Two
screenshots from Mr Piper, starring
Alan Crofoot in the title role (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent
Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
Time for another of my rare forays beyond
the big-screen world of the movies into the small-screen but no less
fascinating world of TV. Today, after almost 60 years on from my first viewing
of it, I am revisiting what for me will always be a wonderful, uniquely special
TV show.
What is the very first TV show that you
can remember watching? In my case, it is the truly magical but nowadays
all-but-forgotten children's show to which this present blog article of mine is
devoted – Mr Piper.
Created in Toronto, Canada, by Martin
Andrews and Allan Wargon in 1960, and with Wargon also serving as its executive
producer, Mr Piper was a 25-min show that was originally screened by CBC
Television in Canada in 1963, and was also shown on ITV in the UK during the
1960s, initially in its entirety, but when reshown here during the 1970s it was
split into two 12.5-min shows (see later for more details). It takes its name
from its central character and narrator, the somewhat stout, ever-cheerful, and
totally magical Mr Piper, played by Canadian actor/opera singer Alan Crowfoot,
and clearly inspired both in costume and in concept by the Pied Piper of
Hamelin of European folklore. But whereas the latter used dark enchantments to
lure children away from their parents and homes, TV's Mr Piper used his sunny
enchantments to lure children into spending a happy, fun-filled time watching
his joyful and also subtly educational show, which I absolutely loved as a
small child in the early 1960s, viewing it with Mom on ATV, ITV's now long-gone
West Midlands regional channel.
Incidentally, there is some controversy
in online coverages of Mr Piper
regarding the total number of episodes that were made and screened, with claims
ranging from 13, 14, or 15, right up to as many as 39. However, my own memories
tally with 15 episodes (39 episodes seems far too high a number, unless the
subsequently-screened 12.5-min split versions of the original 25-min ones are
also being included in this count, i.e. as separate episodes in their own right?).
Moving on, here is a breakdown of the Mr Piper show's fondly-remembered
format. Each episode would begin with Crofoot as Mr Piper very tunefully singing
over its animated opening titles what is unquestionably one of the catchiest TV
theme songs ever written. Although I last watched this show on TV during the
early 1970s, I have never forgotten that irrepressibly cheery song, and when, several
years ago, I was delighted to be able to buy at long last a couple of DVDs
containing a few segments (mostly Tele Tunes, see below) from various Mr Piper episodes, I discovered that I
had indeed accurately remembered its theme song verbatim. If you'd like to hear
it for yourself, click here to do
so on YouTube.
Mr
Piper singing his show's theme song inside his magical home, Pied Piper House,
the setting for all of the Mr Piper
episodes (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television
Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
After the theme song ended, each episode would
then consist of 4 wholly autonomous segments (each with its own director), which
could therefore be shown in any sequence, but here in the UK they were always
screened in the following one (in Canada, they were apparently shown in a
different sequence).
Segment 1 was 'Bag of Tricks', directed
by Allan Wargon, during which Mr Piper would invariably get himself into all
manner of humorous slapstick trouble when he pulled out of his big,
polka-dotted, box-shaped bag of tricks a magical object (a different one in
each episode). Memorably, he would always preface this segment with a short but
relevant introductory statement, and point with his thumb or index finger to
add emphasis, an action often accompanied by the sound of a single invisible
bell ring, emphasizing the magical nature of what is about to happen. 'Bag of
Tricks' was my favourite of the four segments per episode, so I was always glad
that it was shown first within each episode screened here in the UK.
Mr
Piper with his big polka-dot spotted bag of tricks (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied
Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution –
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)
Segment 2 was 'Tele Tunes', directed by James
Mackay, in which Mr Piper would narrate a fairy story, usually a traditional
folktale from somewhere in Europe or from the Arabian Nights. It would be
accompanied by a visual portrayal of the story using (very) limited but
nonetheless charming animation, and end with Mr Piper drawing forth a worthy
moral from the tale. I was to learn many years later that in much of the USA,
the Tele Tune cartoons were the only segments broadcast from episodes of Mr Piper, so that viewers there were
entirely unaware that each episode originally contained three other segments
too. Crofoot would provide some of the character voices, with others provided
by an uncredited Billie Mae Richards.
