"HELLO MY CAPTAIN, HELLO"

This will be but the first of many posts about beloved children's television icon Captain Kevin, and his late, lamented network, The Mutual Media Broadcasting System "Your Kid's Other Home."

Frame grab from opening titlesThe 6-4-3 style of "Coach Kenny & Splinter."

More to come (I promise!)

GOIN' UP - - Part 2

Found some more rare "MAKING OF" images from our 1993 PBS special Goin' Up.
Jon Freeman as the magical elevator operator Mr. Lift

Mr. Lift & Skylar in the Enchanted Elevator

(with Olga lending Skylar a hand or two)

"THE PLAYGROUND" recording the score. . .

Me and Dann Linck scoring @ Flexitoon Central

The Animateerstm

Alan the Semok, Olga, Craig & Ken Miele (See MARKO PUPPET THEATRE post for Kenny in his earlier "yoot.")

RIDIN' THE RAILS TO RENO.

The music video we created for Northern California's Country Swing Band COUSIN CRICKET is an OFFICIAL SELECTION @ the World Festival of Puppet Arts in Prague.

The "Ridin' The Rails To Reno" video debuted live on a double bill

featuring Cousin Cricket opening for Asleep At The Wheel.

You can see the video HERE:

http://www.flexitoon.com/music/index.php3

(watch in high-rez)

RIDIN' THE RAILS TO RENO CREDITS: written by Ken Miele and Paul Kraushaar * Puppets and animation by Flexitoon Studios NYC * Designed and directed by Craig Marin * Puppetry by Olga Felgemacher * Hand Crafted Digital Imagery by Mike Campbell.

"Goin' Up"

In 1993 Flexitoon received the first ever National Endowment for Children's Educational Television grant. We partnered with Thirteen/WNET (NY) and produced the special Goin Up.

Mr. Lift & Skylar

Mr. Lift (and Dad) was played by Jonathan Freeman. Jon is a Tony-nominated actor currently featured on Broadway in The Little Mermaid. He was also the voice of Jafar in Disney's Aladdin, and he puppeteers Tito Swing on Shining Time Station.

Jonathan first met Olga Felgemacher in 1975 where she was leading lady at the Bil Baird Marionette Theatre. Jonathan was hired for PINOCCHIO (Olga played the title role) and they have been soul mates ever since. I feel the same. Jon joined Flexitoon in 1986.

Skylar & Katitude (Olga & Craig)

Goin Up was a very exciting project to work on. Not only did we create it, but Flexitoon produced it as well. Our executive producer from Thirteen/WNET was Kathleen Rae, and she could not have been smarter or more supportive. As producer we brought in Dann Linck. Like everybody in the FlexiTeam, it's vital to be well-versed in multiple areas, and Dann, along with terrific producer's cred and rolodex, also played an amazingly inventive bass!

The Bass Licks of Mr. Linck

I wrote the music and played electric twelve string guitar for Goin' Up, and puppeteer Alan Semok (r) brought the keyboards to life as if they were another puppet character at his fingertips (Alan is also TEX on Shining Time Station.)

(Semok & Marin)

We called our band THE PLAYGROUND.
Mr. Lift, Mr. Producer, Ms. Puppenspieler, Mr. Marin-ette

If you would like to hear some of the music and see a couple of scenes from Goin' Up, go here: http://www.flexitoon.com/video.php3

The MARKO PUPPET THEATRE

I've been puppeteering all my life (so far), and when I was a kid I used to make believe I was doing my own TV show version of The Chuck McCann Show (hey! we have the same initials!)

Me and my puppets "having fun" as Chuck McCann.

Then in HIGH school I discovered that puppets can say - - and do - - anything. At about the same time I found R. Crumb and ZAP comix. This was my version of the 2001 ape-with-bone discovery, and lo! (or rather HIGH), the Marko Puppet Theatre was born!

FIRST MARKO POSTER

I met DUG COHEN in my theatre workshop class - - I bopped backstage and there was this tall lanky long-haired weirdo with prisms in both eyes, madly pulling levers on the lighting board as myriad strobes flashed in crazy patterns on the stage behind him. He turned to me and gushed "you GOTTA see this, man!!!" while screwing the prisms into my eyes. We immediately became best friends.

DUG

So together Marin & Cohen became MARKO: I made all the puppets and sets, Dug designed and executed crazy lighting stuff, and together we "wrote" the trips - - er - - scripts. The next semester Dug went to Harpur College in Binghamton, NY, and it was there in a little hall called the Broome Closet that we debuted our first two act excursion into dimensional psychedelic visionry, on Halloween no less: "1795" and "THE FAMILY". Minds. Were. Blown.

pictured: St. Stephen. His eyes were lightbulbs and we floated him

out over the audience's very altered heads. Then? We crucified him.

(above) The Grass Growin' stars of THE FAMILY - - The Family.

By now KENNY MIELE (below) had joined the company as lighting guy, musician and all around mensch-who-makes-stuff.

Kenny (l) and me. We began to write orginal music for the Marko shows.

FLASHBACKS TO FOLLOW. . .

The HAMPTOONS

QUACKERBOX * LUCKY JACK RABBIT * SAM SIMIAN

BEHIND THE SCENES @ FLEXITOON PRODUCTIONS

Here's some of what goes on over, behind and below at a FLEXITOON Show. . .

Backstage at a LIVE PERFORMANCE in ROMANIA

(you can see this scene in action @ www.flexitoon.com)

OLGA FELGEMACHER puppeteers legs for an HBO series

Me directing the Juke Box Band from Shining Time Station

Hand puppets and marionettes converge in "Michael Row The Boat Ashore"

Craig Marin(L) & JONATHAN FREEMAN (Tito Swing on Shining Time, and the voice of JAFAR in Disney's Aladdin) prepare a Green Screen Scene as the BOY BROTHERS look on.

DIDI the DRUMMER (c) considers a marionette-a-tois with Animateertm ALAN SEMOK & OLGA FELGEMACHER