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

Martin Frobisher
The Crusades
The Spartans
Charlemagne and the Elephant
Leonardo da Vinci
Samuel F.B. Morse
Profile of Japan
Mayan Archaeology
Charles Darwin (2)
The Sahara Desert
Charles Dickens
Thomas Edison
Buffalo Bill Cody
Joan of Arc
India (1)
Pilgrims
Montezuma and Cortez
Peary at the Pole
Edmund Hillary and Mount Everest
The Mississippi Steamboat
Reptiles
The Rosetta Stone
The South Pole
Auguste Piccard
Abba of Benin
India (2)
The Oracle of Delphi
Northwest Indians
Daniel Boone
Jacques Cartier
The Great London Fire
The Masai Warriors
Marco Polo
The Wright Brothers
New Amsterdam
Athens and Sparta
Beavers
Romulus and Remus
The Buffalo Herds
Captain William Bligh
Peter the Great
Fur Trading
George Washington
Robert Perry
Egypt
The Vikings
The Phoenicians
Frederick Douglass
Al Rashid
Pioneers in Early America
The Early Boat Builders
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
The African Gold Coast
Gorillas
The Picard Brothers
The Whaling Ships
Montgolfier
The Treasure Ships
The Eskimos
Prehistoric Man
Mount Olympus
Vasco de Gama
James Watt
The Middle Ages
California Gold Rush
Christopher Columbus
Louis Blériot
Peter the Hermit
Pueblo Indians
Kier and Drake
Abraham Lincoln
Guglielmo Marconi
Benjamin Franklin
Emperor Nero of Rome
The Covered Wagons
Easter Island
The Cave Paintings of Altamira
Louis Pasteur
The Search for Ancient Troy
Jacques Cousteau
The Statue of Liberty
John Cabot
John Smith and Pocahontas
The Middle Ages
Thor Heyerdahl
The Declaration of Independence
Johannes Gutenberg
The History of Rockets
Galileo Galilei
Early Man
Ponce de León
The Erie Canal
Charles Darwin (1)
The Duryea Brothers
Samuel De Champlain
The Customs of China
Michelangelo
Thomas Paine
Charles Lindbergh
Early Crete
The Australian Aborigines
Eskimo Life
Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
Lewis Carroll
The Mystery of Stonehenge

References

^ ^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.
^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 914–915. ISBN 978-1476665993.

External links

[Woolery-1] 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.

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