Gigi and Jock (Adventures of Gigi and Jock)*
Syndicated 1950 - c. 1951, - 1/2 hour puppet series. Distributor: TeeVee Company, New York, NY. TV markets: WENR Chicago, KTSL Los Angeles. Producer: Marc Frederic.
Cast: Colleen Collins, Marian Richman, Daws Butler
Lost children's puppet shows are a research speciality of mine and something I will be writing more about in the coming months. One puppet series that has intrigued me for years is "Gigi and Jock". It is one of those puppet series from TV's golden age where information has been so scarce over the years, one wonders if the series ever existed. Here is what I could find about this lost puppet series.
"Gigi and Jock" was an adventure series about two "unusual puppets" created and filmed in France, with American voices dubbed in for the soundtrack. It is unknown if this series was originally a French TV production. The series was promoted in the Feburary 1950 edition of Billboard. From newspaper listings available in digital collections, the series aired on at least two American TV stations, the first being KTSL - Channel 2 Los Angeles. On station WENR Channel 7 in Chicago, "Gigi and Jock" was sponsored by "Flavor-Kist Cookies and Crackers" a product of the Schulze & Burch Biscuit Company. A few of the episode titles included "Magic Wand" and "Kingdom of the Birds".
 |
| Snippet of a press photo of actress Marian Richman, who some source credit as the voice of "Jock". |
Based on available publicity articles, "Gigi and Jock" featured Colleen Collins, a local singer and voice actress as the voice of "Gigi." Marian Richman (1922 - 1956), a cartoon, radio, and TV actress with a voice acting range to do young babies to grandmothers, was the voice of "Jock." While portrayed by Collins and Richman, Gigi and Jock appeared to be stout French men in existing publicity images, possibly outcasts from the Foreign Legion. In one article, animation voice legend Daws Butler (Time For Beany, Yogi Bear) was credited with all additional voices on the program. One article credits Butler as one of the lead characters, so it is hard to determine with certainty who played which characters.
A 1954 Variety listing claimed that "Gigi and Jock" had 39 1/2 hour episodes. In this research, no TV schedule listing for this series was found after March of 1951 and no reference in a TV syndication directory after 1955.
Prints of two episodes do exist in the David Susskind Papers and the University of Wisconsin. collection. Hopefully, one print of this show will also surface on DVD, streaming, or YouTube.
*Some grammatical corrections and one link update were made to this text on September 26, 2021.
