The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel

The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel is a 1972 educational animated series. Produced by Shamus Culhane[1] for Krantz Films, the program combined film clips, animation, and commentary to teach the viewers about historic and cultural events. It was "hosted" by the eccentric scientist Professor Kitzel, whose voice was provided by Paul Soles, with occasional appearances by his grandfather or his parrot.[2]

Format

The format of each short (5 minute) episode, of which one hundred and six were produced in all, was generally an opening discussion by the professor introducing the subject. He would then take the viewer to his time machine, pull a lever and the first series of drawings and commentary related to the subject would begin. Halfway through the story, the professor would interrupt the commentary to make some humorous remark, before returning to the narrative with an invitation to "Let's see what happened next." Each episode concluded with some humorous closing sequence.

Distribution

The series was offered in barter syndication by Bristol-Myers for their Pal Vitamins line from 1972 to 1976; after 1976, it was syndicated for cash by Worldvision Enterprises.[1]

Forerunner

The format of the series and style of presentation was similar to an earlier production, Max, the 2000-Year-Old Mouse, which utilized the same production house and voice cast.

Episodes

  1. Martin Frobisher
  2. The Crusades
  3. The Spartans
  4. Charlemagne and the Elephant
  5. Leonardo da Vinci
  6. Samuel F.B. Morse
  7. Profile of Japan
  8. Mayan Archaeology
  9. Charles Darwin (2)
  10. The Sahara Desert
  11. Charles Dickens
  12. Thomas Edison
  13. Buffalo Bill Cody
  14. Joan of Arc
  15. India (1)
  16. Pilgrims
  17. Montezuma and Cortez
  18. Peary at the Pole
  19. Edmund Hillary and Mount Everest
  20. The Mississippi Steamboat
  21. Reptiles
  22. The Rosetta Stone
  23. The South Pole
  24. Auguste Piccard
  25. Abba of Benin
  26. India (2)
  27. The Oracle of Delphi
  28. Northwest Indians
  29. Daniel Boone
  30. Jacques Cartier
  31. The Great London Fire
  32. The Masai Warriors
  33. Marco Polo
  34. The Wright Brothers
  35. New Amsterdam
  36. Athens and Sparta
  37. Beavers
  38. Romulus and Remus
  39. The Buffalo Herds
  40. Captain William Bligh
  41. Peter the Great
  42. Fur Trading
  43. George Washington
  44. Robert Perry
  45. Egypt
  46. The Vikings
  47. The Phoenicians
  48. Frederick Douglass
  49. Al Rashid
  50. Pioneers in Early America
  51. The Early Boat Builders
  52. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
  53. The African Gold Coast
  54. Gorillas
  55. The Picard Brothers
  56. The Whaling Ships
  57. Montgolfier
  58. The Treasure Ships
  59. The Eskimos
  60. Prehistoric Man
  61. Mount Olympus
  62. Vasco de Gama
  63. James Watt
  64. The Middle Ages
  65. California Gold Rush
  66. Christopher Columbus
  67. Louis Blériot
  68. Peter the Hermit
  69. Pueblo Indians
  70. Kier and Drake
  71. Abraham Lincoln
  72. Guglielmo Marconi
  73. Benjamin Franklin
  74. Emperor Nero of Rome
  75. The Covered Wagons
  76. Easter Island
  77. The Cave Paintings of Altamira
  78. Louis Pasteur
  79. The Search for Ancient Troy
  80. Jacques Cousteau
  81. The Statue of Liberty
  82. John Cabot
  83. John Smith and Pocahontas
  84. The Middle Ages
  85. Thor Heyerdahl
  86. The Declaration of Independence
  87. Johannes Gutenberg
  88. The History of Rockets
  89. Galileo Galilei
  90. Early Man
  91. Ponce de León
  92. The Erie Canal
  93. Charles Darwin (1)
  94. The Duryea Brothers
  95. Samuel De Champlain
  96. The Customs of China
  97. Michelangelo
  98. Thomas Paine
  99. Charles Lindbergh
  100. Early Crete
  101. The Australian Aborigines
  102. Eskimo Life
  103. Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
  104. Lewis Carroll
  105. The Mystery of Stonehenge

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 312-313. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 914–915. ISBN 978-1476665993.