Well after that experience and writing about Jonestown its time for something uplifting, time for another edition of the Lost Media Files and for this edition we are going to dive down into puppets. Sesame Street has been the originators of puppets, however there were some that has been there before and after not often to follow its footsteps but some has most likely ending up in obscurity and lost throughout the years, so right now I am counting down the top 15 Lost Puppet Shows in media.
15. The Bullwinkle Show (1961)
Starting off this entry is an obscure segment from another series.
Rocky and Bullwinkle was created by animator Jay Ward who also made Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle (to which I didn’t know until years later), who made it after losing the rights to another creation of his called Crusader Rabbit. The show focused on Rocky the Flying Squirrel (voiced by June Foray) and Bullwinkle J. Moose (voiced by Bill Scott) as each episode has them saving the day from Boris Badenov (voiced by Paul Frees) and Natasha (voiced by Foray again, cool eh?) who are spies from the fictional country of Pottsylvania which is their tongue in cheek reference to the Soviet Union.
The show began in 1959 on ABC then NBC as the series ran for five seasons to the mid 60’s and brought back to a new generation from shows like Cartoon Network in America or the defunct Teletoon Retro in Canada. The show satire a lot like the cold war, sports, celebrities, and ironically enough Disney plus fourth wall breaking humor that other shows would take inspirations including the Simpsons. It had a very subpar live-action reboot in 2000 as actors like Jason Alexander, Robert DeNiro who was a fan by the way, Piper Perabo and it was a box office bomb when released on June 30th.
The Bullwinkle show was made because Bullwinkle was immensely popular during the series run, so much in fact that there were live-action segments in the end of each Rocky and Bullwinkle series with a puppet Bullwinkle telling kids who would read fan mail, more knocking of celebrities and one time telling kids to remove their knobs from their TV’s as it was reported 200,000 children actually did this which sounds like something from the Onion but that literally happened. Then the puppet told them to glue their knobs after getting backlash from angry letters. What survives of the Bullwinkle puppet is screenshots and a few videos online plus bonus features on DVD’s, but the rest remain lost.
14. Galaxy Boy Troop (1965)
Japan is going to have a few entries here, starting with this.
“Galaxy Boy Troop” which translates to “Ginga shounen-tai” was created by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka that combined animated segments and live-action which sounds like a Japanese Sesame Street and did a supermarionation style with their puppetry kind of like Thunderbirds or Team America World Police did, you know that kind of puppetry? The plot is about a boy named Rob reviving the sun and protecting the world from alien invaders. Yes, this was a thing even before the space missions and it had the Tezuka style of animation and humor. In addition, the puppeteer would make another show in the same style called “Agent City 008”.
You think being made by Tezuka be this popular? It was it first ran on NHK in 1963 to 1965 with 92 episodes but this show is incredibly obscure, the only full episode we know is a French airing in addition screenshots from audiobook survives but so far we have 3 of the 92 episodes found the rest lost to time. Maybe by aliens. Rob you’re not doing your job.
13. Kitty Cats (1991)
This French-Canadian series originally aired on Radio-Canada in 1991 and had almost 263 episodes, it found vast success worldwide of course as the show was about teaching kids about entertaining themselves in adventures through their main characters alley cats called Tango, Ricky and a pup not named Scooby-Doo but named Charlie. Sounds familiar…. Despite being very popular at the time the show only had four volume VHS releases with only eight episodes as we know are found but several others are missing. The only existence of “Kitty Cats” is this video.
12. Here Comes Mumfie (1975)
Remember the “Magic Adventures of Mumfie” TV series? It was not the first adaptation of the show. The second was this very obscure 70’s British show that used puppets of Mumfie and other characters. The only evidence of this show was a few YouTube videos one in English and two in Persian, however this show hasn’t a re-release since. Out of 52 episodes a VHS called “2 hours of fun with the Munch Bunch and Mumfie” has six episodes contained that remained in British retailers for 75 pounds (or dollars for us non-British folks) but the search ends there.
11. Under the Umbrella Tree (1986)
This French Canadian made series was called “Under the Umbrella Tree”, it aired on Canadian airwaves on CBC in 1986 to 1993 it starred Holly Laroque as Holly Higgins as the series revolves around three puppets Iggy the Iguana, Jacob Bluejay and Gloria Gopher living in Holly’s suburban area in Ontario. Each show would be about different subjects like holidays, exercise, family and other values. Holly as the character would host two different holiday specials.
Noreen Young creator of the series long after its run, attempted to sell each DVD box set of “Under the Umbrella Tree” until it ran out of print in 2012. Each volume box set contained eight episodes each so in total there is 36 episodes, some episodes remain online on Youtube made available in English and French on Encore+’s YouTube channel. As of this writing there are 28 current episodes of the show online while eight more remain missing but we are pretty sure the rest will be found soon.
