Post by Kaz ~;~ on Aug 14, 2007 4:37:34 GMT -5
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Long before he was the voice of 'Tigger' in the Winnie the Pooh series, Paul Winchell and his puppet pal Jerry Mahoney starred in many early TV programs; the first was on NBC in 1948 called The Bigelow Show. (1948 was the first year that the networks began programming seven nights a week; in fact, NBC had only 9 regular series on the air in 1947.)
On the series, ventriloquist Winchell and his hand-carved wooden dummy Jerry Mahoney introduced acts headlined by mentalist Joseph Dunniger. In 1949, this half-hour variety show proto-type moved to CBS, airing Wednesdays at 9:00 before being cancelled that same year.
In 1950, The Speidel Show (later The Paul Winchell-Jerry Mahoney Show) debuted on NBC Tuesday nights as a thirty-minute variety show for adults and kids; it was on this show that Winchell introduced another popular character, Knucklehead Sniff. This series ran for four years and featured regular players Dorothy Claire, Hilda Vaughn, Patricia Bright, Jimmy Blaine and Sid Raymond.
In a 1954 newspaper interview, Paul Winchell spoke of the problem he was having with the successful show - "Gradually I found myself faced with the dilemma that comes to most ventriloquists. I was snowed under by the personality of the dummy. Mail began to pour in to 'Paul Mahoney' and 'Jerry Winchell.' I was Jerry's straight man.
"Everybody knew who Jerry was, but they were beginning to forget the name of the guy who operated him. To that extent it was jealousy."
The Paul Winchell-Jerry Mahoney Show was moved to Sunday nights in 1953 but left the air in 1954 to be a part of the network's important new venture.
In the fall 1954, following the success of the Today Show on weekday mornings, NBC had the bright idea of posting original children's programming on Saturday mornings; the Winchell and Mahoney Show was one of the network's first efforts. The series featured band leader Milton DeLugg (Gong Show) playing accordion along with a live audience of kids. The set was decorated in a clubhouse motif.
This effervescent Saturday series, which featured some of the first appearances of a young Carol Burnett, ended its run in February, 1956.
Circus Time debuted on ABC in October of 1956, an hour-long Thursday night show starring Winchell and Mahoney, this time presenting various circus and musical acts.
The show was moved to Sunday afternoons the following year and revamped. The Paul Winchell Show had the familiar gang back, this time in a familiar variety show format with Frank Fontaine ('Crazy Googenhiem') and Milton DeLugg joining the cast. The production ran until 1960.
After that, the 'duo' hosted a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon show called Cartoonies from April through September of 1963.
In 1965, Winchell-Mahoney Time was offered up in syndication. This hour long kiddie program was in production for three years - 288 episodes - all erased by Metromedia in a dispute over ownership in 1986. (Winchell sued and won 17.8 million dollars for the destruction of those only existing copies.) Jim Hilliker remarks, "Paul Winchell said these shows done in Los Angeles on videotape were the only permanent record of his work with Jerry, Knucklehead and his other dummies, and because most of his TV work in the '50s and later was live and lost forever, he was hoping to syndicate or sell these shows again to new generations."
TVparty-er Jeff tells us, "There were two Paul Winchell television spots which belong among the funniest of the 1960s. In one, he brought Snitchy the Snail to The Dick Van Dyke Show, with Snitchy playing a rather diva-ish television star named Jellybean who was in need of a new writing team - and guess which team the smartass snail nearly landed when they had a mild labor tiff with Alan (The Mouth That Roared) Brady?
"Winchell and Snitchy driving poor Rob Petrie to befuddled bemusement with one of their classic routine was the highlight; I never saw a ventriloquist more facile at performing a true conversation, with all the natural nuances, than Winchell with his puppets.
"Winchell also brought Tessie Mahoney and, I think, Knucklehead, to an episode of The Lucy Show. At a certain point, Winchell lets Lucy borrow one of the dummies (Knuck, I think) and she tries - hilariously - to make like a ventriloquist, using pompous Mr. Mooney as their target... until he walks into the room just in time to hear Lucy's bad ventriloquism schpritzing, a hilarious round of raging, making the old boy fume in classic Gale Gordon style."
The duo were popular commercial pitchmen all throughout the sixties for cereals and candy bars, but after the mid-sixties Winchell concentrated on voice over work and on his unique inventions.
In 1972, Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff came out of semi-retirement to host the Saturday morning game show Runaround, so called because nine young contestants competed for prizes by running to the squares that contained the right answers to Winchell's questions. This show ran for one year.
Guest shots followed on shows like Love, American Style, The Dean Martin Show, The Beverly Hillbillies. McMillan and Wife and Circle of Fear among many others.
Winchell also provided the voices for a prime time animated special called The Lorax, as well as the famous 'Scrubbing Bubbles' commercials and dozens of Saturday morning cartoons like Hong Kong Phooey, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, The Smurfs, The Gummi Bears and so many others. He won a Grammy in 1974 for best children's recording with "The Most Wonderful Things About Tiggers" from the movie Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
Paul Winchell devoted much of his time in the seventies and eighties to his inventions, which included an artificial heart and a method of transferring gasoline from one car to another. He also continued to provide voices for cartoons, in fact he was always the voice of 'Tigger' in the Disney Pooh series - that is until November, 1998 when he was canned because Disney thought he sounded too old.
Sadly, after months of declining health, Paul Winchell passed away on Friday, June 24th 2005. He was 82.
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