Davey and Goliath

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Davey and Goliath
Genre animation, Christian
Created by Art Clokey
Ruth Clokey
Dick Sutcliffe[1]
Starring Dick Beals, Norma MacMillan, Hal Smith, Nancy Wible, Ginny Tyler
Country of origin USA
Production
Producer(s) United Lutheran Church in America
Running time 15 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel syndicated
Original run January 1, 1960 – 1964, with specials continuing regularly until January 1, 1975
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Davey and Goliath was the title of a 1960s stop-motion animated television series. The programs, produced by the Lutheran Church in America (now a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), were produced by Art Clokey after the success of his Gumby series.

Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his "talking" dog Goliath (although only Davey and the viewer can hear him speak) as they learn the love of God through everyday occurrences. Many of the episodes also feature Davey's parents, his sister Sally, as well as Davey's friends Jimmy and Teddy in earlier episodes, Jonathan and Cisco on later ones (all are members of the "Jickets" club).

While the show was aimed at a younger audience, the series eventually dealt with serious issues, including racism, death, religious intolerance and vandalism. Davey's close friend, Jonathan Reed, was African-American, perhaps the first African-American character to appear in a television cartoon, and one of the first African-American characters to appear as a friend of a television show's lead character. [1]

The series lasted until 1965 originally, but several holiday 30 minute special episodes were created in the late 1960s. The series resumed with some new characters in 1971 and continued until 1973. In 1975, a final 30 minute summer episode was created. In 2004 Art Clokey's son, Joe, produced a new episode, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas."

Contents

[edit] History

In 1958 Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), put aside $1 million to fund production of a future television program for children. Soon after, the ULCA contracted with Clokey Productions, Inc., headed by Gumby creators Art and Ruth Clokey, to create a new children’s show: Davey and Goliath. Scripts were written by children’s book author Nancy Moore in consultation with the church.

The Lutheran Church and Art Clokey teamed up to make the first Davey and Goliath episode in 1960 called "Lost In A Cave". On this particular episode, the figures were entirely clay and the scenery was also mostly clay. The early voices included Hal Smith (who did a number of voices including Davey's Father), Dick Beals (who was Davey's voice), and Ginny Tyler (who did the voice of Sally and Davey's mother). These three did many other voices as well.

After making "Lost in a Cave" in 1960, Clokey made "The Wild Goat", "Stranded On An Island", and "The Winner" in 1961. On these episodes the clay figures now had clothing. Also, more model buildings and trees were added and these three episodes looked somewhat more realistic. In 1961, the series of these four episodes began airing free on local television stations nationwide ranging from ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates to independent stations. Many of these stations ran these episodes leading into network Saturday morning lineups. Other stations ran them in religious Sunday morning lineups in between various evangelists. By 1964 the show was airing in over 90% of the television markets.

In 1962, about eight more 15 minute episodes were made, including: "All Alone", "Polka Dot Tie", "On The Line", and "The Pilgrim Boy" among others. By then the clay figures had established looks and consistent sizes. The scenery became slightly more realistic. On endings "The End" would now be in regular print, rather than the "Davey & Goliath logo" type print. All the episodes made up to this point were known as series one. The background music used on this show originated from sources such as The Capitol Film Music Library, which could be heard on shows like Ozzie & Harriet, Donna Reed, Dennis The Menace, and other 50's sitcoms. A few of these background tracks could also be heard on 60's Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

From 1962 to 1963, another 13 episodes were made including "The Waterfall", "The Bell Ringer", "The Silver Mine", "Ten Little Indians", "The Dog Show" and others. The only big change was that voices of Sally and Davey's mother were done by Nancy Wibble who did other female voices as well. Also, Davey's personality became slightly tougher and, within a couple of episodes, rebellious. Overall, though, Davey's character remained good-natured. These episodes were added to distribution shortly after they were made. Chronological order, however, was unclear. In addition, Norma McMillan(who did various voices on cartoons like Sweet Polly Purebred on Underdog and others) would join the cast to do children's and female voices as well.

From 1963 to 1964, another series of 13 episodes, including "Happy Landing", "The Big Apple", "Bully Up A Tree", "Good Neighbor", "Rags & Buttons" and others were made. Davey was slightly bigger but the scope of the show itself had no big changes. At the end of 1964, production on Davey and Goliath wound down. In some episodes including "Good Neighbor", in addition to the "The End" placard a billboard showed that the show was produced in association with the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA).

In 1965, a 30 minute Christmas special called "Christmas Lost & Found" was made. The focus of this episode was more religious in nature and distanced itself from "Santa Claus" and "Rudolph". The Christmas songs used were religious. This would also be the last episode featuring Dick Beals as the voice of Davey.

