Figure 1.--The Broadway production of "Peter Pan" was staged as a live 2-hour special on NBC. It of course starred Mary Martin. The broadcast on March 7, 1955 proved to be one of the most successful in the history of American television. About 65 million families tuned in and apparently a substantial number of those with color sets invited friends and family to view the program with them. |
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.
Uninteresting Western, but has two little tykes who play the Carroll orphans--Ben (Brian Lando) and George (Michael Patrick Carter). Little attention was given to their costuming. They occasionally wear knickers.
The first episode was had English school boys dressed in style of the late 1940s.
Family sitcom with a boy (Max Elliott) about 10 or so.
Well done tongue-in-cheek misadventures of an irreverent highschooler and his quirky cohort. Nothing of real interest though. The show employs every teenage stereotype, but is an acceptable piece of mindless fun.
Singing family with three boys: David Casidy, Danny Bonaduce, and Jeremy Gelbwaks. The youngest boy rarely had big parts. I don't remember any interesting episodes or clothes. They always wore long pants. The middle boy, Danny, had a lot of episodes built around him, but I don't remember any dealing with clothing.
"Patchwork Hero" was a serial on ABC in the 1990s. It had five parts and ran one part each night as a children's program. It was set in the 1960s. All the boys wore the Harrison Idaho t bar Sandal . Which was made by Clarks in Australia.
A reader writes us, "Not many actors have influenced my life as much as George Coulouris. It was through him that I gained a life-long interest in astronomy when I was just about to enter my teens. He played a character called Harcourt Brown in a series of space adventures, which were televised on Sunday afternoons around teatime as part of ITV’s Family Hour. They were called "Pathfinders in Space" (1960), "Pathfinders to Mars", and "Pathfinders to Venus". In these programmes George Coulouris was cast as the villain who was deluded with the thought of finding alien life. I reckon he played his part magnificently. It was during an episode of "Pathfinders to Mars" that the seed was sewn for my interest in astronomy. There were two children in the series who played brother and sister. Gillian Ferguson (Valerie Wedgwood) and Richard Dean
(Jimmy Wedgwood). There was one particular scene in that programme, which sticks out in my mind. The children and Harcourt Brown are standing on Mars and Valerie points to a particular star, Brown tells her that it is Earth, the Morning Star and that one scene was the catalyst that gave me my interest in astronomy. Whenever I saw George Coulouris in subsequent parts that he played in both television and film, no matter what part he played, I still saw him as Harcourt Brown from the Pathfinders."
Patty had a brother who was played by Paul O'Keefe. He was 12 years old and was insufferable to the girls. He was not a particularly engaging boy. I remember watching the show, but don't recall him having any interesting parts. Of course, he always wore long pants.
This Nickelodeon sitcom was a groundbreaking production in that the title character (a 13-year-old boy) uses a wheelchair, this animated series is right in keeping with cartoon
tradition in that all characters have only one outfit each (except for sight gags), so I can go into some detail; Pelswick wears a purple-blue T-shirt with red chest stripe over a white long-sleeve shirt, blue long pants of no identifiable type, red-and-white sneakers
(the exact same ones Christopher Robin used to wear) and a red baseball cap (backwards); his friend Ace wears a red plaid shirt loose over a black T-shirt and baggy khaki-colored pants with huge cargo pockets; Goon (another sidekick) wears equally baggy jeans and
a gray sweatshirt. I have to guess that Ace and Goon's baggy clothes are
meant to be an exaggeration; one result is that Pelswick looks much smaller than them, simply because he's always sitting down. In one episode, Pelswick disguises himself as a girl, wearing his usual clothes including the backwards cap over his wig (again, cartoon tradition ...).
I sat through much of this highly acclaimed film. Can't say that I really enjoyed it. There were a few scenes touching on clothing when the leading lady was still a school teacher. All of her boys were in shorts. They were about 6 or 7. One of her dream sequences didn't have the children all dressed up in white short pants suits like the scene from the American movie.
I don't know anything about this show, but includes a boy (Chance Quinn) about 13 years old.
Excellent production of the le Care spy thriller. The main character, Magnus, is depicted as a boy of about 10 or so has a lengthy part at the beginning. I think he is meant to be a bit younger as in one scene his mother helps him put on his knee socks. He wears shorts and knee socks and proper closed-toe sandals. He appears in both grey knee socks and light colored fawn ones. One of the better TV shows with long sequences of a boy in realistic contemporary English boys clothing. There are a couple nasty females, the cook and the nanny. The nanny threatens to put the boy in diappers if he countinues wetting the bed. His grandfather gives him a real canning when he is rude to his. He appears once in a dark suit, but you can't tell if he is wearing shorts or not, almost certainly he was. I watched this with a girl friend who commented, "Why do the English always make their boys wear short pants." In the scene she was referring to it was obviously chilly outside and he was wearing a sweater with his shorts to keep warm.
Series in which kids play all the roles, including the grownup roles. They act out various situations that kids encounter in family life. The boy playing the boy wears shorts in the episodes I saw. Wiley Wiggins, Staap Becton.
Perhaps the most well known Edwardian family nursery was that of the Darling children. The broadway production of "Peter Pan" was staged as a live 2-hour special on NBC. It of course starred Mary Martin. The broadcast on March 7, 1955 proved to be one of the most successful in the history of American television. About 65 million families tuned in and apparently a substantial number of those with color sets invited friends and family to view the program with them. It proved a smash hit with both viewers and critics, one of which claimed the next morning, "Surely there must be fairy dust from coast to coast this morning". RCA who at the time owned NBC used the program to promote sales of its colors sets, which in 1955 were still quite expensive.
"Phil of the Future" is a comedy about a family from the year
2121 sent back in time to the year 2005 due to a faulty time machine. Phil, the main character, his parents, and sister try to fit in until Dad can repair their time machine. The seies is carried on the Disney Channel. The seies is sent in contemporary terms. I presume there is some imaginative 2121, but for the most part the costuming is comtemporary. One exception is a brief scene in one of the first episodes in which Phil, the main character, appears in what was meant to be a 1950s school uniform.
Stared George "Foghorn" Winslow.
Off beat series, attempts to deal with controversial issues, a bit hokey for my tastes. Three kids are sometimes featured. One little red haired chap (Adam Wylie) appears most often as he is the one of the two sons of the main characters. He is about 8 or 9 and plays an innocent, natural kid, not the typical brat TV now usually presents. I liked the scene where the children were exchanging valanties in class. He was afraid the little girl he liked wasn't going to give him one. The older boy (Justin Shenkarow) is about 12 or 13.
Pit Pony is the story of a turn of the 20th century century mining town in Cape Bretton, Nova Scotia. This show is historically accurate both in period dress and in the social structure. The website for this TV production is www.pitpony.com and is produced by Cochran Entertainment. This currently is off air until the new year's season begins, and will air on CBC usually on Tuesday evenings at about 7:30 pm.
Norman Leer comedy about an U.S. senator. I didn't find it very humorous and much of the comedy was rather sick. The cast includes a boy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), but he had only small parts. I don't believe there is any interesting costuming. He does appear with his teddy bear.
Show about a spunky homeless girl taken in b an old curmudgen. Several boys appear on the show. One homeless boy was played by Billy Lombard.
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