The beginning… Fifty plus years ago in 1955 Sam Engel of 20th Century Fox asked Gumby’s creator, Art Clokey “Can you make little clay figures and animate them into children’s stories? I want to improve the quality of childrens TV.”
Art and his wife felt the same way about the need for better childrens programing. They were the parents of a one year old daughter. So Art told Sam yes, he could do that, and that’s how Gumby got his own TV show on NBC.
The Middle… In 1977, Gumby aired on the Disney Channel. The fan mail came pouring in, making Art and and his wife, Gloria, realize how important the show still was to children and their baby boomer parents who grew up watching the adventures of Gumby and all his pals on TV.
Just about that time, comedian Eddie Murphy performed a series of hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live spoofing Gumby. This increased demand for Gumby’s comeback. The early episodes were rerun on TV where a whole new generation of children became fans of the adventure series. Many college aged kids who’d grown up with Gumby in the 60’s got into it all over again.
By the middle of the 90’s Nickelodeon was using all of the Gumby Adventures from the 50’s, 60’s and 80’s for it’s anchor spots at 8:00 am and 2:00 pm. Gumby was on top of their ratings for over three years. Now wherever Art goes he is mobbed by early teens who grew up loving Gumby in the mid ’90s.
The end..?
Gumby would always begin his adventures by walking into a giant book. That’s one of the reasons why She still loves Gumby and as you can see, so do I.
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“And there came to be evening and there came to be morning”
That’s life, today!
ThatOne | EBD 