Davey and Goliath

Davey and Goliath
Title card
Genre	Animation Children Christian Educational
Created by	Art Clokey Ruth Clokey Dick Sutcliffe
Starring	Dick Beals Norma MacMillan Hal Smith Nancy Wible Ginny Tyler
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	72
Production
Running time	15 minutes
Production company(s)	Clokey Productions United Lutheran Church in America
Release
Original network	Syndicated
Original release	Series 1–3: January 1, 1960 (1960-01-01) – November 7, 1964 (1964-11-07) Series 4–5: September 12, 1971 (1971-09-12) – May 29, 1975 (1975-05-29)

Davey and Goliath is an American clay-animated children's television series produced by the Lutheran Church in America and created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe.^[1] The show was aimed at a youth audience, and generally dealt with issues such as respect for authority, sharing and prejudice.^[2] Eventually these themes included serious issues such as racism, death, religious intolerance and vandalism. Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his "talking" dog Goliath (although only Davey and the viewer can hear him speak) as they learn the love of God through everyday occurrences. Many of the episodes also feature Davey's parents John and Elaine, his sister Sally, as well as Davey's friends: Jimmy, Teddy, and Nathaniel in earlier episodes, Jonathan, Jimmy, Nicky, and Cisco in later ones.

Critics cite the show as tastefully prompting the spiritual curiosity of children, without coming off as preachy. In general, the characters found themselves in situations that had to be overcome by placing their faith in God.^[2] Davey's friends Nathaniel (in the 1960s episodes) and Jonathan (in the 1970s episodes) were black, and were some of the first black characters to appear as friends of a television show's lead character.^[3]

Following Clokey's success with the Gumby series, Davey and Goliath premiered on January 1, 1960 and lasted until 1965. After its initial run, several 30-minute holiday special episodes were created in the late 1960s. The series then resumed with some new characters in 1971 and continued until 1973. In 1975, a final 30-minute summer episode was created. In 2004, Joe Clokey produced a new episode, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas".

History

In 1958, Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), put aside $1 million to fund production of a future television program for children.^[4] Soon after, the ULCA contracted with Clokey Productions, Inc., headed by Gumby creators Art and Ruth Clokey, to create a new children’s show: Davey and Goliath.^[5] Scripts were written by children’s book author Nancy Moore in consultation with the church;^[6] Moore would go on to pen several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The ULCA and Art Clokey teamed up to make the first Davey and Goliath episode in 1960, called "Lost in a Cave." In this premiere episode, the figures were entirely clay (with some latex/rubber clothing showing visible seams) and the scenery was also mostly clay. The early voices included Hal Smith (who did a number of voices including Davey's father), Dick Beals (who was Davey's voice) and Ginny Tyler (who did the voice of Sally's and Davey's mother). These three did many other voices as well.

After making "Lost in a Cave" in 1960, Clokey made "The Wild Goat", "Stranded on an Island" and "The Winner" in 1961. In these episodes, the clay figures were now clothed, and more model buildings and trees were added, making the episodes look somewhat more realistic. In 1961, the series of these four episodes began airing free on local television stations nationwide, ranging from ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates to independent stations. Many of these stations ran these episodes leading into network Saturday-morning lineups. Other stations ran them in religious Sunday-morning lineups between various evangelists' programs. By 1964, the show was airing in over 90% of U.S. television markets.

In 1962, about eight more 15-minute episodes were made, including "All Alone", "The Polka Dot Tie", "On the Line" and "The Pilgrim Boy". By then, the clay figures had established looks and consistent sizes, and the scenery had become slightly more realistic. At the close of episodes, "The End" was now displayed in regular print, rather than the Davey & Goliath logo-type print. All the episodes made up to this point were known as Series one. The background music used on this show originated from sources such as The Capitol Hi-Q Production Music Library, which could be heard on shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis The Menace and other 1950s sitcoms. A few of these background tracks could also be heard on the late 1950s and early 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

From 1962 to 1963, another 13 episodes were made, including "The Waterfall", "The Bell-Ringer", "The Silver Mine", "Ten Little Indians" and "Dog Show". Nancy Wible was now providing voices for female characters such as Davey's mother. Norma MacMillan (who also provided various cartoon-character voices such as that of Sweet Polly Purebred on Underdog) could also be heard as the voice of numerous child and female characters. Davey's personality had become slightly tougher and, within a couple of episodes, rebellious. Overall, Davey's character remained good-natured. These episodes were added to distribution shortly after they were made. The precise chronological order in which the episodes were produced and aired is unknown.

