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| The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel |
During the late 1980's I was still watching the occasional kids TV programme (even though I was in my 20's), and being an early riser I never missed an episode of the probing and in-depth (5 minute) educational show called 'The Wonderful Stories of Professor Kitzel'. Who? What? When? Why??? I hear you ask! Well to answer some of those questions I should introduce the above mentioned Professor Kitzel.
Kitzel was an eccentric scientist / academic, who hosted these historic snippets.The program combined film clips, animation, and commentary to teach the viewers about so called important events (if you can still class subjects such as the Kon Tiki expedition or Fur trading in Canada as important!)
The series could have been quite an education, but sadly most of the subjects seem to be about forgotten white (and mostly French) explorers, or completely incorrect histories (such as the Easter Island episode). The rather staid stories were broken up by the Professor, who went through the same format in each of the 106 episodes (how many?). First he would walk on and tell a shit joke, pull the switch of his time machine monitor / TV set, and the story would be begin. Halfway through the story, the professor would interrupt the commentary to make some dumb ass remark, before returning to the narrative with an invitation to "Let's see what happened next."after which appearances by his grandfather or his parrot would finish the show with a fucking diabolical joke!
To my way of thinking the Professor is a must see, yeah I know history is a bit boring, but for Christsakes, these episodes lasted less time than it takes to wipe your arse! I loved the little tales punctuated by the very base humour (which did still somehow, raise a smile) and the stories could actually teach you something....which would be a bonus for most brain dead 12 year olds these days.
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Episodes
- Martin Frobisher
- The Crusades
- The Spartans
- Charlemagne and the Elephant
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Samuel F.B. Morse
- Profile of Japan
- Mayan Archaeology
- Charles Darwin (2)
- The Sahara Desert
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Edison
- Buffalo Bill Cody
- Joan of Arc
- India (1)
- Pilgrims
- Montezuma and Cortez
- Perry at the Pole
- Hillary and Mount Everest
- The Mississippi Steamboat
- Reptiles
- The Rosetta Stone
- The South Pole
- August Picard
- Abba of Benin
- India (2)
- The Oracle of Delphi
- Northwest Indians
- Daniel Boone
- Jacques Cartier
- The Great London Fire
- The Masai Warriors
- Marco Polo
- The Wright Brothers
- New Amsterdam
- Athens and Sparta
- Beavers
- Romulus and Remus
- The Buffalo Herds
- Captain Bligh
- Peter the Great
- Fur Trading
- George Washington
- Robert Perry
- Egypt
- The Vikings
- The Phoenicians
- Frederick Douglass
- Al Rashid
- Pioneers in Early America
- The Early Boat Builders
- Anton Von Leewenhoek
- The African Gold Coast
- Gorillas
- The Picard Brothers
- The Whaling Ships
- Montgolfier
- The Treasure Ships
- The Eskimos
- Prehistoric Man
- Mount Olympus
- Vasco de Gama
- James Watt
- The Middle Ages
- California Gold Rush
- Captain Froebischer
- Christopher Columbus
- Louis Bleriot
- Peter the Hermit
- Pueblo Indians
- Kier and Drake
- Abraham Lincoln
- Guglielmo Marconi
- Ben Franklin
- Emperor Nero of Rome
- The Covered Wagons
- Easter Island
- The Cave Paintings of Alta Meara
- Louis Pasteur
- The Search for Ancient Troy
- Jacques Cousteau
- The Statue of Liberty
- John Cabot
- John Smith and Pocahontas
- The Middle Ages
- Thor Heyerdahl
- The Declaration of Independence
- Gutenberg
- The History of Rockets
- Galileo
- Early Man
- Ponce de Leon
- The Erie Canal
- Charles Darwin (1)
- The Duryea Brothers
- Samuel De Champlain
- The Customs of China
- Michelangelo
- Thomas Paine
- Charles Lindbergh
- Early Crete
- The Australian Aborigines
- Eskimo Life
- Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius
- Lewis Carroll
- The Mystery of Stonehenge
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