The show's 4 million fans included John Steinbeck, Thornton Wilder, Orson Welles, Adlai Stevenson and Tallulah Bankhead.
One episode of the show was broadcast in color in fall 1949, in Washington, D.C., as a demonstration to the FCC of RCA's line-sequential color TV system. The same episode was performed live a second time the same afternoon, for network broadcast in black and white, but using the experimental color cameras.
Gene Rayburn made his first network television appearance on one episode. Kukla and Ollie would later make guest appearances on a few episodes of Match Game 73 (1973) (hosted by Rayburn) in 1979.
On 11 August 2009, the US Postal Service issued a pane of twenty 44¢ commemorative postage stamps honoring early USA television programs. A booklet with 20 picture postal cards was also issued. On the stamp honoring "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", human star Fran Allison appears between puppets Kukla the clown and Ollie the dragon. Other shows honored in the Early TV Memories issue were: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952), Alfred Hitchcock présente (1955), The Dinah Shore Show (1951), Badge 714 (1951), "The Ed Sullivan Show" (originally titled Toast of the Town (1948)), The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), Hopalong Cassidy (1952), The Honeymooners (1955), "The Howdy Doody Show" (original title: Puppet Playhouse (1947)), I Love Lucy (1951), Lassie (1954), The Lone Ranger (1949), Perry Mason (1957), The Phil Silvers Show (1955), The Red Skelton Show (1951), "Texaco Star Theater" (titled Texaco Star Theatre Starring Milton Berle (1948), 1954-1956), The Tonight Show (which began as Tonight! (1953)), La quatrième dimension (1959) and You Bet Your Life (1950).
In 1951, NBC cut the show from a half-hour to 15 minutes. A national storm of protest arose and the story dominated headlines. The network received 2,000 letters of protest.