WOW!!!! Those are outstanding!!! Thanks for posting!

THANK YOU for posting this!

Beany and Cecil is one of my favorite things in the world, and it’s so hard to find good information regarding Time For Beany.

I know that the Clampett archive is usually pretty good, but does anyone know if there are any more Kinescopes that have survived other than the two bootlegs (White Gorilla, DJ as Agent) and the few that have been released on DVD?

Thanks!

WOW-WEE! I’m gonna build one in my basement!

Screw Kermit the frog - Cecil the Sea-sick Sea Serpent was the TRUE king of the sock puppets!

The Clampett family owns several hundred 35mm kinescopes of the original 1949 to 1955 TIME FOR BEANY shows. I think the only reason the shows haven’t made it en masse to DVD is that the music rights are a real pain to clear. They really had to jump through hoops just to get the few episodes that are on the Beany and Cecil DVD out. It’s sad, because these shows are really entertaining.

Thanks for the response Mark!!!

I’m REALLY happy to hear that so many episodes still exist! I feared that most of these were lost to history.

I would say that I hope some solution could be found to deal with the music rights, but I don’t have a lot of faith that they will, considering how often this issue tends to pops up with even major Television DVD releases these days.

I can’t imagine that a niche market item like Puppet Shows from the fifties would fare much better.

It kills me that I’ll never be able to see most of this stuff, but hopefully someday they can work something out that will allow me to give them all of my money.

If I could be even more intrusive, do you know if any of the other Clampett shows have survived like Buffalo Billy or especially Flyboy?

Thanks!

These are different than the ones in the photo archive on the B & C DVD, yes?

It’s great that so many photos still exist. Bob Clampett knew the value of publicity and had the foresight to establish a photographic record. The DVD music issue remains a thorny one. Paramount eliminates tons of original music cues from its television releases and Tom Smothers had to do the same with the recent DVD of the 1960’s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The cost of clearing the music rights for the tape of the Beatles performing “Hey, Jude” alone would have wiped out the DVD budget.

What a wonderful world we’ve left behind — when charming puppets (rather than poorly-animated and characterless “superheroes”) were the focus of a kid’s show and people of this talent level had their hands in the socks.

I don’t know if the Clampett family archives have any Buffalo Billy shows, and I’ve never heard of Flyboy, but there IS an episode of “Thunderbolt the Wondercolt” available on the B & C DVD, and I’ve seen a wonderful episode of Bob’s primetime “Willie the Wolf” show, with guests Spike Jones and his pet kangaroo! The “Buffalo Billy” show was syndicated, so there should be some 16mm episodes around somewhere. A few “Time For Beany” 16mms have shown up over the years. Could you elaborate further on “Flyboy”, Ohjeepers?

Those pictures are beautiful beyond words. I’d searched that LIFE collection, but I didn’t think to misspell “Beany” as “Beane”…My hand is still aching from downloading the giant images of all 190+…

I think TIME FOR BEANY (from what I’ve seen) is just absolutely great. The stuff they achieved, knocking it out daily, is really amazing to me.

Chuck Fiala and I (both big puppet fans from Chicago, which had some great local puppets & puppeteers) used to encourage (read: BEG) Clampett to show some TIME FOR BEANYs at his live shows (there wasn’t really home video then, per se) any time we talked to him…

His response was usually along the lines of “No…audiences today are used to The Muppets, and all that sophisticated puppetry & effects…”

I really think he believed he’d end up destroying the show’s amazing reputation & legend (Groucho, Einstein, etc) by bringing them out & underwhelming a contemporary jaded audience, thereby effectively eliminating one of the more sizable laurels he (deservedly) rested on.

He kinda succeeded in convincing ME I’d be disapointed should I ever see them, and when Chuck & I ran a two-evening retrospective tribute on him at the Chicago Comicon after he died, Sody loaned us amazing prints of stuff we’d never have otherwise, but declined to let us run TIME FOR BEANY.

The ultimate joke is that when I finally DID get to see them (Bootlegs & that incredible DVD), they were better and funnier and all-around greater than I imagined they would be even before Bob threw a wet blanket on them. I think HE in his heart thought they were great. I wish he’d trusted his gut as far as others, and I still hope the kids or somebody find a way to give us more, ’cause I sure crave them.

Mark!
Unfortunately my only point of reference for Flyboy is what is included with the DVD bonus features. I believe you can find it in the slideshow that accompanies the 1950’s commentary.

Flyboy himself looks like a cross between Buffalo Billy and Rootie Kazootie wearing an aviator’s cap. He seems to pal around with a big floppy dog, and pilot some kind of jet.

I’m pretty sure that it aired, even if only for a short period of time, because I remember some of the photos included club membership items in addition to some kind of 3d Promotion.

The design looks great, like a backyard Steve Canyon! It’s just one more reason that I’m desperate to see this stuff!!!

Marvelous ! And a perfect capsule of once-upon-a-time TV innocence.

As for “01/28/09 4:22pm Jason says: Screw Kermit the frog - Cecil the Sea-sick Sea Serpent was the TRUE king of the sock puppets!”

It’s long past due time to stop insulting one thing before praising another.

Actually, Kermit and the Muppets are Rod Puppets, NOT “sock puppets” (like Kukla and Ollie and Sherri Lewis’ Lambchop); a BIG difference and a lot more animated than Beany & Cecil but that’s only because they are different.

I can’t thank you enough for posting the alert to these gorgeous pictures! I adore”Time for Beany” and, as you guys know, there isn’t much out there to be seen. Getting a good look at Stan and Daws working and seeing closeups of the characters is fantastic! It may be shabby and lo-fi, but it’s one of the dearest & most charming shows I’ve ever seen. Thanks again~

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, the Clampett puppets were all over the tube. They would show up on the live morning shows on KTTV and early on, KTLA. Here’s hoping that the Clampett family decides to release a dvd of all the existing prints of the show. By the way, the fellow in some of the photos with the big smile and light hair, is I believe, Charles Shows who was one of the early writers of the show.