when the cow failed to make an appearance, the CBC was inundated with phone calls from disappointed viewers. (On occasion, often for episodes devoted to musical performances, episodes would take place completely at night.)

The shows were largely ad lib-bed, typically based around a one-page plot summary for each episode. This gave the show an added spontaneity uncommon to most children's shows, though the series was marked by a go-slow, gentle nature. The simple repetition of its main elements from show to show put it fundamentally at odds with the bolder, ever-changing nature of such shows as Sesame Street.

Little was made of the fact that Rusty, Jerome and the cat musicians must have been gargantuan in scale in order to converse with Friendly, and a running joke in the series involved the endless supply of items Rusty was able to keep in his bag.

The Friendly Giant's model castle, used during the opening sequence, currently on view at the CBC Museum in Toronto
The Friendly Giant's model castle, used during the opening sequence, currently on view at the CBC Museum in Toronto

[edit] Cancellation

In 1984 the Canadian federal government made deep cuts into the CBC budget, and The Friendly Giant was cancelled soon afterwards, though CBC executives insisted that the show's passing was unrelated to the cuts. It was commonly thought at the time that the move was intended to create enough public outrage that the government funding cuts to the CBC would be reversed. While there was strong public sentiment to keep the show on the air, the funding cuts were not reversed, and no new shows were made. It aired regularly for years afterwards as repeats.

The show's replacement, Fred Penner's Place, has been referred to by some people as "the Giant Killer".

By the time the show ended, more than 3,000 episodes of the show had been produced.

[edit] Aftermath

The star of the show, Robert Homme, was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1998. He died on May 2, 2000, at the age of 81 of prostate cancer.

Approximately 850 episodes of the show are currently held in the CBC's archive, including kinescopes of the earliest episodes.

Many of the props, costumes and puppets from the show are on display at the CBC Museum as part of an exhibit called Growing Up with CBC in Toronto.

The Friendly Giant was honoured as a Masterwork by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust in 2005.

[edit] External links

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