Davey and Goliath - History

History

In 1958 Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), put aside $1 million to fund production of a future television program for children. Soon after, the ULCA contracted with Clokey Productions, Inc., headed by Gumby creators Art and Ruth Clokey, to create a new children’s show: Davey and Goliath. Scripts were written by children’s book author Nancy Moore in consultation with the church, who also later penned several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The Lutheran Church and Art Clokey teamed up to make the first Davey and Goliath episode in 1960 called "Lost In A Cave." In this particular episode, the figures were entirely clay and the scenery was also mostly clay. The early voices included Hal Smith (who did a number of voices including Davey's Father), Dick Beals (who was Davey's voice), and Ginny Tyler (who did the voice of Sally and Davey's mother). These three did many other voices as well.

After making "Lost in a Cave" in 1960, Clokey made "The Wild Goat", "Stranded On An Island", and "The Winner" in 1961. In these episodes the clay figures now had clothing. Also, more model buildings and trees were added and these three episodes looked somewhat more realistic. In 1961, the series of these four episodes began airing free on local television stations nationwide ranging from ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates to independent stations. Many of these stations ran these episodes leading into network Saturday morning lineups. Other stations ran them in religious Sunday morning lineups in between various evangelists. By 1964 the show was airing in over 90% of the television markets.

In 1962, about eight more 15-minute episodes were made, including: "All Alone", "Polka Dot Tie", "On The Line", and "The Pilgrim Boy" among others. By then the clay figures had established looks and consistent sizes. The scenery became slightly more realistic. On endings "The End" would now be in regular print, rather than the "Davey & Goliath logo" type print. All the episodes made up to this point were known as series one. The background music used on this show originated from sources such as The Capitol Hi-Q Production Music Library, which could be heard on shows like Ozzie & Harriet, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis The Menace, and other 1950s sitcoms. A few of these background tracks could also be heard on 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

From 1962 to 1963, another 13 episodes were made including "The Waterfall", "The Bell Ringer", "The Silver Mine", "Ten Little Indians", "The Dog Show" and others. The only big change was that voices of Sally and Davey's mother were done by Nancy Wible who did other female voices as well. Also, Davey's personality became slightly tougher and, within a couple of episodes, rebellious. Overall, though, Davey's character remained good-natured. These episodes were added to distribution shortly after they were made. Chronological order, however, was unclear. In addition, Norma MacMillan (who did various voices on cartoons like Sweet Polly Purebred on Underdog and others) would join the cast to do children's and female voices as well.

From 1963 to 1964, another series of 13 episodes, including "Happy Landing", "The Big Apple", "Bully Up A Tree", "Good Neighbor", "Rags & Buttons" and others were made. Davey was slightly bigger but the scope of the show itself had no big changes. At the end of 1964, production on Davey and Goliath wound down. In some episodes including "Good Neighbor", in addition to "The End" placard, a billboard showed that the show was produced in association with the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA).

In 1965, a 30-minute Christmas special called "Christmas Lost & Found" was made. The focus of this episode was more religious in nature and distanced itself from "Santa Claus" and "Rudolph". The Christmas songs used were religious. This would also be the last episode featuring Dick Beals as the voice of Davey.

In the late 1960s several more 30-minute specials were made including "Happy Easter" from 1967, "The New Years Promise" from 1967, and "Halloween Who Did It?" from 1968. By now Davey was closer to junior high school age. He was now voiced by Norma MacMillan. "Happy Easter" confronted death of a loved one as Davey's beloved grandmother dies suddenly (off camera) within hours of a fun filled visit.

After these four specials, the ULCA and Clokey Productions began funding another series of episodes in 1971. At this point, only Norma MacMillan and Hal Smith did voices. In these episodes, Davey was Junior High School age and occasionally became very rebellious. His antics included pouring paint in a water well, hanging from a dinosaur's head in a museum, telling a handicapped child to shoot himself for being so "dumb", cheating on tests in school, among other things. This Davey had a totally different personality from the Davey portrayed in the 1960s. Norma MacMillan continued to do the voice of Davey. At this time racism, gangs, conservation, crime, and other issues became topics within the series. That year episodes like "Blind Man's Bluff", "Finders Keepers", "Who's George", "Who Me", "Help", "The Stopped Clock" and others were distributed. The openings were also changed, featuring updated music. Background music was also different from the 60s series with some overlap. Midway through this series, Davey's African-American friend Jonathan Reed was introduced. Jonathan came from a nearby city, and both characters went to school together.

In 1972 another 30-minute special, "School Who Needs It?", was aired. Also that year the final regular series of episodes came out. Jonathan appeared in most of the episodes. These episodes included "What's His Name", "Zillion Dollar Combo", "The Watchdogs", "Chicken" and others. In 1973, the series wound down once again, but in 1975 a 30-minute summer camp special called "To The Rescue" was made. This special marked the end of the production of the series in its first incarnation.

After an almost 30-year hiatus, Davey and Goliath were next seen as part of a Mountain Dew commercial in 2001, with the royalties from the commercial used to fund the production of the 2004 Christmas special Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas. This holiday special addressed both religious and ethnic diversity. Because most of the original voice cast were no longer alive (Hal Smith having died in 1994, and Norma MacMillan in 2001), new voice actors played the roles. This episode took advantage of advances in animation technology using updated graphics and scenery as well. This special was 45 minutes long and aired for an hour including commercials. (Until that point, commercials had never aired during any episode.) Hallmark Channel aired this special in 2004 and 2005.