Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: King Calico

There was a time when puppet shows were big on TV. They didn’t have to be sophisticated in the early days—not much programming was—they just had to connect with children.

One of the many puppet shows was one from Chicago called “King Calico.” It was developed in the early 1950s by Johnny Coons, who moved to California toward the end of the decade and voiced cartoons for ex-Chicagoan Sam Singer and ex-Chicagoan Hank Saperstein's version of UPA. In fact, the king sounds suspiciously like Salty the Parrot in the Singer version of the Sinbad cartoons.

The show debuted on December 24, 1951 from 5:45 to 6 p.m. on WENR-TV, replacing “Uncle Mistletoe,” another Coons programme. It aired Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, unsponsored.

Variety reviewed it January 9, 1952.

“King Calico” is a pleasant little puppet offering, that should find an okay receptions from the kiddies. The tri-weekly show also should garner approval from parents, because of its soft treatment and playdown of slambang violence that marks so many other moppet-angled stanzas.
Story line evolves around the activities of King Calico and his court, which includes a rag dog, raccoon, donkey and mouse. With puppeteers Warren Best and Angelo Antonucci working in tandem there was plenty of action on show seen (2), as there were as many as four characters on the stage at once.
The voices are all handled by Johnny Coons, it’s a large job, but he carried it off expertly. Thanks to his adept projection, each mitten character is invested with a distinct personality. Session is introed by Doris Larson in neat fashion.
Show is backgrounded by some highly attractive sets designed by Bill Newton. Good “mood” music is supplied by Adele Scott at the electric organ.

Ed Skotch was the director and Ray Chan wrote the series at the outset.

By February 20th, Variety reported it was winning the ratings wars. But it was an expensive show to produce and the station was ready to cancel it when it picked up a sponsor for two of the three weekly shows, starting April 2nd (Variety, March 29. 1952). By August, it had moved to WNBQ, Monday through Friday, was being filmed in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and made available to NBC’s Midwest network. After filming 65 episodes, “King Calico” ended its first run and showed up in syndication.

There’s no date for the episode below.