In the late 1960s several more 30 minute specials were made including "Happy Easter" from 1967, "The New Years Promise" from 1967, and "Halloween Who Did It?" from 1968. By now Davey was closer to junior high school age. He was now voiced by Norma McMillan. "Happy Easter" confronted death of a loved one as Davey's beloved grandmother dies suddenly (off camera) within hours of a fun filled visit.

After these four specials, the ULCA and Clokey Productions began funding another series of episodes in 1971. At this point, only Norma Mcmillan and Hal Smith did voices. In these episodes, Davey was Junior High School age and occasionally became very rebellious. His antics included pouring paint in a water well, hanging from a dinosaur's head in a museum, telling a handicapped child to shoot himself for being so "dumb", cheating on tests in school, among other things. This Davey had a totally different personality from the Davey portrayed in the 1960s. Norma McMillan continued to do the voice of Davey. At this time racism, gangs, conservation, crime, and other issues became topics within the series. That year episodes like "Blind Man's Bluff", "Finders Keepers", "Who's George", "Who Me", "Help", "The Stopped Clock" and others were distributed. The openings were also changed, featuring updated music. Background music was also different from the 60s series with some overlap. Midway through this series, Davey's African-American friend Jonathan Reed was introduced. Johnathan came from a nearby city and both characters went to school together.

In 1972 another 30 minute special, "School Who Needs It?", was aired. Also that year the final regular series of episodes came out. Jonathan appeared in most of the episodes. These episodes included "What's His Name", "Zillion Dollar Combo", "The Watchdogs", "Chicken" and others. In 1973, the series wound down once again, but in 1975 a 30 minute summer camp special called "To The Rescue" was made. This special marked the end of the production of the series in its first incarnation.

After an almost 30-year hiatus, Davey & Goliath were next seen as part of a Mountain Dew commercial in 2001, with the royalties from the commercial used to fund the production of the 2004 Christmas special "Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas." This holiday special addressed both religious and ethnic diversity. Because most of the original voice cast were no longer alive (Hal Smith having died in 1994, and Norma McMillan in 2001) new voice actors played the roles. This episode took advantage of advances in animation technology using updated graphics and scenery as well. This special was 45 minutes long and aired for an hour including commercials. (Until that point, commercials had never aired during any episode.) Hallmark Channel aired this special in 2004 and 2005.

[edit] Television airing

In some markets the show aired on more than one station. In New York City, for example, it aired simultaneously on three stations: WOR-TV, WABC-TV, and WPIX. WPIX aired only one episode per week, while WOR-TV and WABC-TV ran two episodes back-to-back in a 30 minute time slot. For a short while, WABC-TV and WOR-TV aired the show in the same time slot but aired different episodes, though all three stations ran all the episodes available. WOR-TV dropped the show in 1985. WABC-TV dropped it in 1987 while continuing to air holiday specials until the mid 1990's. WPIX dropped it in 1990. In most cases, the shows were run in chronological groups. An order is known in terms of the year each was episode was made, but actual chronological order in which they were made is unknown.

In the 1980s, commercial stations began gradually dropping the series. Religious stations picked it up in many markets and ran it in their blocks of Christian Children's programs. By 1990 only a handful of commercial stations still aired the series. When the series began airing on religious stations, some episodes were gradually dropped. They included "Polka Dot Tie" (which addresses racism in an indirect way), "On The Line" (due to the scary nature of the episode), "Ten Little Indians" (due to what was interpreted as racism in the word "Indians"), "Man Of The House" (which was controversial due to the children being left home alone at what may be perceived as too young an age), and "The Gang" (due to the violence on this episode). Commercial stations, however, continued running these episodes throughout the 1980s until they dropped the series altogether.

In the early 1990s, those five episodes were officially pulled from syndication and not available to stations regardless of their format (whether religious or secular commercial stations, though very few commercial stations ran it anyway). In the 1990s the show aired strictly on religious stations including from Baptist-based services like FamilyNet to ecumenical religious networks like VISN/ACTS (now Hallmark Channel (which no longer airs the series), Pentecostal-based services like Trinity Broadcasting Network, Roman Catholic tele-ministries like Boston Catholic Television, EWTN (which had also aired the series in the mid 1980s but no longer airs it), a few local diocesan cable Catholic channels, and religious independent stations.

