Johnny Jupiter - ABC Version

ABC Version

Another weekly 30-minute version of the series, filmed and sponsored by M&M's Candies, appeared on ABC from September 5, 1953 to May 29, 1954. The concept was completely different from the DuMont version of the series. Wright King, as Duckweather, was now an eager young employee of a TV repair shop; most of each episode consisted of live-action situation comedy involving Duckweather, his boss Horatio Frisby, the boss's daughter Katherine, and one or more guest-stars.

The puppets appeared only when Duckweather needed help or advice; the magic TV set now brought in three Jovian hand puppets: Johnny Jupiter; a cube-headed robot, Major Domo; and a cylinder-headed, glasses-wearing Reject the Robot, all voiced by Gil Mack. On at least one episode Reject's brother Defect appeared (Except for Johnny, the natives of Jupiter were apparently now all robots). The solution to Duckweather's problem generally involved beaming the bumbling Reject to earth, where he was played by new puppeteer Gene (aka Phil) London wearing a large prop robot suit.

Apart from the robot suit, the new series was not geared towards children. The series was canceled after one 39-episode season. In this second series, Jerry Coopersmith was producer and script editor only.