Professor Kitzel

The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel is an educational animated series that ran in the early 1970s. 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.

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

1. Martin Frobisher
2. The Crusades
3. The Spartans
4. Charlemagne and the Elephant
5. Leonardo da Vinci
6. Samuel F.B. Morse
7. Profile of Japan
8. Mayan Archaeology
9. Charles Darwin (2)
10. The Sahara Desert
11. Charles Dickens
12. Thomas Edison
13. Buffalo Bill Cody
14. Joan of Arc
15. India (1)
16. Pilgrims
17. Montezuma and Cortez
18. Perry at the Pole
19. Hillary and Mount Everest
20. The Mississippi Steamboat
21. Reptiles
22. The Rosetta Stone
23. The South Pole
24. August Picard
25. Abba of Benin
26. India (2)
27. The Oracle of Delphi
28. Northwest Indians
29. Daniel Boone
30. Jacques Cartier
31. The Great London Fire
32. The Masai Warriors
33. Marco Polo
34. The Wright Brothers
35. New Amsterdam
36. Athens and Sparta
37. Beavers
38. Romulus and Remus
39. The Buffalo Herds
40. Captain Bligh
41. Peter the Great
42. Fur Trading
43. George Washington
44. Robert Perry
45. Egypt
46. The Vikings
47. The Phoenicians
48. Frederick Douglass
49. Al Rashid
50. Pioneers in Early America
51. The Early Boat Builders
52. Anton Von Leewenhoek
53. The African Gold Coast
54. Gorillas
55. The Picard Brothers
56. The Whaling Ships
57. Montgolfier
58. The Treasure Ships
59. The Eskimos
60. Prehistoric Man
61. Mount Olympus
62. Vasco de Gama
63. James Watt
64. The Middle Ages
65. California Gold Rush
66. Captain Froebischer
67. Christopher Columbus
68. Louis Bleriot
69. Peter the Hermit
70. Pueblo Indians
71. Kier and Drake
72. Abraham Lincoln
73. Guglielmo Marconi
74. Ben Franklin
75. Emperor Nero of Rome
76. The Covered Wagons
77. Easter Island
78. The Cave Paintings of Alta Meara
79. Louis Pasteur
80. The Search for Ancient Troy
81. Jacques Cousteau
82. The Statue of Liberty
83. John Cabot
84. John Smith and Pocahontas
85. The Middle Ages
86. Thor Heyerdahl
87. The Declaration of Independence
88. Gutenberg
89. The History of Rockets
90. Galileo
91. Early Man
92. Ponce de Leon
93. The Erie Canal
94. Charles Darwin (1)
95. The Duryea Brothers
96. Samuel De Champlain
97. The Customs of China
98. Michelangelo
99. Thomas Paine
100. Charles Lindbergh
101. Early Crete
102. The Australian Aborigines
103. Eskimo Life
104. Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
105. Lewis Carroll
106. The Mystery of Stonehenge

See also

Max, the 2000-Year-Old Mouse

Once Upon a Time... Man

Histeria!

References

1. Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series by George W. Woolery, p.312-313; The Scarecrow Press, 1983

External links

• Professor Kitzel at the Internet Movie Database
• New York Times: Wonderful World of Professor Kitzel