Shrinking Oasis

TV's children's hour is largely a desert of western films and spaceship serials. But for the past four years, Burr Tillstrom's Kukla, Fran & Ollie (weekdays 7 p.m., NBC) has flourished in this desert as an oasis of intelligent fantasy. Last week the oasis was still there, but it was growing smaller: NBC had cut the show from half an hour to 15 minutes.

NBC gave a complicated explanation for its hatchet-work. The simplest and weightiest reason was that Kukla had recently lost two of its four sponsors (Procter & Gamble, and LIFE). What NBC didn't explain was why this same reason didn't apply to Bob & Ray, a heavy-handed--and unsponsored--satirical show moved in as a replacement for the last 15 minutes of Kukla.

Whatever the reason, Kukla fans rose as one in loud and loyal protest. The Washington Times-Herald filled its TV column with angry letters ("Who's responsible for this brainstorm--someone who's mad at the human race?"). The New York Times's Jack Gould complained that "minority" televiewers were being disenfranchised, and that TV's future clearly belonged to "Captain Video, Gene Autry and Milton Berle." Playwright Robert Sherwood (The Petrified Forest, Idiot's Delight) wrote "a letter of violent protest" to NBC, charged that "the loss of this rare and remarkable program would be a calamity."

In Chicago, where Kukla originates, the gloom was blackest. Local pride had already been blistered by NBC's canceling of Chicago's successful Garroway at Large show. The trade journal, TV Forecast, lamented: "The TV handwriting now is on the wall. All major programs will be coming from New York or Hollywood . . . The Midwest touch is no longer wanted."

The softest protest came from the storm center. Ollie, the one-toothed dragon, popped with indignation on the first truncated show, but he was soon pacified by Kukla's wistful unawareness of reality. Creator Burr Tillstrom even tried to cooperate by shortening his name to "Burtlestrom," to speed up the list of the show's credits. Said Tillstrom: "I don't want to do any crusading. My job is to stay on the air."

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