Fractured Flickers

Of all the Jay Ward productions this was FAR AND AWAY MY FAVORITE!!! Rocky and Dudley and George and all were great, but this is the show that every week would set me off laughing. The voice-overs had a wild free-wheeling style that felt like spontaneous jokes flowing out of their heads -- though of course they were scripted to match the wonderful visuals. These were either a brilliant re-editing of a single movie, or a fantastic hybrid of dozens of them, reassembled to tell an entirely new story. That sort of work requires a prodigious visual memory and a great sense of humor. And Hans Conried was the perfect cherry topping it all off.

Now despite what the cranky Mr. Vogel says below, this show introduced me to silent movies, the same way I first learned classical symphonic music through Warner Bros. cartoons. The distinctive look of the early film stock, cinematography, and acting is now so closely associated with the pleasure centers of my brain that whereas most people can now barely tolerate black and white anymore, I don't even need the incidental music and can sit in pure silence for hours just treating my eyes to silent movies. Thanks to Jay Ward, I like flickers, even unfractured.

Yes this IS the best. As a child I laughed so hard I still remember. Curley of the 3 stooges made me smile as a child, but FF made me laugh uncontrollably. The universal appeal would still apply today...if they would only release it.

I watched this show during its initial 1964 run (as a small child) and after forty years could still remember specific funny lines and scenes. Imagine my delight when I read that the entire series of 27 episodes was to be released on DVD.

I have now watched about half of them with my 14-year-old son, and we are enjoying them just as much as I did as a kid...except now I get more of the jokes. (Same story with Rocky & Bullwinkle, from the same zany group that did FF.) Sure, there are some "clunkers" (including a couple of too-long segments where the narrator is trying hard to do a Bob Newhart-style monologue), but every episode contains some laugh-out-loud moments. Hans Conreid is the perfect host, and the other voice-over talents (Frees, Foray, Scott) are in top form.

FF is the forerunner of What's Up Tiger Lily?, LA Connection's "Mad Movies," Kung Pao, etc. and more consistently inspired than any of them. That's because they knew when to stop a gag, and could jump to something completely different when necessary. Commercial parodies, zingers about 60s politicians and celebrities, surreal wackiness...it's all here and all collected in a 3-DVD set! Oh, and did I mention all the celebrity visits from people like Rod Serling, Zsa Zsa, Fabian, etc?

The whole series run, I think. Sometime in August, 2004.

I agree with other posters. This show was hilarious, simply hilarious, and very much influenced "What's Up, Tiger Lily?"

One of its writers, Allan Burns, went on to write for "Get Smart" and "The Mary Tyler Moore" show.

Loved how they would take the Stan Laurel "Jekyll and Hyde" spoof and turn it into each weeks' "One Minute Mystery," with brief shots of silent stars and the narrator saying: "Who dunit? The butler? The widow? Liz? Dick? A dirty rat (actually old silent shot of dirty rat.)

They would convert classic silent films, like "Hunchback of Notre Dame" (which became "Dinky Dunston, USC Boy Cheerleader," unknown films, and shorts.

Absolutely hilarious. From 1963

I caught this little gem very briefly on Ha!, what would become Comedy Central, in the early 1990's, weekly at the ungodly hour of 2 AM on Mondays. But, I made sure to watch it as long as they showed it. Which wasn't long, but, I still remember it today.

If you're familiar with What's Up Tiger Lily, Dynaman, Samurai Pizza Cats, Kung Pow: Enter The Fist, or Tokyo Pig, the premise will be familiar. They take old silent pictures and recut them for comedic effect, with new soundtracks provided by some of the best voice actors of all time. Even the series host was one. In the final analysis, a show such as this must rest on whether the scripts are funny. And, with writers from such shows as Rocky And Bullwinkle and Get Smart, it succeeds. Thankfully, I was able to tape some of my favorite shorts when Ha reran them. Mine are the same as most everyone else who remembers this series: the one about Zorro, the one with the Applegate murders, with an unlikely list of suspects, including a monkey and a surprised and infuriated looking Hans Conreid.

So, it's hard to find, but, if you know someone who has these, beg, borrow, or steal their tapes. You can sure do worse with 30 minutes of your time, by far!