LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Fran Allison
built 640 days ago
When Pat Weaver created NBC’s "Home" as the textbook morning magazine show in 1954, Fran Allison was the prime host candidate. When her contract demands stalemated negotiations, Ms. Francis stepped forward. Again, it was the right call. Ms. Francis was the first woman in TV to have the title of managing editor.
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Fran Allison was "Fran" in "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," the wonderful children's puppet program that ran on early TV from 1947 to 1957. Virtually every kid knew Fran, Ollie and Beulah Witch personally, due to Fran's warmth and humor. She made the puppets live. Burr Tillstrom was the puppeteer, and with only a basic storyline each show was entirely improvised with no other prior planning. Hugh Downs was the announcer..
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Overlooking the garish spider-eyelashes, in her younger years, Fran Allison somewhat resembled Janet Leigh. She was girl-next-door-pretty, a radio comedienne and singer from Waterloo who discovered God when she was small, after her mother, stricken with TB and locked in a sanitorium, "prayed herself well." Even despite that and her father's chronic illness, Fran stuck with god and stayed tender, which made her an ideal matriarch to a cast of furry puppets. In 1947, she was cast as the only human character in Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, a children's show that aired in Chicago for ten years. She was warm-voiced, sweet and interacted with Kukla and Ollie as though they were human; kids and parents loved her because she was never patronizing. The show was incredibly successful; influencing many subsequent childrens shows, including Sesame Street and Chic-a-go-go, and hailed as adding another dimension to television, opening the door for other smart and life-enriching programming.
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The basic format of the show was simple: Fran Allison stood in front of a small stage and interacted with the characters. The format was derived from the puppet act Tillstrom performed for the RCA Victor exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Acting as an entr'acte for another marionette show at the World's Fair, Kukla and Ollie would comment on the activities, sometimes heckle the announcer, and coax the actresses and models acting as spokespersons for the exhibit to come up onto the stage and talk with them. Never working from a written script, Tillstrom improvised over 2,000 performances at the Fair, each one different because of his personal dislike of routine. During World War II, Tillstrom and his Kuklapolitan Players performed in USO shows, at army hospitals, and for bond drives, where he met radio personality Fran Allison.
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It was through Allison that the Kuklapolitans came to life as individual personalities with life histories. Each show was entirely improvised. The only prior planning was a basic storyline. Characters discussed their backgrounds, where they attended school, and their relatives. Allison was the first to mention Ollie's mother Olivia and niece Dolores, and Tillstrom added them to their growing number of Kuklapolitans. In addition to prompting the characters to talk about themselves, Allison herself invented some of the characters' histories, such as announcing that Buelah Witch's alma mater was Witch Normal.
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When Fran (Fran Drescher) and Riley's (Ryan McPartlin) romantic anniversary dinner is interrupted by Josh (Ben Feldman), Allison (Misti Traya) and Fran's ex-husband Ted (guest star Charles Shaughnessy, "The Nanny"), Riley questions his place in the family. Following an argument with Riley, Fran seeks advice from her cousin, Meryl (guest star Debi Mazar, "Entourage"), and makes matters worse when she takes a dog tranquilizer after mistaking it for an aspirin. Lee Shallat Chemel directed the episode written by Frank Lombardi and Kelleher.
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Fran Allison