I remember that show from when I was a kid - never realised it was that old. Looking back, the animation was suprisingly primitive (though in an endearing sort of way) and the voices sound pretty strange. 1956? Some of the epps were even trippy lol.

Used to watch Gumby on saturday mornings when I would stay at my grandma'a house.
Our cable didnt televise it.

Gumby, Pokey, Prickle, and Goo

Good old Gumby and Pokey.  I used to watch the show but don't remember much about them.




Cat

I downloaded an ep and was surprised by how the voices sounded. They sounded robotic and mechanical (mainly Gumby and Pokey). A bit like speaking into a desk-top fan. Anyone else notice this?

I was quite a fan of both Gumby and Davey And Goliath (another Art Clokey production).  I would watch them both all the time when I was growing up.

Several years ago, I was able to find D&G on DVD, and grabbed it.  In the documentary they talked about a newer version done in the last 1990s, a Christmas Special.  But somehow, I have never seen it.  I looked for it last year but it did not come on any of the channels on my cable.  I am hopeing it comes to DVD someday, since the advent of computerized cameras made it look much better then the original.

Gumby actually started from a 1955 short that Art did called "Gumbasia".  I have that also on DVD.  It was really free-form, with a lot of the Jazz that was popular at the time.  It was obviously a translation of "Fantasia", but with clay instead of ink and paper animation.  It was really the most advanced example of "Claymation" at the time, and it got enough attention that he was able to make a series of shorts which became the Gumby TV series.

In the 1960's and 1970's, there was not much network programming on Sunday.  And there were often gaps between the morning shows and the game shows.  Programs like Gumby were common 30-60 minute fillers for this time slot because it was a cheap show to buy.  And a lot of smaller UHF stations showed it also for the same reason.  By the early 1980's, syndication was more attractive, and the childrens audience started to move to PBS, and if you had cable Calliope (a forerunner of Nickelodeon).

LOVED my rubber Gumby figure as a kid!  :)

LOVED my rubber Gumby figure as a kid!  :)


Same here. And I had a little plastic Pokey too. I ended up stretching poor Gumby to the breaking point.