George

Premise

Each episode of Rainbow revolved around a particular activity or situation that arose in the Rainbow House, where the main characters lived. Some episodes, particularly in the early years, were purely educational in format and consisted of a series of scenes involving the characters learning about that particular episode's subject. The puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle would take the role of inquisitive children asking about the episode's subject, with the presenter (initially David Cook, and from 1974 onwards Geoffrey Hayes) serving the role of teacher figure, educating them about the subject. From the 1980s onwards, most episodes were more story-driven and frequently involved a squabble or dispute of some kind between the puppet characters of Zippy, George and Bungle, and Geoffrey's efforts to calm them down and keep the peace.

The main story was interspersed with songs (most notably from Rod, Jane and Freddy, although the musicians on the show changed several times during its run), animations by Cosgrove Hall Productions and stories read from the Rainbow storybook, usually by Geoffrey (David before 1974). Some episodes focused on a particular topic, such as sounds or opposites, and consisted mainly of short sketches or exchanges between the main characters, rather than a consistent storyline.

History

In 1972, Pamela Lonsdale was asked to create a preschool series for Thames Television. She cast John Kane as presenter and Tim Wylton as a bear named Rainbow. Violet Philpott was cast as the puppeteer of Zippy, with Peter Hawkins providing his voice, as well as those of Sunshine, Bramble and Pillar, but the policy changes after the pilot meant those latter characters were recast. No script was made for the pilot, which led to Hawkins attempting to rewrite gags, difficult for the preschool audience, and would lead to him departing the show after its first year, recommending Roy Skelton to take over. For the first two filmed series, the show was presented by David Cook, with John Leeson as Rainbow, renamed Bungle, and featured songs by the group Telltale.

Philpott left the series after its first year due to suffering a back injury from Zippy's appearances all being through a window. She was replaced by John Thirtle for the second series, and Ronnie Le Drew from 1974 onto the present day. Cook left afterwards due to focusing on his writing career, and was replaced by Geoffrey Hayes. John Leeson also left at this point, replaced as Bungle by Stanley Bates, and Telltale were replaced by the trio of Charlie Dore, Julian Littman and Karl Johnson, who the following year were replaced by the trio that would eventually become Rod, Jane and Freddy. The second series also introduced George, operated by Valerie Herberden and voiced by Roy Skelton. Bungle's appearance was also changed with a completely different head design, more like a teddy bear than the previous grizzly bear look.

Herberden was replaced by Malcolm Lord as George's puppeteer, who Ronnie Le Drew recommended. The format of the show was built upon during this era, with the scripts beginning to move beyond the educational format of the show and focussing more on actual storylines, driven by character comedy rather than educational themes. More of the episodes were written by the cast members themselves, with Roy Skelton, Stanley Bates, Geoffrey Hayes and Freddy Marks all contributing episodes to the show.

In 1989, Rod, Jane & Freddy left the show to concentrate on their own TV series and their touring. Rather than replace them, most episodes became increasingly storyline-driven. Stanley Bates also stepped down from his role as Bungle to contribute as a scriptwriter, with George's puppeteer Malcolm Lord taking over as Bungle. George was now operated by Tony Holtham.

Theme song

The theme song for the show was a small part of a full version, also called "Rainbow", written by Hugh Portnow, Lady Hornsbrie, Hugh Fraser and Tim Thomas of the band Telltale, who regularly appeared in the first two series of the show. It was released as a single on an offshoot of the Music for Pleasure label called Surprise, Surprise in 1973 with the B-side "Windy Day". Although Telltale left the show in 1974, their recording of the theme tune continued to be used until the end of the original show's run in 1992.

Characters

Rainbow featured the following characters, each with their own character style:

Originally, the presenter was David Cook, but was replaced in 1974 by the better-known Geoffrey Hayes.

Zippy is an orange humanoid with blue eyes and a zipper on his mouth (hence his name) who's loud and domineering and often obnoxious, but very funny. In most episodes Zippy would act selfishly or behave badly (often having his mouth "zipped" as punishment) but would eventually be taught right from wrong and would end the episode humbled by the wisdom of Geoffrey, Bungle and George. The puppet was originally voiced by Peter Hawkins and operated by Violet Philpott, and later voiced by Roy Skelton, operated by Ronnie Le Drew.

George is a pink hippopotamus who's shy and slightly camp. He broadly represented sensitivity and introversion, and was generally the foil to Zippy's brashness (puppet; voiced by Roy Skelton and operated by Malcolm Lord, Tony Holtham and later Craig Crane (who voiced the character in the Tetra shows).

Bungle is a brown furry bear with a squashed face who's inquisitive but also clumsy and usually complains a lot about the other characters. Bungle is a costume rather than a puppet; the character was played by John Leeson, Stanley Bates and Malcolm Lord in the Thames TV series and by Richard Robinson and Paul Cullinan in the reboot. The stunt double in the late 1990s was Stuart Nichol.

Rod, Jane and Freddy are a group of musicians who are regularly featured on the show. When they debuted in 1974 they were 'Rod, Jane and Matt', Matt being Matthew Corbett (of The Sooty Show fame). Matt was replaced from 1977 by Roger Walker, before Freddy Marks, in turn, took over in 1981.

Sunshine and Moony are optimistic sunshine (yellow with a red hat) and his more gloomy friend (brown with a tuft of yellow hair). They were voiced by Violet Philpott.

Telltale is a six-piece group who provided the music in the early days of the show. They were a folk-rock band and their repertoire would consist of both original compositions and cover versions.

The Christmas tape

In 1979, the cast and crew of Rainbow made a special exclusive sketch for the Thames TV staff Christmas tape, sometimes referred to as the "Twangers" episode. This sketch featured some deliberate sexual innuendo and was never shown at the time, as it was never intended to be screened to the general public. The cast later sang "The Plucking Song".

Home video releases

Thorn EMI Video/Thames Video (1983-1984)

Video Collection International (1986–1996)

FremantleMedia (2002–2018)

Reruns

Episodes of the original Rainbow, dating from the early 1980s, were shown sporadically on the UK satellite television channel Nick Jr. (and/or its sister channel, Nick Jr. 2) between March 2006 and January 2009 as part of its Nick Jr. Classics reruns. A previous repeat run took place on UK Gold (now Gold) from its launch in November 1992 to 1994; these were mostly from the final three series of the programme (without Rod, Jane and Freddy).