"Man Of The House" and "On The Line" have recently been revived and ran on Trinity Broadcasting on January 13, 2007. But in the last few years several later episodes were withdrawn due to the fact some behaviors demonstrated on these episodes are today of a zero tolerance nature while some are considered by some to be "politically incorrect). These are "The Watchdogs" (due to its topic of violent crime), "What's His Name" (due to the nature of threats that Davey was making to take revenge on someone) , "Louder Please" (due to Davey's attitude toward handicapped people), and "Help" (because a character came extremely close to a death causing injury. "Down On The Farm" (one scene has a naked Davey skinny-dipping, and was thought to be too casual a reference to childhood nudity) was also withdrawn while "Bully Up A Tree", which also has Davey skinny dipping and his friend without clothes on when after he fell into the water, but that episode still airs. Also "Cousin Barney" was withdrawn from television for reasons that are not clear.

Today it airs on Boston Catholic Television, Trinity Broadcasting, and a few local Christian television stations. For example, on TBN only the 15-minute episodes have been appearing until this past Christmas (the holiday specials have not aired on TBN until this past Easter when "Happy Easter aired).

In 2004 and 2005, when Hallmark aired a Christmas special and the 1967 "Happy Easter" episode, they aired the program with several commercial breaks. Until then no station, commercial or noncommercial, had run commercials during an airing of an episode.

Hallmark aired the entire series commercial free until 2001. Since then, Hallmark only aired a few of the holiday specials, as well as the Snowboard Christmas special made in 2004.

[edit] The Snowboard Christmas special of 2004

In this special, Davey demonstrates his snowboarding expertise to two friends: Sam, a Jewish boy, and Yasmeen, a Muslim girl. In the course of the show the three children learn of each other's holiday celebrations, Jewish Hanukkah, Christian Christmas, and Muslim Ramadan.

[edit] Home video

In 1986 the Program Source began distributing the first 13 episodes of the series minus "Polka Dot Tie". Also, all five holiday specials were made available. These were distributed for sale on VHS tapes. Mail order services also made a few episodes available.

In the mid 1990s, other episodes were distributed on VHS tapes. In 2000, various episodes were released on DVDs showcasing a particular theme. In 2004 and 2005, most episodes were released on various DVD compilations. Still, "Polka Dot Tie", "On The Line", "Ten Little Indians", "Man Of The House", and "The Gang" were not released. "Polka Dot Tie", "The Gang", and "Ten Little Indians" have never been in print on VHS or DVD. It's believed that the ELCA feels these episodes lacked moral content and are not conducive to Christian values[citation needed]. It was even reported that prints of some of these episodes have been destroyed.

At the end of July 2006, Starlight Video announced that they would be releasing Davey & Goliath: The Lost Episodes which would include "Cousin Barney", "Polka Dot Tie", "10 Little Indians", "Down On The Farm", "The Gang", "Man Of The House", "Louder Please", "Help", "The Watchdogs", and "What's His Name." The producers are rumored to have changed the names of two of these episodes in the release ("The Gang" became "The Jickets" and "10 Little Indians" now "Ten Pin Alley"), making them more politically correct, but since no one has seen these DVD's its unknown if its true. This compilation was originally scheduled for release on September 19, 2006, but it was first delayed until December 26, 2006, then to January 30, 2007, then again postponed until March 13, then 15th May, and finally to the 25th of September. As of this writing, the release has been yet again delayed with no official release date yet issued. No explanation has been offered as to why the release has been so frequently delayed, now to more than a year since its original offering.

[edit] End credit issue

In the 1980s, end credits of these episodes disappeared. New prints distributed after 1984 also omitted the end credits. In the 60's episodes, the end credits consisted of a variation on the instrumental horn and organ theme - A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (the modern form of which was written by Johann Sebastian Bach for the hymn written earlier by Martin Luther) - over the Lutheran Church logo with the credits being displayed. The 70s episodes had various instrumental pieces accompanying end credits. However, the thirty-minute holiday episodes' end credits remain intact. The reason for this is unknown.

In the fall of 2005, TBN began running the episodes with the end credits included. Also, end credits now appear on the post 2005 DVD releases from Starlight Home Entertainment.

[edit] Parodies

  • MADtv also parodied an episode of the series during season three, episode 25 as Davey and Goliath 2: Pet Sematary, complete with the classic stop-motion animation. The parody featured Goliath run over by a tractor-trailer truck, a motorcycle gang, and the stars of Riverdance, only to be raised from the dead in the Pet Sematary. Earlier in the series, MADtv spoofed Davey and Goliath on season one episode 14 with Davey and Son of Goliath, alluding to the Son of Sam serial killer who claimed a talking dog had instructed him to kill.[3]
  • Davey and Goliath was resurrected in 2001 in a Mountain Dew commercial starring the title characters.

[edit] The Simpsons

The Simpsons has spoofed the series several times.

