Johnny Jupiter - DuMont Version

DuMont Version

The original version, broadcast live on the DuMont Television Network Saturday evenings for 30 minutes, from March 21 to June 13, 1953, starred Vaughn Taylor as an elderly janitor, Ernest P. Duckweather, cleaning-up after midnight in a TV studio. Tinkering with a TV set, he somehow made contact with the planet Jupiter, and two of its inhabitants, Johnny Jupiter and his colleague B-12, both of whom were hand puppets voiced by series writer Jerry Coopersmith and Carl Harms. The often sharp humor of the series was based on Duckweather trying to explain and justify earth customs to the natives of Jupiter, who could view them on their own TV sets.

As an example, the program covered the US fad for 3-D movies, which came and went rapidly in 1953. The Jovian natives explain that their own movies were originally in 3-D but rapidly evolved to 7-D before dropping to 1-D, which is the format all Jovians prefer today.