From 1963 to 1964, another series of 13 episodes, including "Happy Landing", "The Big Apple", "Bully Up a Tree", "'Good' Neighbor" and "Rags and Buttons" were made. Davey was slightly larger but the scope of the show itself involved no big changes. At the end of 1964, production on Davey and Goliath wound down. In some episodes (e.g. "'Good' Neighbor"), in addition to the "The End" placard, a screen showed that the show was produced in association with the United Lutheran Church in America.

In 1965, a 30-minute Christmas special called "Christmas Lost and Found" was made.^[7] The episode was more overtly religious in nature and distanced itself from traditional Christmas figures such as Santa Claus and Rudolph, with religious Christmas songs included. This would also be the last episode featuring Dick Beals as the voice of Davey.

In the late 1960s, 3 30-minute specials were made, including "Happy Easter" (1967), "Halloween Who-Dun-It" (1967), and "New Year Promise" (1968). By now the background music changed to an unknown music library. Davey was closer to junior high-school age and was voiced by Norma MacMillan. "Happy Easter" confronted the death of a loved one, as Davey's beloved grandmother dies suddenly (off camera) within hours of a fun-filled visit.

After these four specials, the LCA and Clokey Productions began funding another series of episodes in 1971. At this point, only Norma MacMillan and Hal Smith did voices. In these episodes, Davey was junior high-school age and occasionally became very rebellious. His antics included pouring paint in a water well, hanging from a dinosaur's head in a museum, telling a handicapped child to shoot himself for being so "dumb" and cheating on tests in school. This Davey had a totally different personality from the Davey portrayed in the 1960s. Norma MacMillan continued to do the voice of Davey.

During this period, racism, gangs, conservation, crime and other serious, timely issues became topics for the series. Episodes included "Blind Man's Bluff", "Finders Keepers", "Who's George?", "Who Me?", "Help!" and "The Stopped Clock". The openings were also changed, featuring updated music. Background music was changed back to The Capitol Hi-Q music of the 1960s series. Midway through this series, Davey's African-American friend Jonathan Reed was introduced. Jonathan came from a nearby city, and both characters went to school together.

In 1972, another 30-minute special, "School...Who Needs It?", was aired. Also that year, the final regular series of episodes was produced. Jonathan appeared in most of the episodes. 1972's episodes included "Whatshisname", "The Zillion Dollar Combo", "The Watchdogs" and "Chicken". In 1973, the series wound down once again, but in 1975 a 30-minute summer camp special called "To The Rescue" was made. This special marked the end of the production of the series in its first incarnation.

After an almost 30-year hiatus, Davey and Goliath were next seen as part of a Mountain Dew commercial in 2001, with the royalties from the commercial used to fund the production of the 2004 Christmas special entitled Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas. The holiday special addressed both religious and ethnic diversity as Davey demonstrates his snowboarding expertise to two friends: Sam, a Jewish boy, and Yasmeen, a Muslim girl. During the course of the show, they get caught in an avalanche and end up in a cave. Goliath goes for help while Davey and his new friends find out that they really aren't all that different. The three children wind up learning of each other's holiday celebrations: Jewish Hanukkah, Christian Christmas and Muslim Eid. Because most of the original voice cast were no longer alive (Hal Smith having died in 1994, and Norma MacMillan in 2001), new voice actors played the roles. This episode took advantage of advances in animation technology using updated graphics and scenery. It was 45 minutes long and aired during a one-hour time slot with commercials. Until that point, commercials had never aired during any episode.

Television airings

The program had become a fixture on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings on TV stations (both religious and secular) all around the country during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, commercial stations began gradually dropping the series. Religious stations picked it up in many markets and ran it in their blocks of Christian children's programs. By 1990, only a handful of commercial stations still aired the series.

The show continued to air on CatholicTV Network until late in 2009, on Tri-State Christian Television also until 2010 and still airs on a few local Christian television stations.

In 2004 and 2005, when Hallmark Channel aired a Christmas special and the 1967 "Happy Easter" episode, they aired the program with several commercial breaks. Hallmark (in its past incarnation as Odyssey Network) had previously aired the entire series commercial-free until 2001. Since then, Hallmark only aired a few of the holiday specials, as well as the Snowboard Christmas special made in 2004. In 2008, iTunes began offering episodes as free downloads. By December of that year, more than 20 episodes had been made available. Today, they cost 99 cents each.

Currently, the series is shown on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) Saturday afternoons,^[8] and during the week it is seen on the TBN-owned Smile of a Child network, which is carried on digital subchannels of TBN affiliates.^[9]

End credit issue

In the 1980s, end credits of these episodes disappeared. New prints distributed after 1984 also omitted the end credits. In the 1960s episodes, the end credits consisted of a variation on the instrumental horn and organ theme, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (the modern form of which was written by Johann Sebastian Bach for the hymn written earlier by Martin Luther), played over Luther's seal with credits displayed. The 1970s episodes had various instrumental pieces accompanying end credits. However, the thirty-minute holiday episodes' end credits remained intact; the reason for this is unknown.