  • In the episode HOMR, "Gravey and Jobriath" was a show watched by Ned Flanders and his sons at an animation festival. The episode concerned Gravey's attempts to construct a pipe bomb ("to blow up Planned Parenthood!"). In contrast to the traditionally animated style of The Simpsons, the segment was created using stop-motion animation much like the original series. It ended with Gravey shoving the pipe bomb into Jobriath's mouth for his "lack of faith," followed by an off-screen explosion and cheering from the Flanders children.
  • In the episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment", after watching television all night Homer appears to be watching the show. A character obviously meant to be Davey says, "We could get there quicker if we took my dad's car!" Goliath answers, "I don't knooowwww, Davey!"
  • During the episode "Bart the Lover", Maude Flanders' speaks about her son Todd's TV habits: "Well, he used to watch Davey & Goliath, but he thought the idea of a talking dog was blasphemous...".
  • In the episode "Simpsons Bible Stories", Before King David's (Bart) fight against Goliath II (Nelson), an overconfident David says that he will simply throw a stone to the head as he did with Goliath and give a quick speech telling kids not to drop out of school. Santa's Little Helper talks and calls David "Davey". He tries to present a more realistic view to David, saying that he is out of shape.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Beavis and Butthead made a reference to Davey and Goliath in a 90s episode while watching a video regarding the "claymation" style. Beavis stated that Goliath doesn't lick his nads or poop.
  • Three episodes of Davey and Goliath have won Gabriel Awards.In 1966 for "Christmas Lost and Found," 1967 for "Happy Easter," and in 1973 for "School Who Needs It."[2]
  • In the uncut DVD version of MTV Unplugged in New York by the rock band Nirvana, the band can be heard discussing an episode of Davey and Goliath between songs.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Series 1

1960

1. Lost in a Cave

1961

2. The Wild Goat

3. Stranded on an Island

4. The Winner

1962

5. Cousin Barney

6. The New Skates

7. The Kite

8. The Mechanical Man

9. The Time Machine

10. On the Line (not seen on television)

11. The Polka Dot Tie (no longer seen on television or available on home video)

12. All Alone

13. Pilgrim Boy

[edit] Series 2 - 1963

14. The Silver Mine

15. The Bell Ringer

16. Officer Bob

17. The Parade

18. The Waterfall

19. Down On The Farm (no longer seen on television)

20. Ten Little Indians (not available on home video or seen on television)

21. The Sudden Storm

22. The Shoemaker

23. The Runaway

24. Boy Lost

25. Not For Sale

26. The Dog Show

[edit] Series 3 - 1964

27. Rags And Buttons

28. The Lemonade Stand

29. Man Of The House (not available on home video but reinstated to television airing)

30. Bully Up A Tree

31. Happy Landing

32. The Big Apple

33. Editor In Chief

34. Hocus Pocus

35. Jeep In The Deep

36. A Diller A Dollar

37. The Bridge

38. The Gang (not available on home video or seen on television)

39. Good Neighbor

[edit] Holiday Specials - 30 Minutes

40. Christmas Lost & Found (1965) - Last episode with Dick Beals as Davey

41. Happy Easter (1967) - First Episode with Norma McMillan as Davey

42. The New Years Promise (1967-68)

42. Halloween: Who Did It? (1968)

43. School: Who Needs It? (1972)

44. To The Rescue (1975)

[edit] Series 4 - 1971

45. The Stopped Clock

46. Who Me?

47. Kookabura

48. Finders Keepers

49. The Hard Way

50. If At First You Don't Succeed

51. The Caretakers

52. Who's George

53. Rickety Rackety

54. Help (no longer on television)

55. Boy In Trouble

56. Blind Man's Bluff

57. The Greatest

[edit] Series 5 - 1972

58. 6-7-6-3

59. Kum Ba Yah

60. Ready Or Not

61. Good Bad Luck

62. Come Come To The Fair

63. Doghouse Dreamhouse

64. Pieces Of Eight

65. Upside Down & Backwards

66. The Watchdogs (no longer on television)

67. Chicken

68. Louder Please (no longer on television)

69. Zillion Dollar Combo

70. What's His Name (no longer on television)

[edit] Christmas Special

71. Davey & Goliath Snowboard Christmas (2004)

[edit] Note

This list is not chronological except by each group of series. TV stations in the past ran all episodes from a group of shows and then moved to the next group of episodes. The actual chronological order is unknown after the fourth episode.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Weber, Bruce. "Dick Sutcliffe, 90, Dies; Began ‘Davey and Goliath’", New York Times, 2008-05-25. Retrieved on 2008-05-25. 
  2. ^ Awards and Recognitions

[edit] External links