Davey and Goliath
Davey and Goliath is a 1961-1973 American clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and later by the Lutheran Church in America. The show was aimed at a youth audience, and generally dealt with issues such as respect for authority, sharing and prejudice. Eventually these themes included serious issues such as racism, death, religious intolerance and vandalism. Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his "talking" dog Goliath as they learn the love of God through everyday occurrences. Many of the episodes also feature Davey's parents John and Elaine, his sister Sally, as well as Davey's friends: Jimmy, Teddy, and Nathaniel in earlier episodes, and Jonathan, Jimmy, Nicky, and Cisco in later ones.
In general, the characters find themselves in situations that have to be overcome by placing their faith in God. While the show is explicitly faith-based, there is no content specifically about the Lutheran Church, which made broadcasters more comfortable with the idea of an overtly religious mainstream children's show. The only reference to Lutherans in the show was the theme song, an instrumental version of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", and the Luther rose displayed in the opening theme and end credits.
Following Clokey's success with the Gumby series, Davey and Goliath premiered in syndication on February 25, 1961 as a Saturday feature, and lasted until 1965. By May 1961, it was reported that "Millions of children in cities and towns across the United States and Canada are talking about two new television stars, 'Davey and Goliath'."
Davey's friends Nathaniel and Jonathan were black, and were some of the first black characters to appear as friends of a television show's lead character.
After its initial run, several 30-minute holiday special episodes were created in the late 1960s. The series then resumed with some new characters in 1971 and continued until 1973. In 1975, a final 30-minute summer episode was created. In 2004, Joe Clokey produced a new special, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas".
History
Ordering the series
In 1958, Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church in America, put aside $1 million to fund production of a future television program for children. Soon after, the ULCA contracted with Clokey Productions, Inc., headed by Gumby creators Art and Ruth Clokey, to create a new children’s show: Davey and Goliath. Scripts were written by children’s book author Nancy Moore in consultation with the church; Moore would go on to pen several episodes of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the 1970s and early 1980s.The ULCA and Art Clokey teamed up to make the first Davey and Goliath episode in 1960, called "Lost in a Cave", which would be the first shown in syndication in 1961. In this premiere episode, the figures were entirely clay and the scenery was also mostly clay. The early voices included Hal Smith, Dick Beals and Ginny Tyler. These three did many other voices as well.
After making "Lost in a Cave" in 1960, Clokey made "The Wild Goat", "Stranded on an Island" and "The Winner" in early 1961. In these episodes, the clay figures were now clothed with actual cloth, and more model buildings and trees were added, making the episodes look somewhat more realistic. In 1961, the series of these four episodes began airing free on local television stations nationwide, ranging from ABC, NBC and CBS Network affiliates to independent stations. Occasionally, two or more stations in the same market aired the show, at different times. Many stations ran these episodes leading into network Saturday-morning lineups. Other stations ran them in religious Sunday-morning lineups between various evangelists' programs. By 1964, the show was airing in over 90% of U.S. television markets.
Producing the episodes
By 1962, the clay figures had established looks and consistent sizes, and the scenery had become slightly more realistic. At the close of episodes, "The End" was now displayed in regular print, rather than the Davey & Goliath logo-type print. The background music used on this show originated from sources such as The Capitol Hi-Q Production Music Library, which could be heard on shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis The Menace and other 1950s sitcoms. A few of these background tracks could also be heard on the late 1950s and early 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons.By 1963, Nancy Wible was now providing voices for female characters such as Davey's mother. Norma MacMillan could also be heard as the voice of numerous child and female characters. Davey's personality had become slightly tougher and, within a couple of episodes, rebellious. Overall, Davey's character remained good-natured. Davey himself was older, but the scope of the show itself involved no big changes. By 1963, production on Davey and Goliath wound down. In some episodes, in addition to a placard showing "The End", a screen showed that the show was produced in association with the United Lutheran Church in America.
