The Friendly Giant (1958-1985)

From an unaired Canadian comedy pilot, ALMOST ENTERTAINMENT (1995)
Jack Mosshammer as The Friendly Giant, Randy Pearlstein as Christopher Walken, Claire Rankin as Audrey, Doug Murray as Jerome, Andrew Akman as Rusty

The Unfriendly Giant from Codco with Tommy Sexton
Hilarious skit. Hopefully Salter Street Films will release a Codco boxset or something. Incredibly talented show and cast from the early 90's in Canada.

Sommaire:

Pendant plusieurs années, l'un des personnages les plus familiers sur le petit écran fut sans contredit le Friendly Giant incarné par Bob Homme. La série était géniale et très relaxante pour les petits enfants. En effet, durant chaque épisode, le Géant et ses amis (Rusty le coq et Jerome la girafe) discutent ensemble de différents sujets, lisent une histoire, jouent de la musique et chantent.
Le début et la fin de chaque épisode étaient toujours les mêmes: le Géant procédait à un genre de petite cérémonie avec une maquette d'un petit village et de son château. La cérémonie se déroulait comme suit: le géant commençait à parler pendant que le thème musical jouait et pendant que la caméra survolait la rue principale d'un village jusqu'à une énorme botte et basculait ensuite vers son visage... la caméra nous montrait ensuite la grosse porte de son château miniature qui basculait pour nous inviter à entrer... c'est ensuite devant le foyer que la gigantesque main du Géant plaçait une petite chaise suivie de deux plus grosses chaises et finalement d'une chaise berçante au milieu... il appelait ensuite Rusty le coq, qui vivait dans un sac accroché au mur du château, à se joindre à nous ainsi que la girafe qui passait sa tête à travers une fenêtre du château. À la fin, le Géant disait au revoir à Jerome et Rusty ainsi qu'à son jeune auditoire... la caméra sortait du château et la grande porte se refermait... finalement, dans le ciel au-dessus du château, une vache sautait par-dessus la lune.
Chaque épisode traitait d'un thème spécifique tel qu'aller à la pêche, les raisons pourquoi les gens portent des chapeaux, l'idée d'avoir à choisir dans la vie, etc.. L'histoire racontée ainsi que la chanson jouée pendant l'épisode illustrait généralement le thème de la journée. L'élément le plus important de la série était l'approche consciencieuse et accessible de la musique pour les enfants. Le Géant jouait des instruments à vent (flûte à bec, flageolet, clarinette), Rusty jouait de la harpe et Jerome chantait. Une fois par semaine, une paire de marionnettes-chats venaient donner leur propre concert musical. 

First broadcast in Madison, Wisconsin in 1953, The Friendly Giant was one of the earliest children’s shows, moving quickly from radio to TV. In this episode, Rusty the rooster and Jerome the giraffe join Friendly the Giant (Bob Homme) to read Wait for William (by Marjorie Flack) about a boy waiting for a circus parade.

Explore more gems like this from the Wisconsin Public Television archives online: http://video.wpt.org/program/wpt-arch...

a CBC British Columbia (CBUT) station ID leads into the opening minutes of a 1986 "Friendly Giant" broadcast, featuring the legendary Bob Homme & Rod Coneybeare.

If you grew up in Canada between the 1950s and 1980s, then chances are you watched a little show called The Friendly Giant.
Beginning in Wisconsin in 1953 on the WHA-AM radio station, The Friendly Giant debuted and before long it was on the local television station. It was there for five years until CBC executives saw it and were impressed by it. They asked Bob Homme, the creator of the show, to move the show to Canada. It was there that the show not only took off in popularity, but became an iconic piece of the Canadian landscape.
Running in spans of 15-minutes, every episode began with the panning over of a detailed model of a village as the Friendly Giant talked. Then, he would say the magical words of Look up….waaaaay up….and he would invite everyone to his castle where he played the harp and recorder.
Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe would visit through the window and chat with the Friendly Giant.

Most of the show was completely unscripted, something that was not common for children’s shows. The gentle nature of the Friendly Giant was also a big part of why the show was so popular among Canadian children. The show remained the same for most of its years on television, unlike many other shows that changed things up.
Rod Coneybeare was the puppeteer and voice actor for the show, where he performed as Jerome the Girafffe and Rusty the Rooster.
From the 1970s to 1980s, The Friendly Giant was played between Mr. Dressup and Sesame Street.
It all came to an end in 1984 when the Friendly Giant was cancelled after deep cuts to the CBC. There was strong opposition to the cancellation and Fred Penner’s Place, which replaced The Friendly Giant, was often referred to as The Giant Killer. The last episode of the Friendly Giant aired in March of 1985.
A Globe and Mail piece in Dec of 1984 was highly critical of the cancelling of The Friendly Giant. The opinion piece stated that, 'this was an exceptional component of Canadian television and one that will be sorely missed."
In all, 3,000 episodes of the Friendly Giant were created. Several items from the show are now on display at various museums throughout Canada.

As for Homme, who was born on March 27, 1919, he was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1998 and died at the age of 81 in 2000 of prostate cancer. While called the Friendly Giant, he stood five foot 11 inches.

Friendly Giant: Music About Summer (1982), with Angie & Fiddle, 480x360

Revisiting Mr Dressup & The Friendly Giant
We're shocked to learn that these titans of Canadian children's television were born in America! Both men actually had strangely similar careers.