Curiosity Shop


Curiosity Shop is an American preschool children's educational television program produced by ABC. The show was executive produced by Chuck Jones, sponsored by the Kellogg's cereal company and created as a commercial rival to the public television series Sesame Street. Curiosity Shop was broadcast from September 11, 1971 to September 2, 1973.
The program featured three inquisitive children who each week visited a shop populated with various puppets and gadgets, discovering interesting things about science, nature and history. Each hour-long show covered a specific theme: clothing, music, dance, weather, the five senses, space, time, rules, flight, dolls, etc.

Production

After NET premiered Sesame Street in November 1969, the show proved to be successful and gained high ratings; its success gained attention from Michael Eisner, ABC’s Vice President. He asked animator Chuck Jones to create a series to rival its success and be the executive producer. Kellogg’s signed on to be the show’s sponsor. Unlike Sesame Street, the show is geared more towards young adolescents.
Jones and Eisner tapped puppeteer Bob Baker to create the show’s puppets and its setting. Baker was reluctant at first, though he later agreed.
Irving Phillips provided some scripts and animation art, including an animation of his syndicated comic strip The Strange World of Mr. Mum. Animations of Mell Lazarus's comic strip Miss Peach, Johnny Hart's comic strip The Wizard of Id, Virgil Partch's cartoon Big George and Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace were also presented on the show. Abe Levitow animated most of these short segments. Ray Bradbury is also credited as one of the show's writers.
Henry Mancini created the bossa nova theme music for the show's title sequence. Dean Elliott wrote additional music for the show.

Cast and characters

John Levin and Kerry McLane played Gerard and Ralph, the two boys. Alternating in the girl's role were Pamelyn Ferdin as Pam and Jerelyn Fields as Cindy.
Barbara Minkus made a regular appearance as Gittle, a witch who magically appeared whenever someone said a phrase that included "which".
Chuck Jones contributed two new animated characters to the show:
  • Professor S. I. Trivia, a bespectacled "bookworm," who lived in a dictionary and was always on hand to supply a definition to a word the children didn't know.
  • Monsieur Cou Cou was a French-accented bird who lived inside the shop's cuckoo clock and whose catchphrase was, "That's right!" He always tried to catch Prof. Trivia with a nosedive before the worm invariably dodged the bird just in time, repeatedly causing him to ram into the dictionary and get his beak stuck in it.
Mel Blanc, June Foray, Bob Holt, Don Messick and Les Tremayne provided the voices of the puppets.
Puppet characters
Created by Bob Baker, the show's puppets included:
  • Flip, an orange hippopotamus with a jive-talking voice and oversized sneakers. Flip was the only character on the show to be portrayed as both a hand puppet and a full-body costume.
  • Baron Balthazar, a bearded, derby-hatted little man who would spin tales, in animated form, about his adventures and inventions back in his homeland, "Downtown Bosnia." The cartoons were originally a series called Professor Balthazar that was produced in Croatia when it was part of Yugoslavia.
  • The Oogle, a marsupial-like silent creature with a beak-like mouth, a hayseed-style hat, and a demeanor of clownish confusion and disillusion.
  • Onomatopoeia, a multi-legged furry beast that spoke in sound effects, partially inspired by an alien in a Professor Balthazar episode.
  • Woodrow the groundhog, who often yelled "Qui-e-e-e-e-e-t!" when things got out of hand and woke him from his slumber.
  • Eek A. Mouse, who often emerged from the wall to scream for quiet as well.
  • Nostalgia, a chronically forgetful but sweet-tempered elephant who was intimidated by Eek.
  • Hermione Giraffe, a haughty giraffe wearing a gem-studded tiara.
  • Aarthur the Aardvark, a yellow aardvark who, contrary to the usual stereotype, hates ants.
  • Ole Factory the Bloodhound, a wise bloodhound with hay fever.
  • Halcyon the Hyena, a green hyena with world-weary eyes.
  • Oliver Wendell Lookout, an owl dressed in flight gear.
  • Miss Fowler, a flower in a pot.
Other characters
  • Two real animals made occasional appearances; Darwin, a chimpanzee who made his home in a treehouse on the show, and Eunice, a seal who lived in a waterbed — literally a water tank shaped like a bed.
  • A talking computer with tape-reel eyes who satisfied the children's curiosity about any subject and presented educational movies, tapes, cartoons, vocabulary series, etc., on his screen-mouth.
  • Hudson, a gravelly-voiced rock who told stories of prehistory.
  • Granny TV, a rocking antique television set who presented classic film comedies by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Will Rogers, or the like.
  • Havemeyer the Helping Hand, an animate white-gloved hand.
  • Mr. Jones, the enigmatic owner of the store whose only means of communication between him and the visiting children was messages left on a tape recorder. Although named after series creator Chuck Jones, Messick provided the voice of the fictional Jones. Pamelyn Ferdin often concluded an episode by saying, "Goodbye, Mr. Jones — wherever you are."
Guests
Guests on the program included:
Shirley Jones appeared on the show's pilot, "The Curiosity Shop Special," which featured all four children. It was on this pilot that the first song from Multiplication Rock, "Three Is a Magic Number," would make its debut.

Episodes