10. The Spooks of Bottle Bay (1993)
“The Spooks of Bottle Bay” a British children series aired on ITV’s own block called CITY in 1993 to 1995 for three seasons with 39 episodes as the series focused on a man named Sidney Sludge stopping his siblings with ghosts who haunt a mansion on the hill. There are some home media release but not by much only three short volumes on VHS and none on DVD or Blu-Ray. However a dedicated channel called “Spooks of Bottle Bay” has been uploaded some of the VHS rips online to YouTube, So far six episodes from season 1 and eight from season 2 have been found and uploaded, the rest remain lost.
9. Alice in Wonderland (1949)
A much earlier entry on this list but there is a reason this one is obscurely lost.
“Alice in Wonderland” a novel made by Lewis Carroll and adapted into several features several times but the mostly successful ones that came from Disney one in 1951 and the live-action adaptations from 2010 to 2016. Why this stop-motion film became lost is because of Disney interference and who had the better film which the animation adaption from Disney won out after blocking the stop-motion film. Suddenly WWE and Disney are not that far off.
What also played a negative effect was the stop motion version of Alice was shot in Ansco Color not Technicolor as much of the Disney films were being made at the time and deteriorated over through the years. Home Media release of this film has been thrown around but may not include some important scenes that jumped around or scenes not making any sense with jump cuts. The only online evidence of this short was a few screenshots online but no true Home Video release of any kind exists. Only the minds who saw it in the fifties and sixties.
8. Whoopi’s Littleburg (2004)
Whoopi Goldberg has a had a extensive long career from the good movies she has made through the movies that were odd look at “Theodore Rex” for a clue. One of her attempts of a TV series was a show called “Whoopi’s Littleburg” that aired briefly on Nick Jr from January to June of 2004 that starred Whoopi Goldberg. The show focused on the town of Littleburg which was the ”Preschool capital of the world” runned by preschoolers. Which raises so many questions; do they work, do they have a government assembly, do they have a fire department, police department, hospital? How do they shop for food and other essentials?
The show stars a small pig named Spencer and his friends and get into life lessons and stuff, Whoopi played the mayor, Mayor Whoopi and guests like Rosie Perez, Mary Testa and Sandra Bernhard appeared. Only three episodes have been known to exist as one full episode has been uploaded online, the second is partially lost and the third is completely lost. Screenshots exists form behind the scenes also exist of this show online.
7. Okiku naru Ko (1959)
Remember this little meme here? That’s where that originated.
The show called Okiku naru Ko or “Children Growing Up” in translations, it was a show produced by Studio Nova and made for 1st and 2nd year students for school to teach lessons like morals and how to behave. It ran for a long time too starting from 1959 all the way to the late 80’s. It was dubbed in Latin America under the title “Ninos en crecimento”. The only existence of this show are screenshots including turning to memes for today. The Japanese version with clips of this show has been lost for a show that had almost had 30 years of history.
6. The Rimini Riddle (1992)
This Irish made teen series was called “The Rimini Riddle” that aired in 1992 to 1995 on RTE and Network 2 in the country, not much is truly known of this show because information has been very sparse. But what we know so far it aired on a block called Saturday Club running for three seasons.
Its focus is about three orphans living within the Rimini house with their aunt and each series focuses on the mystery of the Rimini House, sort like Gravity Falls was on the Gravity Falls location around them being supernatural and stuff. Not much any comedy but it was made to be a soap opera for kids. The search for the series has been running since 2008 through a forum post mostly talking about the good and bad parts of the show. “The Rimini Riddle” hasn’t seen any VHS or DVD releases of any kind but videos exist on Youtube and Dailymotion and screenshots also exist. The search goes on…
5. Nanalan (2000)
I remember this show very fondly. How much? Forced to watch it with my younger sister when I wanted to watch Pokémon and Digimon when we were kids. Older now having stumbling on it thanks to Chadtronic’s video, it is such an odd bizarre show. Each episode opens with a little girl named Mona visiting her grandmother Nana Bea and each little adventure in her backyard and occasionally would visit a man named Mr. Wooka and his puppet shows that would be centered to each episode’s plot.
Nanalan was made by the same guy’s who would later make “Mr. Meaty”, Jamie Shannon and Jason Hopley in the same puppetry style and built a relationship with Nickelodeon in America when they were looking to air “Mr. Meaty”. Also, for a fun fact Jamie Shannon as a kid called his grandmothers backyard “Nana Land” whom he always visualized what a three-year old would say. The show even though it was bizarre and unusual, was praised in Canada and United States markets and in Canada the show earned three Gemini award nominations which is the Canadian Emmy’s less Hollywood connected. At first it aired 71 shorts in CBC and Nick Jr then 43 22-minute episodes as the shorts were popular later. Out of all of them you can see three out of the 42 episodes except one maybe have been taken down due to copyright.
4. Sara and Hoppity (1962)
Another Irish made series but made far before The Rimini Riddle.
Sara and Hoppity was a series made by Roberta Leigh who previously made such other shows as “Adventures of Twizzle” and “Torchy the Battery Boy”. The show was about a girl named Sara who lives in a toy shop with her family as one day an old man arrives to deliver an old toy named Hoppity who at first is nothing but a broken down toy, but after being cleaned and given a new leg, Hoppity sings “Tiddlee-tum, tiddlee-tee” to annoy the parents but Sara understands him and often gets into trouble and Sara is the blame.
