Puppetry+and+TV

=**PUPPETRY IN CHILDREN’S TELEVISION**=

During the middle of the 20th century a new art form catapulted puppetry into popular culture like never before. TV brought puppets into everyone's homes, in a more realistic way than they were traditionally portrayed onstage. When a camera exquisitely frames puppetry, you can have fantastical characters that can seem entirely alive, but in actuality are puppets.

This new world made up of landscapes of imagination soon found its target audience; children. Children are used to suspending belief and using their imagination. “Puppets are so fantastic for kids because in their fantasy-oriented minds they can produce an extravaganza with extremely simple puppets and sets” (Hanford 5). Just imagine what those minds can believe when they have complex television scenarios with talking dragons and fuzzy monsters walking and talking with no visible means of support.

__HOWDY DOODY__
Arguably one of the most famous television puppets, and certainly the first one to achieve monumental popularity was Howdy Doody from the Howdy Doody Show, which “ran for 2,500 episodes between 1947 and 1960” (“Howdy Doody Puppet”). Part of its popularity can be attributed to the fact that “[Buffulo Bob] Smith treated the marionettes as if they were real, and as a result, so did the children of America” (Rautiolla-Williams). Children were able to escape to a world where people were always smiling, and always happy. Even at this early stage puppetry used TV to present the impossible as a possibility.

An early episode in which Howdy Doody skips around with a dancing Rice Krispies Box- []

The last Howdy Doody episode in which a witch puppet magically makes the studio audience appear- []

__SESAME STREET__
Sesame Street, created by the incomparable Jim Henson in 1969 created a world in which “monsters,” 10 ft. tall birds, and people of all different colors (Including green, blue, and purple) could mingle together and teach important life lessons to children. The show has monumental popularity being broadcast in over 120 countries. It is also the longest running children’s television show in history (Wilson). It’s an environment like this that has proven time and again to be effective in getting children to pay attention because of the fantasy and whimsy it provides. Jim Henson “peopled his television with creatures never seen before from his own imagination”(Baird 239). Puppets provide children with an otherwise unattainable experience, and it’s only with the rise of the animation era that they have been supplanted.

The Sesame Street characters sing and dance about life in the city, and taking the subway- []

Humans and monsters come together to sing in the fantasy landscape of Sesame Street- []

__TOPO GIGIO__
Puppetry on TV is not only a phenomenon in America. “Topo Gigio” was a mouse puppet that began appearing on Italian television in 1959 in a Bunraku style with four puppeteers and black light. (Baird 239) He became an international success after an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and even today he still enjoys quite a bit of popularity in his native Italy (Sacco)

Topo Gigio dances with some kittens in this Spanish version of the show- []

__INHERENT PARADOXES__
An obvious paradox when it comes to puppetry is that we project human emotions and machinations upon objects, which by their very existence declare that they are false, and controlled by a human.

In education, through children’s television and the like, puppetry takes this paradox one step further. Puppets are used as a means of distancing the physical (adult) teacher from the student, while still being able to deliver the lesson. The teacher uses an inherently non-human tool to teach life-lessons necessary for the growth of the young human, because the young human is more likely to cooperate that way and not feel as if they are being lectured at and forced to learn when they do not wish to. It’s a rather covert way of teaching. Peter Schumann of the Bread and Puppet Theatre claimed not to like puppets teaching because it was “too sneaky” (Hanford 24) (A statement which is in itself another paradox due to the type of puppetry that Bread and Puppet supports- http://engagingtheatrehistory.wikispaces.com/Bread+and+Puppet+Theater). On the other hand, Bruce Chesse, a teacher and puppeteer from California argued that “The future of puppetry is in education because [it] has the ability to integrate human relations, positively criticize and clarify concepts through illustration, and to create a climate more conducive to learning” (Hanford 25). Though puppetry in teaching might indeed be sneaky, it does at least keep the lesson closer to a human aspect than other forms of instruction do, and requires artistry and craft. I am still more willing to listen to a puppet tell me how to behave or think than I am to listen to a computer, and part of that comes from my knowledge of a human in direct control of the puppet. Though of course, that knowledge continues to feed the very paradox of the puppet’s existence.

__PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE__
I cannot help but think of my own childhood as the last brilliant gasp of children’s television shows making use of puppetry. I remember over ten shows running at the same time or within a few years of each other in the mid to late 1990’s that made extensive use of puppetry. Some were old favorites like “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” which I enjoyed mainly for the fabulous concept of Henrietta Pussycat living in a tree house. I thought she was a real cat-like creature and had no comprehension that she was actually a puppet, and to this day I’m not sure I believe that she was voiced by Mr. Fred Rogers himself.

I also enjoyed “The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon” which had spectacular characters like dragons, talking trees, whales, lions, and warthogs. Although I understood that these characters were not real dragons and whales etc. I never really understood about the puppeteers behind or inside them all, so I was able to suspend belief and enjoy the fantasy world they inhabited.

__CHANGING AUDIENCES__
Now that most children’s television has become animated (With old war horses like Sesame Street still hanging on) puppets on television appear to be enjoyed most by the older generation that remembers watching them as children. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog who made appearances on the "Late Show With Conan O’Brien" from time to time was known for mercilessly mocking politicians (especially during the 2008 Republican National Convention) and cracking jokes during the 2008 Writer’s Strike (Gold). These topics were hot political territory that O’Brien decided to deal with through a crass and goofy puppet. Triumph certainly isn’t meant for children, but he is still popular because of his ability to say whatever he wants and get away with it because of his removal from humanity.

Puppets having the ability to remove themselves from humanity, and the ability to portray seemingly alive apparitions of the imagination are what have, and hopefully will continue to inspire millions of children and adults world wide. It has proven a resilient, and enduring art form, with infinite room for innovation and change. In an age of CGI and motion capture, one can only wonder how puppetry is going to fit itself into film and television in the future, and what fantastical world it will create for us when it does.

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__Works Cited__

Baird, Bil. The Art of the Puppet. New York: Bonanza Books, 1973. Print.

Gold, Matea. “Striking writers put down the signs for a night of fun” The Envelope. Los Angeles Times. 11 Feb. 2008. Web. 4 May 2010 []

Gold, Matea. “Triumph: 'Those strike rules were a hoot'.” Show Tracker. Los Angeles Times. 11 Feb. 2008. Web. 4 May 2010 []

Hanford, Robert Ten Eyck. Puppets and Puppeteering. New York: Drake Publishers Inc., 1976. Print.

“Howdy Doody Puppet” History Wired. Smithsonian Institution. Web. 5 May 2010 [] Rautiolla-Williams, Suzanne. “The Howdy Doody Show” Museum.tv. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Web. 2 May 2010. []

Sacco, Caterina. “Buon Compleanno Topo Gigio” Dietro La Notizia. 11 March 2009. Web. 5 May 2010 []

Wilson, Craig. “Sesame Street is 40, But Young at Heart” USA Today. 2 Jan 2009. Web. 4 May 2010. []

Page by Katrina Zahradka