''Tales of the Red Caboose'' was a short-lived
primetime television
Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to b ...
series that aired on the
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...
television network, premiering October 29, 1948 and running until January 14, 1949.
The filmed series originated from
WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios and offices on Woodberry, B ...
which, at the time, was affiliated with both ABC Television and the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...
. Writers were Howard Davis and Steve Baum, and Nat Fowler was the director.
[Tales of the Red Caboose, ''Variety'', October 27, 1948, page 26](_blank)
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Synopsis
The 15-minute series, sponsored by Lionel Trains
Lionel, LLC is an American designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads that is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel product line from the Lionel Corporation by cereal conglomerate ...
, was broadcast on ABC television on Fridays at 7:30 to 7:45pm ET from October 29, 1948 to January 14, 1949. Each episode showed a boy, his father, and their neighbor Don Magee, who was a retired railroad engineer. As they all watched the boy's model train go around the tracks Magee told stories he remembered from his railroading days.
The series was popular enough for a December 1948 Emerson TV advertisement to state that children entertained by television were "thrilled to the Tales of the Red Caboose."Advertisement, ''The Sunday Star'' (Washington, DC), December 5, 1948, page D-14
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Critical response
A Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
review from October 27, 1948 considered the series' train sequences to be dull and repetitious, and the commentary by "a mythical vet railroad character" to be "brutal." The background narrative was to be interesting train stories. "Instead there was a deadening monotony of ill-phrased and ill-spoken gab without any dramatic or logical continuity." The review did say the show could be rehabilitated into a "sure fire item" for juvenile railroad enthusiasts if the series used some imagination.
Preservation status
No recordings of the program are known to survive.
See also
*''The Roar of the Rails
''The Roar of the Rails'' is an American children's television series that aired on CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broad ...
''
* 1948-49 United States network television schedule
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, tt0124264
Black-and-white American television shows
American children's adventure television series
1948 American television series debuts
1949 American television series endings
American Broadcasting Company original programming
Television series about rail transport
Toy trains