A
scene from a Tele Tune cartoon segment entitled 'Ali Baba' (© Martin
Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television Corporation/World
Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis
for educational/review purposes only)
Segment 3 was 'Port of Call' (whose
director is not presently known to me), the most educational segment, in which
Mr Piper would narrate documentary-style film footage about cultures from
around the world as seen through the eyes of their children. Once again, this was
very charmingly conceived and presented, but due to its distinct lack of either
magic or animals, I'm ashamed to say that I personally found it to be the least
interesting of the quartet of segments per episode of Mr Piper. Even at that tender age, it was clear that my future
career leanings were not going to point towards any sociological or anthropological
aspirations!
A
scene from a Port of Call segment featuring a Hong Kong boat-dwelling family (©
Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television
Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
Much more to my liking, conversely, was
Segment 4, entitled 'Animal Farm', and directed by Vincent Vaitiekunas.
Reminiscent of another popular 1960s children's TV show, the UK's Tales From the Riverbank, it was a very
sweet vignette featuring several small animals inside a tiny barnyard, who
would be talking to one another with human voices, mostly supplied by Crowfoot
(plus some by Richards again), and involved in all manner of adventures. All of
the animals had alliterative names, with my favourite animal being a
beautifully-marked black and white pet rat called Rupert. Others that I could still
readily recall even before chancing upon the above-mentioned Mr Piper DVDs some years ago include
Kookie the Kitten, Harriet the Hen, and Bessie the Bunny.
Rupert
the Rat from an Animal Farm segment (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper
Films Ltd/Independent Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced
here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review
purposes only)
Finally, albeit not a full-length segment
in its own right, usually being interposed between the end of Segment 4 and the
show's closing credits instead, was a brief scene featuring a talking scarlet
macaw named Polly who in each episode would poses a different taxing riddle for
Mr Piper to solve. She would always begin by uttering the line: "Piper – fiddle
diddle, here's a riddle", to which Mr Piper variously replied: "All
right, Polly" or "What is it, Polly?" She would address him in a
somewhat imperious, peremptory manner as "Piper", and squawk with triumphant
laughter when he invariably failed to work out the answer to her riddle. Here’s
one of them: "When is it correct to eat with a knife, fork, AND
spoon?" I'll leave you to puzzle over that while reading the remainder of
this review (but if you can't wait that long, the answer is revealed at the end
of the review).
Mr
Piper and Polly (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent
Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
There are 15 different Tele Tune segments
known to exist (another reason for believing that there were 15 original
full-length episodes of Mr Piper in total),
and these can be variously found online on YouTube, DailyMotion, etc, as well
as on various DVD releases. However, few examples of the other three segments
apparently still survive, sadly.
When Mr
Piper was rescreened in the UK during the 1970s, the original 4-segment, 25-min
episodes were now screened in split format, as 2-segment, 12.5-min episodes.
Each of these half-length versions either contained one Segment 1 and one
Segment 2, or one Segment 3 and one Segment 4. Obviously, me being me, with an
abiding love of magic and cartoons, I preferred those half-length versions that
contained Segments 1 and 2.
Until I purchased the DVDs, I'd never
seen Mr Piper in colour (back in the
1960s and early 1970s when it was being screened, we still had a b/w TV set). So
it was interesting and also pleasing to discover when watching the DVDs that
the principal shades which featured, especially in Segment 1, were pastel
greens, ochre, russets, and browns, nothing garish or gaudy, which would have
been so out of place in this very tasteful, thoroughly genteel, and gentle, little
show.
Mr Piper and Pals is one of the two Mr Piper DVDs that I own – this one contains a
selection of the Tele Tune cartoon segments from various episodes of Mr Piper (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied
Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution/East
West Entertainment LLC – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use
basis for educational/review purposes only)
Prior to the coming of the internet, I'd
been wholly unable to locate any mention of Mr
Piper in any book or magazine that I'd ever read through in search of
information concerning it, and it was only my exceptionally detailed, and
happy, memories of it (plus those of my mother, who'd watched it with me) that convinced me that the show had indeed existed, and
was not a product of my extremely fertile imagination as a child! But scattered
in cyberspace are various details and a few rare screenshots too, plus the Tele
Tune segments, thereby reinforcing the internet's invaluable nature as a source
of information if utilised carefully.
