Circa 1968, there probably wasn't an American Boomer kid alive who hadn't heard of Gumby and Pokey. However, a surprisingly large percentage of them knew them only as toys. There were over 200 TV episodes of Gumby and Pokey produced, yet their distribution via syndication was not nearly as encompassing as Leave It to Beaver, Sea Hunt, or the Donna Reed Show. Those canceled TV series were familiar afternoon fare for schoolkids all over the nation. But Gumby and Pokey didn't become widely seen on television until the Nickelodeon Network started showing their episodes in the late 80's.
Gumby was created by animator Art Clokey. In 1955, he created a claymation answer to Walt Disney's Fantasia called Gumbasia.
The short was a big hit, and Clokey was invited to create a series that would be featured on Howdy Doody. Gumby made his debut on the show in 1956, Pokey and the pesky blockheads showed up shortly afterward.
They were such a hit that NBC granted the clay characters their own series beginning in 1957. That series lasted a mere single season, but Gumby and friends weren't done with television.
The show went into syndication, but much less widely distributed as the previously mentioned series. Yet it proved a steady performer, profitable enough that new episodes were added in 1962. A few new episodes would be produced each year until 1967. The syndication continued, but the show was effectively gone by the 70's.
However, with the debut of Nickelodeon, demand for reasonably priced syndicated series that would appeal to both kids and nostalgic adults brought Gumby and his pals back to the small screen. In fact, new episodes were produced that introduced new characters.
Besides Gumby, Pokey, and the blockheads, there were his parents, Gumbo and Gumba; the yellow dinosaur Prickle; Gumby's dog Nopey; Goo, the flying mermaid; Minga, Gumby's sister; Tilly the chicken; and Denali the mastodon. Surreal, fun stuff.
But kids like me, who missed out on the TV series, still had the Gumby and Pokey toys to play with. And play with them we did, even though we knew nothing of their television presence. The toys were cool enough, and responsive enough to a kid's imagination, that seeing them portrayed on the idiot box was not necessary for a kid to greatly enjoy playing with them.
Clokey, who also handled the much-more-marketed Davey and Goliath, launched the careers of many who would one day be giants in the animation business. Claymation, invented so long ago, continues to be a cutting-edge animation technique.
One last bit of trivia: Gumby's favorite mode of transportation, gliding around on one foot, was devised by Clokey to keep from painstakingly creating a walking stride, many, many hours of work in the world of claymation. Indeed, the wheeled sneakers commonly seen today on kids' feet may be a byproduct of an animator's shortcut.
Comments (5)
I loved Gumby but for some reason never had a Pokey. What's with that!?
Posted by Rhea | August 19, 2007 8:33 PM
Posted on August 19, 2007 20:33
Brilliant Ron! Blame Heelies on Gumby! Well,
everything is connected in a Cosmic sense. Actually, I blame Gumby
for all that is bad in America today. he and his up-to-no-good buddy
Pokey have been destroying Western civilizationas we know it since they were unleased. Here's my take on it: Buffalo Bob, being a card carrying member of the
American Communist Party, invites Clokey
to design a subversive
kids vid that would subliminally bore a whole in the collective consciousness of the baby boomers. Gumby and Pokey represent the EVERYMAN. They are constantly on a mission to stop the blockhead capitalists from skewing the power structure. The green coloring is to shock the blockheads with the green tint of mammon(money). The reason it was never fully syndicated was that the commie pinkos wanted to contain the phenomenon. Further distribution would have watered down the message of Gumby as everyman. All civil protests and riots in the 60's can be traced to the subversive influence of Gumby and Pokey, with Buffalo Bob Smith being the contact point for the subversion. Now the truth can be told.....
Posted by scott | August 20, 2007 12:59 AM
Posted on August 20, 2007 00:59
Is that other guy just having fun or has he gone nuts? Just curious. He has a good name, though.
I wonder if the syndication rights were too expensive. TV was always looking for programming and Gumby was cool for kids and there wasn’t much for us at the time. I had the Gumby and Pokey bendable toys and around age 10 I had a Gumby and Pokey coloring book as my favorite of that time. I did catch some syndication back in maybe the early 80s, long after its debut. Better late than never, huh?
Posted by Scott I | May 7, 2009 9:53 PM
Posted on May 7, 2009 21:53
The other guy is the long-lost scott, who peppered this site with a virtual ton of some bizarre, left-field, rambling comments in 2007. The site misses him dearly, and hopes he is well.
Posted by Ron | May 8, 2009 7:13 AM
Posted on May 8, 2009 07:13
I remember the rubber larger then life figures that my sister had! The green colored Gumby and pink colored Pokey. Those are really the only two characters I remember? And I really don't memember the television show? All I remember is that Pokey and Gumby seemed to be a regular fixture in our memories!
Posted by Rivers End | June 30, 2009 3:56 PM
Posted on June 30, 2009 15:56