Holiday Fest 2024
Back on December 14, 1979 -- 45 years ago to the day -- the TV legends Kukla, Fran and Ollie reunited for a TV special. The show -- which was wonderfully-titled 'Tis the Season to Be Ollie (a line from their much-earlier rendition of "Deck the Halls") -- was made for WMAQ, the NBC-owned station in Chicago (where they produced their TV series back in the 1950s and early 1960s). I don't know for sure if this was syndicated to other NBC "owned-and-operated" stations, but I suspect so. The storyline here is the Ollie is trying to figure out plans for what kind of special they should do. It's slow and gentle, the way that Kukla, Fran and Ollie always were and are -- though there's a very off-beat sequence where Ollie suggests that they make things a lot more hip -- but it's all a joy, especially for fans, to see them reunited.
So, as their long-time theme song said, "here we are, back with you again Yes, by gum and yes, by golly, Kukla, Fran and dear old Ollie" -- and Burr Tillstrom with the Kuklapolitans.
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