Fractured Flickers

We were all familiar with that Jay Ward-Bill Scott sense of humor when FF made its debut in the Autumn of 1963. After all, just about everybody watched ROCKY & FRIENDS, which became THE BULLWINKLE SHOW for Sunday evening colorcasts on the NBC Television Network. It was an instant success with our crowd, and we tried not to miss it.

It is understandable why Silent Film Purists would pan FF. It was quite irreverent to the well known,but now in Public Domain, Silent Film actors. Each fracturing made use of the most outlandish comments and sound effects. They were added to absurd story lines. The end result was as fast a moving half hour as was on the small screen, ever.

The "fracturing" of each film made the names of such luminaries of the silent screen as John Barrymore,Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, et al.,now familiar to a new generation. The titles of the great works of the era were also brought to the forefront. After a season of FRACTURED FLICKERS, we were all given a sort of class in the Silent Cinema. I can testify that our family, as well as other kids in neighborhood, were interested in the "Old Time Movies" after that season. We were interested to either rent or buy copies.

We suppose that it was like taking a little honey or maple syrup to get the medicine down.

I've only seen a single show since the originals ended in 1963. It featured rewrites of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (which became Dinky Dunstun, Boy Cheerleader) and The Hands Of Orlak (Hands Across The Fee,) and a couple of other bits. The guest "star" was Annette Funicello, who introduced Hunchback.

The writers of this show literally destroyed the original story lines of these films and replaced them with wildly funny scripts using the Jay Ward stable of sound effects, and the talents of Bill Scott, and June Foray.

The show I saw had a tag for "next weeks show" featuring the "Adventures of Harry and Ozziet" using footage from silent classics.

I'd like to see these shows again. I believe they were ahead of their time.

UPDATE: 9/12/2009:

I have just purchased a set of these shows from Amazon. The transfers look great. BUT, only episodes 1-6 are really good. After #6, they didn't do parodies of an entire movie again, like what they started doing at the beginning. I hate to say it, but, some of the episodes just aren't funny. Towards the end of the series, they tended to use the same snips of film over and over again.

I'd almost bet that someone in the higher-ups at Desilu told Jay Ward to 'tone it down a bit.' For this, I am sorry, as they had a good thing going there.

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

It lasted only one season, but FRACTURED FLICKERS was one of the funniest series ever put on television. The accounts given here on the thread are mostly lauding it, but I will add a few I recall.

1) A television history program that is pompously mis - announced as "FROM HYPOCRITES TO EINSTEIN." Then a small, slightly timid voice - like the owner does not want to embarrass the announcer - stating, "That's "Hippocrates"." The announcer, unfortunately sounding embarrassed, quickly says, "As I said, "FROM HIPPOCRATES TO EINSTEIN". What followed was supposedly the story of various great events of the history of western man to be shown on this series, ending with the voice announcing, "and finally, and not least, that greatest moment in modern exploration: STANLEY AND LIVINGSTON." We see two men wearing pith helmets who rise out of neighboring garbage cans and shake hands!!

2)The adventures of an eccentric, thin elderly man with a ridiculous long chin whisker and eyeglasses. He is the manufacturer of that remarkable automobile, "the Midget - Widgett" motor car (which looks all of four feet in length).

3) The adventures (narrated by the anti-hero) of a high ranking Nazi officer (Eric Von Stroheim) hiding after the war - successfully for a time - as a ventriloquist, until betrayed by his dummy.

4) The story of the 20th Century's greatest predictor of the future - whose record is tarnished to all (but the announcer, apparently) by the fact that he never gets anything correct. I recall that at one point he is sent films of the German army in the field in 1914-15 and writes a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm II, stating that after viewing the film he is certain that victory is assuredly for Germany. He then sends the letter and the film home to Germany...on the Lusitania.

5) The story of the hitherto unknown fifth and youngest Kennedy brother, who is upset that his four older siblings (including the dead Joe Jr., apparently) have outstripped him in prestige and public attention. So he takes his society friends with him from Hyannisport to the south seas, and hunts for a famous pirate treasure. And they find it too - unfortunately they are robbed of it at gunpoint by the villain: the sixth and youngest Rockefeller brother, upset that his five older siblings have outstripped him in prestige and public attention.

It was consistently amusing, and had the added plus of Hans Conreid as it's host. I am glad that it is now out on DVD (if the other comments on this thread are correct). Well worth watching indeed.

Yes, I was but a wee tad when Fractured Flickers graced our "television" unit. I only recall a handful of specifics. I mostly just remember how wonderfully funny it was; how my brother Barry and I sometimes fell over on the floor laughing, so overcome were we by the unselfconscious silliness of it all. These where *our people* speaking in *our language*.

And of course, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the dear memory of Hans Conried; thanks, Mr. Conried; wherever you may be. What a voice, and a tribute to the power of voice to touch you in a deep and satisfying way through humor.