Kukla, Fran and Ollie

(left to right) Kukla, Ollie, and Fran

Kukla, Fran and Ollie was a 30-minute television program starring puppets Kukla and Ollie and a live performer named Fran Allison.

Other puppets were Beulah the Witch and Madame Oglepuss. The program was created by its sole puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. The program did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed. It first aired from 1947 to 1957. The show was hugely popular. Among many other honors, the program won a Peabody award in 1949 for its "whimsy and gentle satire of the James Barrie-Lewis Carroll sort," and two Emmy awards: in 1954 for Best Children's Program, and in 1971 for Outstanding Children's Programming.

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