Now how this sixties show became obscurely lost? Poor management. Like even in these days sometimes tapes containing original episodes have been wiped or taped over in place of newer shows. Some original prints of “Sara and Hoppity” have survived including a pilot of the series throughout the years even though these have been found a large majority of episodes of “Sara and Hoppity” have become lost.
3. Pipkins (1973)
Poor management is what happened to this show. “Pipkins” was a series created to succeed Sesame Street in Britain. “Pipkins” was about a store owner named Inigo Pipkin who maintains a toy store and the misadventures of Hartley Hare, George the Tortoise, Topov the Monkey and Octavia the Ostrich. The show would change from the focus of the owner after actor George Woodbridge passed away from a heart attack five weeks after filming the second season in March of 1973. How to address the absence of the character once wrote in away on a fishing trip, however, they did what Sesame Street would eventually do when to address Mr. Hooper’s absence when actor Will Lee passed away from a heart attack a decade later, they used his passing to explain his absence which they are the first before Sesame Street did.
The show was later renamed Pipkins and change focus from the toy store to puppets living in a home together and would take inspirations in design models what “The Muppet Show” and the show would teach the puppet characters about life lessons, coping and other junk. The show lasted until December of 1981 which is an impressive feat for a series. Conservation wise of this series, I wish they did better. Many of the recording tapes of “Pipkins” including their original pilot of “Inigo Pipkins” are missing and some lost due to poor film storage that would result their tapes being damaged, destroyed as they would deteriorate. As of now only 53 episodes of the original “Pipkins” have survived leaving the rest lost. Such a shame…
2. Winchell-Mahoney Time (1965)
Paul Winchell was not just the voice of Tigger who hops and is super bouncy in the 100-acre wood, he was also a ventriloquist and he started his series “Winchell-Mahoney Time”. The show was made after the success of his own show “The Paul Winchell Show” he went ahead in production as his wife actress Nina Russel would write many episodes and focus on topics and use his puppets like Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff to teach children to resolve fears through the puppets. The show ran from 1965 and 1968.
Now how did this show become lost? You know in movies or video games today villains do the option of “do what we say, or this thing would perish?” that situation played out as exactly how it ran. Paul Winchell approached Metromedia their production company to set up a deal for syndication however both sides were unable to set a deal, so Paul went and bought up all the tapes for $100,000. Metromedia responded like what I just described: “take the deal we made for you or these episodes would perish”. Paul declined and they followed through on their promise. Only 17 episodes after Paul sued Multimedia for 17.8 million dollars in damages but was not released to the public only a few clips of this show survived.
Honorable mention: Peppermint Park (1985)
Although this show is not lost, it still an interesting piece of a series. It was a rip-off from Sesame Street and what shot it up into fame far from its last airing in the late 80’s was for memes and trollposting videos on YouTube not to mention how bizarre and so unusual like the previously mentioned “Nanalan” but uncanny valley like. There are so many bizarre videos of Peppermint Park online like one that explains the letter M, or one guy singing a song about being blue. I was gong to include “Kingdom Adventure” but I will save that for a future review down the line, also I wanted to include Slinecko a Czechoslovakian series that involved a character called Ratofak Plachta but I will link here to Blameitonjorge’s video who covered it in much greater detail then I did plus give him a sub and see his other videos.
1. Fraggle Rock (1983)
For a Jim Henson series that has had loads of production history and of course who made it, there is a lot of missing episodes from this show from England.
I won’t dwell this much about what is Fraggle Rock all about so if you want to know the full production history check out Defunctland’s series about the show and how it began below but I’ll give out the skinny on the show: it’s about a small creatures living underground living under a home and some many episodes would deal with many issues like Prejudice, social conflicts between and another small creatures called Doozers, environment and personal identity. The show ran from January of 1983 to March of 1987.
The show was a group effort that brought together Britain’s ITV channel, CBC or the Canadian Broadcasting Association in Canada, and Home Box Office in America as filming took place in Toronto and then moved to London, England. As when the show aired in England the only thing changed was outer soace, Doc, Sprocket and Traveling Matt’s scenes were removed to fit a UK audience but replacing Doc was a retired sea captain named the Captain and was in a lighthouse but still maintained Sprocket the Dog.
The show was available on VHS collections, but people wanted more so after a successful petition the series was released on DVD but much of the show was from the grainy VHS recordings. TVS attempted to recover the original episodes and master recordings but was unsuccessful even with the help from Jim Henson Productions. So, an effort led by a man named Alex Taylor led a mission to recover these lost episodes of Fraggle Rock to which he was able to locate 29 in good quality while others have become lost or found partially. An attempt was made to upload some of the found episodes of Fraggle Rock but often led to terminated YouTube accounts like how often Sesame Street content did. But the effort to search for the lost episodes of Britain’s Fraggle Rock continues.
And that will cover the lost top 15 pieces of puppet related media, next week we are discussing back to what we were talking about before: video games so its part 4 of our series of lost and cancelled video games.
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