The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel is a 1972 educational animated series. Produced by Shamus Culhane[1] for Krantz Films, the program combined film clips, animation, and commentary to teach the viewers about historic and cultural events. It was "hosted" by the eccentric scientist Professor Kitzel, whose voice was provided by Paul Soles, with occasional appearances by his grandfather or his parrot.[2]
Format
editThe format of each short (5 minute) episode, of which one hundred and six were produced in all, was generally an opening discussion by the professor introducing the subject. He would then take the viewer to his time machine, pull a lever and the first series of drawings and commentary related to the subject would begin. Halfway through the story, the professor would interrupt the commentary to make some humorous remark, before returning to the narrative with an invitation to "Let's see what happened next." Each episode concluded with some humorous closing sequence.
Distribution
editThe series was offered in barter syndication by Bristol-Myers for their Pal Vitamins line from 1972 to 1976; after 1976, it was syndicated for cash by Worldvision Enterprises.[1]
Forerunner
editThe format of the series and style of presentation was similar to an earlier production, Max, the 2000-Year-Old Mouse, which utilized the same production house and voice cast.
Episodes
edit- Martin Frobisher
- The Crusades
- The Spartans
- Charlemagne and the Elephant
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Samuel F.B. Morse
- Profile of Japan
- Mayan Archaeology
- Charles Darwin (2)
- The Sahara Desert
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Edison
- Buffalo Bill Cody
- Joan of Arc
- India (1)
- Pilgrims
- Montezuma and Cortez
- Peary at the Pole
- Edmund Hillary and Mount Everest
- The Mississippi Steamboat
- Reptiles
- The Rosetta Stone
- The South Pole
- Auguste Piccard
- Abba of Benin
- India (2)
- The Oracle of Delphi
- Northwest Indians
- Daniel Boone
- Jacques Cartier
- The Great London Fire
- The Masai Warriors
- Marco Polo
- The Wright Brothers
- New Amsterdam
- Athens and Sparta
- Beavers
- Romulus and Remus
- The Buffalo Herds
- Captain William Bligh
- Peter the Great
- Fur Trading
- George Washington
- Robert Perry
- Egypt
- The Vikings
- The Phoenicians
- Frederick Douglass
- Al Rashid
- Pioneers in Early America
- The Early Boat Builders
- Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
- The African Gold Coast
- Gorillas
- The Picard Brothers
- The Whaling Ships
- Montgolfier
- The Treasure Ships
- The Eskimos
- Prehistoric Man
- Mount Olympus
- Vasco de Gama
- James Watt
- The Middle Ages
- California Gold Rush
- Christopher Columbus
- Louis Blériot
- Peter the Hermit
- Pueblo Indians
- Kier and Drake
- Abraham Lincoln
- Guglielmo Marconi
- Benjamin Franklin
- Emperor Nero of Rome
- The Covered Wagons
- Easter Island
- The Cave Paintings of Altamira
- Louis Pasteur
- The Search for Ancient Troy
- Jacques Cousteau
- The Statue of Liberty
- John Cabot
- John Smith and Pocahontas
- The Middle Ages
- Thor Heyerdahl
- The Declaration of Independence
- Johannes Gutenberg
- The History of Rockets
- Galileo Galilei
- Early Man
- Ponce de León
- The Erie Canal
- Charles Darwin (1)
- The Duryea Brothers
- Samuel De Champlain
- The Customs of China
- Michelangelo
- Thomas Paine
- Charles Lindbergh
- Early Crete
- The Australian Aborigines
- Eskimo Life
- Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
- Lewis Carroll
- The Mystery of Stonehenge
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 312-313. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 914–915. ISBN 978-1476665993.