30 minute episodes
In 1965, a 30-minute Christmas special called "Christmas Lost and Found" was aired. The episode was more overtly religious in nature and distanced itself from traditional Christmas figures such as Santa Claus and Rudolph, with religious Christmas songs included. This would also be the last episode featuring Dick Beals as the voice of Davey.In 1967, three 30-minute holiday specials were aired: "The New Year's Promise" in January, "Happy Easter" in March, and "Halloween Who-Dun-It" in October. By now the background music changed to an unknown music library. Davey was closer to junior high-school age and was voiced by Norma MacMillan. "Happy Easter" confronted the death of a loved one, as Davey's beloved grandmother dies suddenly within hours of a fun-filled visit.
1970s episodes
After these four specials, the LCA and Clokey Productions began funding another series of episodes in 1969, to begin airing in 1971. At this point, only Norma MacMillan and Hal Smith did voices. In these episodes, Davey was junior high-school aged, and occasionally became rebellious, a very different characterization than the original. Norma MacMillan continued to do the voice of Davey.During this period, racism, gangs, conservation, crime and other serious, timely issues became topics for the series. Episodes included "Blind Man's Bluff", "Finders Keepers", "Who's George?", "Who Me?", "Help!" and "The Stopped Clock". The openings were also changed, featuring updated music. Background music was changed back to The Capitol Hi-Q music of the 1960s series. Midway through this series, Davey's African-American friend Jonathan Reed was introduced. Jonathan came from a nearby city, and both characters went to school together.
In 1971, another 30-minute special, "School... Who Needs It?", was aired. Also that year, the final regular series of episodes was produced. Jonathan appeared in most of the episodes. 1972's episodes included "Whatshisname?", "The Zillion Dollar Combo", and "Chicken". In 1973, production on the series wound down once again, but in 1975 a 30-minute summer camp special called "To The Rescue" was aired. This special marked the official end of the production of the series.
Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas
After an almost 30-year hiatus, Davey and Goliath were next seen as part of a Mountain Dew soda commercial in 2001, with the royalties from the commercial used to fund the production of the 2004 Christmas special entitled Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas. The holiday special addressed both religious and ethnic diversity as Davey demonstrates his snowboarding expertise to two friends: Sam, a Jewish boy, and Yasmeen, a Muslim girl. During the course of the show, they get caught in an avalanche and end up in a cave. Goliath goes for help while Davey and his new friends find out that they really aren't all that different. The three children wind up learning of each other's holiday celebrations: Jewish Hanukkah, Christian Christmas and Muslim Eid.Because most of the original voice cast were no longer alive, new voice actors played the roles. This episode took advantage of advances in animation technology using updated graphics and scenery. It was 45 minutes long and aired during a one-hour time slot with commercials. Until that point, commercials had never aired during any episode.
Television airings
The program had become a fixture on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings on TV stations all around the country during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, commercial stations began gradually dropping the series. Religious stations picked it up in many markets and ran it in their blocks of Christian children's programs. By 1990, only a handful of commercial stations still aired the series.The show continued to air on CatholicTV Network until late in 2009, on Tri-State Christian Television also until 2010 and still airs on a few local Christian television stations.
In 2004 and 2005, when Hallmark Channel aired a Christmas special and the 1967 "Happy Easter" episode, they aired the program with several commercial breaks. Hallmark had previously aired the entire series commercial-free until 2001. Since then, Hallmark only aired a few of the holiday specials, as well as the Snowboard Christmas special made in 2004. In 2008, iTunes began offering episodes as free downloads. By December of that year, more than 20 episodes had been made available. Today, they cost 99 cents each.
Until the beginning of October 2018, the series was shown on Trinity Broadcasting Network Saturday afternoons, and during the week it was seen on the TBN-owned Smile of a Child network, which is carried on digital subchannels of TBN affiliates.
