Expert: Marcia Studley - 1/17/2009

Question
Hello --
Do you know anything about I show I watched on public television (*not*
local) around 1966 (though it was likely filmed earlier)? It was a children's
show, hosted by a puppet dog -- visible from his front shoulders on, lying in
a dog house.  Each episode featured marionettes acting out a tale with a
righteous moral. I particularly remember an episode that involved a princess
seeing to it that the royal kitchen serve her father, the king, unsalted meat to
demonstrate that she loved him "as meat loves salt."
  Thanks for your time.

Answer
HI Zeke,

I really haven't been able to find out anything here.  When you mention marionettes, my mind goes straight to Gerry Anderson.  He does have a couple of early series that I can't determine the theme of.  One was with a kid named Torchy, and the other was just something called Twizzle.  I don't know if those names ring any bells or not.  Of course, I believe the Japanese did a lot of marionation too, but that's way out of my expertise.  Aside from the information on Gerry Anderson, I just came up blank.  My searches for puppets and such came up empty.  The closet thing I found was an old series called Mr. Dressup, but it wasn't hosted by a dog puppet.

Wish I could help more.

Good luck!