Cartoon Teletales (1948)
- Genre
- children's television series
- Country
- United States
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A storyteller narrates an original tale while an artist illustrates it live. A small audience of children sits in the studio and can make suggestions. Each episode ends with a drawing lesson from the artist.
nostalgicwhimsicalgentleinteractivesimpleeducationalplayfullive-audience
What happens
Cartoon Teletales is a television series on ABC from 1948–1950. The show was the first children's series on ABC. It began in May 1948 as a local program in Philadelphia, before moving to New York as a late-afternoon program in June, and expanding to the national network in November. The show consisted of an original tale told by Jack Luchsinger, illustrated by 10–12 drawings that his brother Chuck Luchsinger did as the story unfolded. Episodes were filmed with a small in-studio audience of children who listened and made suggestions. Musical accompaniment was provided by organist Rosa Rio. Viewers were encouraged to do their own drawings of the story and send them in to compete for prizes and be shown. At the conclusion of each episode, Chuck gave a drawing lesson. Contests drew as many as 5,600 entries a month during 1949. The story characters included Maurice the Mouse, Melody the Humming Bird, Leon the Lightning Bug, Usta the Rooster, Bamboozle the Ostrich, Mimi the Mole, Bumsniff the Bloodhound, Bigstuff the Elephant, Roscoe the Raccoon, Bungle the Beaver, Dipsy the Dolphin, Pinto the Pony, Cletus the Caterpillar, Alice the Alligator, and a human boy named Hezekiah. Besides Rio several others involved with the show went on to have notable careers in entertainment. These include: Babette Henry, who was the director, shortly thereafter directed the Buck Rogers TV series Ed Nofziger, who was a substitute for Chuck on occasion, went on to be an animator at UPA and Hanna-Barbera plus did magazine gag cartoons and comic book scripts for the Disney Studio program Lee Orgel, who was the producer, went on to develop and produce Gay Purr-ee, Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The New Three Stooges and Defenders of the Earth The Luchsinger family own copies of 1 or 2 episodes, and some are held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Two similar shows, Tele-Comics and NBC Comics aired from 1949 to 1951, showing still images of cartoon panels with accompanying voiceover. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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The Roar of the Rails (1948)
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Zoom (1972)
Jabberwocky (1972)
A Little Curious (1998)
Kids' Writes (1981)
Play School (1964)- More like this series, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.