Home media
In 1986, the Program Source began distributing the first 13 episodes of the series minus "The Polka Dot Tie". Also, all five holiday specials and other episodes were made available by Gospel Films Video. These were distributed for sale on VHS tapes. Mail-order services also made a few episodes available.In 2005, other episodes were distributed on VHS tapes. In 2012, various episodes were released on DVDs showcasing a particular theme. In 2004 and 2005, most episodes were released on various DVD compilations. At the end of July 2006, it was announced that a new compilation would be released titled Davey & Goliath: The Lost Episodes, which was intended to include the episodes "Cousin Barney", "Polka Dot Tie", "Pilgrim Boy", "10 Little Indians", "Down On The Farm", "The Gang", "Louder Please", "Help", "The Watchdogs" and "Whatshisname?" The producers changed the names of two of these episodes in the release, making them more politically correct. This compilation was originally scheduled for release on September 19, 2006 by Starlite Video and then postponed several times. In April 2009, Celebrity Video Distribution released the collection. "Polka Dot Tie", "The Gang", "Help", "Louder Please" and "Watchdogs" were unedited. "Down On The Farm" was edited by about five seconds to excise a scene showing an unclothed Davey jumping into a lake. "Pilgrim Boy" and "Cousin Barney" had scenes making negative references to American Indians edited out, adding up to over a minute each. "10 Little Indians" had its title changed to "Ten Pin Alley", with all references to the word "Indian", as well as brief scenes with an Indian boy picking up bowling pins, were deleted, leaving the episode without a minute of footage. "Whatshisname?" was edited by one minute to remove a scene in which Davey threatens to pour molasses on another boy and then cover him with feathers.
Bridgestone Multimedia Group released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 in 12-volume collections between 2011 and 2012. Released in honor of the series' 50th anniversary, the disc sets were distributed with "50th Anniversary Edition" labeling. The series is in a somewhat chronological order. For unknown reasons, the episode "The Family of God" was not included in any set.
;Bridgestone Entertainment DVD Series
| Volume | Episodes | Series |
| 1 | Lost in a Cave, The Wild Goat, Stranded on an Island, The Winner, Cousin Barney, The New Skates | 1 |
| 2 | The Kite, The Mechanical Man, All Alone, The Time Machine, On the Line, The Polka Dot Tie | 1 |
| 3 | The Pilgrim Boy, The Silver Mine, Sudden Storm, Ten Pin Alley, The Bell-Ringer, Boy Lost | 1 & 2 |
| 4 | Officer Bob, The Runaway, Not for Sale, The Shoemaker, The Parade, Dog Show | 2 |
| 5 | The Waterfall, Down on the Farm, Man of the House, Happy Landing, Bully Up a Tree, Editor in Chief | 2 & 3 |
| 6 | The Big Apple, The Bridge, The Jickets, Hocus Pocus, Lemonade Stand, "Good" Neighbor | 3 |
| 7 | A Diller, A Dollar, Rags and Buttons, Jeep in the Deep, The Stopped Clock, Who Me?, To The Rescue | 3 & 4 |
| 8 | If at First You Don't Succeed, Kookaburra, Finders Keepers, The Caretakers, The Hard Way, Halloween Who-Dun-It Special | 4 |
| 9 | Blind Man's Bluff, The Greatest, Rickety-Rackety, Boy in Trouble, Help!, Christmas Lost and Found | 4 |
| 10 | Louder Please, The Zillion Dollar Combo, Six-Seven-Six-Three, Upside Down and Backwards, Who's George?, New Year Promise | 4 & 5 |
| 11 | Whatshisname?, Kum Ba Yah, Chicken, Ready or Not, Pieces of Eight, Happy Easter | 5 |
| 12 | The Watchdogs, Come, Come To The Fair, Doghouse Dreamhouse, Good Bad Luck, School...Who Needs It? | 5 |
Parodies
- Adult Swim's Moral Orel is a darker, adult-oriented parody of Davey and Goliath. Though it is stylistically and thematically similar, the show's creator, Dino Stamatopoulos, claims Moral Orel had its genesis as a parody of Leave It to Beaver.
- MADtv spoofed Davey and Goliath in their fourteenth episode with Davey and Son of Goliath, alluding to the Son of Sam serial killer who claimed a talking dog had instructed him to kill.
List of episodes