Figure 1.--Another famous English literary character was really a group of five--four children and a dog. The central characters are Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and the dog Timmy. The TV series is based on the Enid Blyton series of books. |
HBC will list TV series alphabetically here to make them easier to find. TV shows, except for American TV shows, are generally not well know in countries other than in the countries in which they were made. They are also much more current than movies. Almost all TV shows date from the 1950s at the earliest. Costume dramas have the same problems as in the movies, but a great deal of useful information is avialible from TV shows set in contemporary periods. As non-American TV shows are not as widely distributed as movies, often little information is available on these shows outside each country. Movies are often widely distributed in foreign countries. TV shows, with the exceptiion of American programs, are generally not. As an American, we have, for example, never seen German, French, and Italian TV shows. Thus the TV pages provide a much-needed source of information on foreign programing.
Story of an incompetent calvary troop with a boy and German shepard dog as a mascot. Rather inane humor. The boy wore a calvary uniform.
Set in a girl's boarding school and follows the girls after they graduate. The latter episodes included a teen-age boy (Mackenzie Astin). Like most U.S. shows he is a real wise guy.
A bachelor with a British gentleman's gentleman acquires a boy and girl, Buffy and Jody. The boy was played by Johnny Whitiker. They were pictured as being wealthy and wore stylish always neat clothes. Jody always wore long pants.
Relationship between a poor southern preacher and his son. There was a TV-movie pilot which was rather nicely done that proceeded the TV show. I don't recall a lot of the costuming, but overalls featured prominently. Lance Kirwin?
Pleasant little sitcom about a man who marries a woman with two kids and then has a baby of their own. One of the children is a boy. He is not as bratty as many TV kids.
Not a particularly well done rehash of "My Three Sons" complete with a Bub/Uncle Charlie clone. Brian is about 11 and a reasonable kid. The writers, however, know nothing about real kids. For example, Brian comes down to breakfast for the first day of school wearing his underpants outside his pants. Boys that age are so shy that they would never dress that way. Their lone sister has particularly obnoxious lines, not anything like a real child would say.
This was an rather amusing American sitcom. It was the show that made Michael J. Fox a star personality. In a nutshell, teenage Alex (Fox) likes money and is a active member of the Young Republicans while his parents are former anti-War flower children and his father works for PBS. Near the end of the show, Alex gets a new baby brother who grew up very quickly in 1986. I guess there is only so much you can do with a baby. Andy (Brian Bonsall) wore rather plain clothes. He sometimes wore bib-front overalls. I think some were corduroy. Alex and Andy always wore long pants. Andy's hair in contrast to his clothes was always much more fashionable. He had a notable mop of hair cur in bangs. River Phoenix appeared once. Andy loved to watch "Wall Street Week" with Alex. This brings up the issue of Hollywood and the values it promotes. The parents were portrayed as caring, altruistic liberals. Alex because of his interest in buiness was portrayed as crass an uncaring, only interested in money. But with the guidance of his highly moral, liberal parents he always does the right thing. Totally absent from the premice of the show was the idea that business, which is seen as somehow ethically tainted, is what creates the jobs that allow the average America to have a good life and raise a family in comfortable circumstances. One has to consider what is moral moral, to support liberal wealth redistribution policies or to create jobs that provide opportunuities for people. Also not addressed is the fact that the employees of businesses pay the taxes that support PBS where his father works.
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Another famous English literary character was really a group of five--four children and a dog. The characters awere created by Enid Blyton in a series of books. The central characters are Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and the dog Timmy. This was a children's series created by famed children's writer Enis Blyton, one of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors. It was one of the most popular series of children's books in England and America. The series began in 1942 and were translated into many languages. The boys were commonly costumed in period clothes, jumpers, short trousers, and sandals.
We notice a "The Famous Five" TV series in Japan. We do not know if it was called "The Famous Five" or even if the association with Enid Blyton. We do know her books were transferred into Japanese. In the Japanese TV series, the dog does not seem to count as the cast includes five children, three boys and a girl. The children wear contemporary Japnese clothing. Some Japanese movies and television look like the children were not costumed, but just wore their own clothing. Here the children cn be seen in rather stylish clothing and we suspect that the children were costumed. We have no further information about the series. Hopefully our Japanese readers will tell us more.
Horrid show, but one episode was about a perfect child. I haven't seen it.
A reader tells us, "There was a show in the 1960s called 'The Farmer's Daughter' which I did not see mentioned in the HBC TV section. It started in 1963 and I think lasted 2 seasons. It starred Inger Stevens and William Windom. Stevens is a maid in a senators household. The senator had 2 sons, one around 12 years old, the other about 8 years. In one episode, a visiting extremely nerdy European prince who is about 12 years old stays with the family. He wears short pants and knee socks with a sweater. This episode took place during the first season."
One of the 1950s ideal suburban family type show. There were three children, a boy and two girls. The boy, Bud (Billy Gray), was quite young when he first appeared and grew up on the show. Of course he never wore shorts. I don't remember any especially interesting episodes. I do remember how perfectly they were pictured, the children so nicely behaved. The trouble they got into would be viewed as so inconsequential today. Sort of makes you wonder what kids will be like a few years from now. After the series ended it became widely know that the father, Jim Andersion, actually did not like children. Interesting because after Ward Cleaver ("Leave It to Beaver"), Jim Anderson came to symbolize American fatherhood.