Consequently, my online perusals finally
revealed what had long been for me the hitherto-cryptic identity of the man who
had played Mr Piper. He was Alan Crofoot, who, as already mentioned here, was a
Canadian actor and classically-trained opera tenor. He had performed well-received
roles in several major operas, such as Puccini's Tosca, Smetana's The Bartered
Bride, Richard Strauss's Salome, and
Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld (click
here
to hear him on YouTube in the dual role of John Styx/Charon the Ferryman singing
'King of the Boeotians' from Offenbach's afore-mentioned opera when staged in
London by the famous Sadler's Wells Opera Company in 1960), as well as in stage
productions of the smash-hit musicals Oliver!
in London's West End and Man of La Mancha
on Broadway. Moreover, Crowfoot had also starred in several Western movies and in
a wide range of notable TV shows, the latter including Encounter, Quest, The Forest
Rangers, Police Surgeon, NET Opera Theater, and The Great Detective.
A
photograph of Alan Crofoot when not playing his most famous, beloved TV role as
Mr Piper (public domain – from the Toronto Star Photograph Archive, click here for further details regarding this photo)
Like I say, the internet is certainly a
marvelous tool, enabling me to uncover information that had previously proved
undiscoverable – but sometimes it can also yield information that I'd have
preferred not to have uncovered. So it was with Mr Piper, for during my researches into this much-loved show, I was
both shocked and extremely saddened to discover that Alan 'Mr Piper' Crofoot
had committed suicide, in 1979, aged just 49. It was seemingly a tragic
consequence of his inadvertent mixing of alcohol with blood pressure tablets. These
tablets had previously sent him into fits of depression, and, exacerbated by
alcohol drunk with them by him the night before, they apparently led Crofoot
during the early morning of 5 March 1979 to jump to his death from the window
of his fifth-floor hotel room in Dayton, Ohio – where he had been due to direct
the Dayton Opera Company's production of Salome.
Such a tragic, terrible fate for someone
who had always seemed so jolly and carefree in his Mr Piper persona, and who
had brought so much happiness and joy to so many children, including me, down
through the years, as well as to opera and stage musical aficionados, and to TV
and movie buffs. May you rest in peace, Alan Crofoot, secure in the knowledge
that even if Mr Piper is not widely
known nowadays, with you as its star and genial title character it remains very
fondly remembered and treasured in the memories of those of us who were
fortunate enough to watch you in this warm-hearted, inspiring show back in its
day, and which, by being both entertaining and educational, was far ahead of
its time in the history of children's TV shows, a precursor of Play School and many others that have
deftly combined fun and facts.
How
I shall always remember Alan Crofoot, as Mr Piper (© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied
Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television Corporation/World Wide Distribution –
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)
If this nostalgic blog article of mine (containing
the most detailed Mr Piper coverage anywhere
online) can help in however small or large a way to bring Mr Piper, and Mr Crowfoot, to the attention of modern generations
of small-screen and music fans alike, I shall be very happy, and honoured.
Several of the Tele Tune cartoon segments
from episodes of Mr Piper can be
viewed on YouTube (here, here,
here,
and here,
for example), and are preceded by this show's thoroughly charming theme song.
Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to
see a brand-new jumbo-sized Mr Piper
fridge/freezer/locker magnet for sale on ebay recently, for just £1.99 plus
p&p. Did I buy it? What do you think!! And here it is, a precious physical
memento of my first-ever TV experience – and which remains to this day my
all-time favourite TV experience too:
My
jumbo-sized Mr Piper fridge/freezer/locker
magnet (photograph © Dr Karl Shuker)
And the answer to Polly's earlier riddle?
"When you're hungry!" Speaking of which: Polly's riddles were clearly
an acquired taste!
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my
Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly
accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable
alphabetical listing of them.
Rupert
the Rat, Kookie the Kitten, and Bessie the Bunny, in a scene from an Animal
Farm segment of an episode of Mr Piper
(© Martin Andrews/Allan Wargon/Pied Piper Films Ltd/Independent Television
Corporation/World Wide Distribution – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)