In the fall of 2005, TBN began running the episodes with the end credits included. End credits now appear on the post-2005 DVD releases from Starlight Home Entertainment.

Home media

In 1986 the Program Source began distributing the first 13 episodes of the series minus "The Polka Dot Tie". Also, all five holiday specials and other episodes were made available by Gospel Films Video. These were distributed for sale on VHS tapes. Mail-order services also made a few episodes available.

In 2006, other episodes were distributed on VHS tapes. In 2012, various episodes were released on DVDs showcasing a particular theme. In 2004 and 2005, most episodes were released on various DVD compilations. At the end of July 2006, it was announced that a new compilation would be released titled Davey & Goliath: The Lost Episodes, which was intended to include the episodes "Cousin Barney", "Polka Dot Tie", "Pilgrim Boy", "10 Little Indians", "Down On The Farm", "The Gang", "Louder Please", "Help", "The Watchdogs" and "What's His Name." The producers changed the names of two of these episodes in the release (e.g. "The Gang" to "The Jickets"), making them more politically correct. This compilation was originally scheduled for release on September 19, 2006 by Starlite Video and then postponed several times. In April 2009, Celebrity Video Distribution (CVD) released the collection. "Polka Dot Tie", "The Gang", "Help", "Louder Please" and "Watchdogs" were unedited. "Down On The Farm" was edited by about five seconds to excise a scene showing an unclothed Davey jumping into a lake. "Pilgrim Boy" and "Cousin Barney" had scenes making negative references to American Indians edited out, adding up to over a minute each. "10 Little Indians" had its title changed to "Ten Pin Alley", with all references to the word "Indian", as well as brief scenes with an Indian boy picking up bowling pins, were deleted, leaving the episode without a minute of footage. "Whatshisname" was edited by one minute to remove a scene in which Davey threatens to pour molasses on another boy and then cover him with feathers.

Bridgestone Multimedia Group released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 12-volume collections between 2011 and 2012. Released in honor of the series' 50th anniversary, the disc sets were distributed with "50th Anniversary Edition" labeling. The series is in a somewhat chronological order, though the original TV series' exact episode sequence is not known.

Bridgestone Entertainment DVD Series

Parodies

• Adult Swim's Moral Orel is a darker, adult-oriented parody of Davey and Goliath. Though it is stylistically and thematically similar, the show's creator, Dino Stamatopoulos, claims Moral Orel had its genesis as a parody of Leave It to Beaver.^[10]
• MADtv spoofed Davey and Goliath in their fourteenth episode with Davey and Son of Goliath, alluding to the Son of Sam serial killer who claimed a talking dog had instructed him to kill.^[11] MADTV created a second parody for a segment in episode 25 of season three entitled Davey and Goliath 2: Pet Sematary. The sketch features Goliath being run over by a tractor-trailer truck, a motorcycle gang, and the stars of Riverdance, only to be raised from the dead in the Pet Sematary.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, who was raised Lutheran, has spoofed the series several times.

• In the episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment", after watching television all night Homer appears to be watching the show. A character obviously meant to be Davey says, "We could get there quicker if we took my dad's car!" Goliath answers, "I don't knooowwww, Davey!"
• During the episode "Bart the Lover", Maude Flanders speaks about her son Todd's TV habits: "Well, he used to watch Davey and Goliath, but he thought the idea of a talking dog was blasphemous...".
• In the episode "Simpsons Bible Stories", Bart dreams that he is David in the biblical story of Goliath. Santa's Little Helper walks up to Bart and says the famous line "I don't know, Davey! Oh, you've gotten pretty fat, Davey."
• In the episode "HOMЯ", "Gravey and Jobriath" was a show watched by Ned Flanders and his sons at an animation festival. The episode concerned Gravey's attempts to construct a pipe bomb ("for to blow up the Planned Parenthood!"). In contrast to the traditionally animated style of The Simpsons, the segment was created using stop-motion animation much like the original series. It ended with Gravey shoving the pipe bomb into Jobriath's mouth for his "lack of faith," followed by an off-screen explosion and cheering from the Flanders children.
• In the episode "Ned 'n Edna's Blend," Ned Flanders' dream sequence parodied the show.

List of episodes

See also

• Gumby

References

External links

• Official Site
• Davey and Goliath Airtimes on TBN
• Davey and Goliath Airtimes on Smile Of a Child
• Davey and Goliath at CEGAnMo.com
• Davey and Goliath at the Internet Movie Database
• Davey and Goliath at TV.com
• Videos