This was a spin-off of "Little House ion the Prarie". Reportedly had a bedwetting episode when Will wets the bed. Started a famous football player.
A HBC reader recalls viewing the TV serial "The Fifth Form at St Dominics" in the 1960s when he was 8 years old. He was fascinated by the Eton suit and collars that the boys wore. The program was based on the once popular book by Talbot Baines Read. The series, however, has never been rerun or serialized.
Teams of boys and girls solve picture puzzles for the right to ransack rooms to find clues. The "Treasure Hunt" segment requires kids to race through a changing, booby -trapped fantasy house of rooms like the dungeon, Santa's toy shop, the jungle, moon, and beach. The team with the highest score goes on to the bonus "Mad Trash" round. No doubt this appeals to the, trashing a house is fun set. the kids wear coveralls..
Lovely series about a British child growing up in Kenya. I don't remember a boy being involved. But it is a wonderful view of childhood showing the clothes that British colonials wore in Africa.
The popular show about the bottlenose dolphin Flipper featured two boys, the sons of a park ranger. One is about 12, the other is about 15. They spend most of the show in cut-off jeans being rescued by Flipper. In is one of the few American television shows since the early 1950s where boys appeared in short pants. One HBC contributor sites it as a chanhing approach to costuming illustrating the greater tendency of American boys to wear short pants. In fact until the 1990s, boys were rarely costumed in shorts. Flipper was an exception. The boys were in and out of the water (where Flipper of course was), that the shorts were more like defacto bathing trunks. The HBC contributor comments, "Maybe I hadn't considered the ambiguity of the boys' clothes on "Flipper". The cut-off jeans were ideal for diving, swimming, etc. on the show. Dress shorts or walk shorts would not have
been right for those activities, of course, and would have seemed a little too formal for the program's setting, anyway. Guess because the boys on that show seldom wore long trousers and would wear a T-shirt or short sleeved shirt with their cut-offs made me think those were their everyday clothes." Actually flipper was, in terms of boys clothing, a very important program. One HBC contributor notes, "I remember the show Flipper and I was surprised to see boys wearing cutoffs for bathings suits. None of us did so, at least on the East coast, until the show aired. Then cutoffs vs. shorts or bathing suits became the rule rather than the exception. Prior to the show I never saw anyone swimming in cutoffs or even wearing cutoffs. After the showed aired, not wearing cutoffs was the exception." Luke Halpin
A big-hearted rube moves in with his slick city sister. Two kids involved.
One popular television programme depicting children's clothing in Canada during the mid 1960s was The Forest Rangers about a group of children living in northern Canada and having outdoor adventures. This show has a web site. It was a CBC production made jointly with English broacasters. It was shot in southern Ontario. The show was about the adventures of a group of children living in an old frontier fort in Canadian wilderness country. It had both summer and winter scenes. The children were dressed in typical 1960s North American styles. The show also aired in Britain and had its own fan club.
In one episode a ghost-boy from the past wears a nightgown with a lace collar and white knee socks. He was beaten as a boy and now kills. He makes friends with a modern day boy.
The PBS program recreates the experiences of three homstead families living on the American prarie during the 1883 with just the tools available at the time. It was the Republican Congress and the Homstead Act of 1864 that helped open up the American west. It provided land at extrmely low cast to those that would farm it. Homesteaders came from a diverse background, both American and immigrants. The year 1883 was the year the railroads linked east and west. Thousands of immigrants were transported west by the railroads. Several thousand applicants applied to participate in the experience. Three families were chosen to go back in time. They were given some training and they were given farm animals. They soon found themslves in Montana trying to survive. A woman describes it as being sentenced "to 5 month hard labor". None of the families involved had any idea what they were getting involved in. One girl complains, "I thought it was going to be fun." A boy holds us a snake and complaind. "This is dinner!"
Long running TV series set around three men raising three girls. The youngest was Michelle, actually alternating Twins which are nowbig time teeny bopers. Finally one of the two gets married and two twin boys appear. They have page boy hair cuts--with bangs. The only episode I remember that focused on the twins was a flash forward of the twins. They are about 13, but have grown up very differently. One is a leather-jacketed motor biker. The other is a nerd, decked out in a bow tie, cord shorts, and pulled up argyle socks.
Another kiddy game show, crossing "Double Dare" with "Finders Keepers."
See "Gallagher".
"Fury" was a staple on Saturday morning kids television during the late 1950s. The main character was of course Fury, a horse. His owner Joey was played by Bobby Diamond.
Roger Mobley played Homer "Packy" Lambert, Joey's young pal. Although born in Indiana, Roger grew up in west Texas and spoke with a drawl, unlike his fellow cast
members. The director of "Fury" didn't want Roger for the part. He wanted Jay North, who went on to play, of course, "Dennis the Menace". The producer of "Fury", a wonderful and kind man, Leon Fromkess, overrode his dirctor and hired Roger. Roger went on to play the lead in the Disney series "Gallagher".
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