Lucky Pup – Nostalgia Central

1 9 4 8 – 1 9 5 1 (USA)
15/30 minute episodes

This early puppet show aired live weekdays on CBS’s growing network of affiliated stations and, as a half-hour “review” on Saturdays, used kinescoped segments from that week’s live shows.

Produced in New York, stories centred on Lucky Pup (a playboy pooch with a $5 million inheritance and an English butler named Hotchkiss) and his pal, Jolo the Clown.

Their rivals were evil but bumbling magician, scientist and philosopher Foodini the Great and his none-too-bright stooge Pinhead, who came to dominate the action on most of the shows, devising elaborate – but inevitably ineffective – schemes to swindle the dog out of his inheritance.

Other characters included Foodini’s arch rival, carnival barker Phineas T Pitch, mailman Adlai Bundleby, and Count Gumshoe, the ultra-efficient chief of the Birdbranian Secret Service.

Doris Brown narrated.

By June 1951, the show’s sponsor, Ipana, was dissatisfied with CBS’s promotion of Lucky Pup and took their business – and the show – to ABC, where the title was changed to Foodini the Great, and it ran as a weekly, half-hour series on Saturday mornings at 11.00 am.

Doris Brown retired when she was about to get married (a development she announced on the final Lucky Pup episode on CBS), and was replaced by Ellen Parker and, a few months later, Lou Prentiss.

The time slot switch and the change in format from a 15-minute to a half-hour show were among the reasons for the show’s cancellation after a mere six months on ABC.

Narrator
Doris Brown (1)
Ellen Parker (2)
Lou Prentiss (3)
Puppeteers
Hope Bunin
Morey Bunin