Johnny Jupiter facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Johnny Jupiter |
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|---|---|
| Genre | Children's |
| Created by | Martin Stone |
| Written by | Horton Foote Jerome Coopersmith |
| Starring | Vaughn Taylor Cliff Hall Pat Peardon Wright King |
| Voices of | Carl Harms |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| Production | |
| Production location(s) | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 24 mins. |
| Release | |
| Original network | DuMont Television Network |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | March 21 – June 13, 1953 |
Johnny Jupiter was the name of two early American TV shows. These shows were special because they mixed real actors with hand puppets! The first show was on the DuMont Television Network from March to June 1953. The second show was on ABC from September 1953 to May 1954.
Contents
The DuMont TV Show (1953)
The first Johnny Jupiter show was broadcast live on the DuMont Television Network. It aired on Saturday evenings for 30 minutes. This version ran from March 21 to June 13, 1953.
Meet the Characters
The show starred Vaughn Taylor as Ernest P. Duckweather. Ernest was an older janitor who worked in a TV studio. One night, while cleaning, he tinkered with a TV set.
Suddenly, he made contact with the planet Jupiter! He met two of its inhabitants: Johnny Jupiter and his friend B-12. These two characters were hand puppets. They were voiced by the show's writer, Jerome Coopersmith, and Carl Harms.
Funny Earth Customs
The show was often very funny. The humor came from Duckweather trying to explain Earth's customs to the Jupiter natives. The Jovians could watch Earth's activities on their own TV sets.
For example, the show talked about the popular trend of 3-D movies in 1953. The Jupiter natives explained that their movies used to be in 3-D. But they quickly evolved to 7-D before going back to 1-D. They preferred 1-D movies!
Surviving Episodes
Very few recordings of the DuMont version of Johnny Jupiter still exist today. These recordings are called kinescopes.
The ABC TV Show (1953-1954)
| Johnny Jupiter | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Starring | Wright King |
| Voices of | Gil Mack |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Jerome Coopersmith |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 25 mins. |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 5, 1953 – May 29, 1954 |
A second version of Johnny Jupiter aired on ABC. This weekly show was also 30 minutes long. It ran from September 5, 1953, to May 29, 1954. This version was filmed and sponsored by M&M's Candies.
A New Story
The story for the ABC version was quite different from the DuMont show. Wright King played Duckweather, but now he was a young, eager employee at a TV repair shop. Most of each episode was a live-action comedy. It featured Duckweather, his boss Horatio Frisby, the boss's daughter Katherine, and guest stars.
New Jupiter Friends
The puppets appeared only when Duckweather needed help or advice. His magic TV set now brought in three Jupiter hand puppets. These were Johnny Jupiter, a cube-headed robot named Major Domo, and a cylinder-headed robot with glasses called Reject the Robot. All their voices were done by Gil Mack.
In at least one episode, Reject's brother Defect also appeared. It seemed that most of the natives of Jupiter were now robots!
Robot on Earth
To solve Duckweather's problems, the clumsy Reject was often beamed to Earth. On Earth, a new puppeteer named Gene (also known as Phil) London played Reject. He wore a large robot suit to bring the character to life.
This new series was not mainly for children. It was canceled after one season, which had 39 episodes. In this second series, Jerry Coopersmith was the producer and script editor.
Surviving Episodes
Many copies of the ABC version of the show have survived. Some of these episodes have even been released on DVD.
