About Starstuff
Starstuff was a locally produced 60 minute
kid's show taped at WCAU-10 on
The premise of the show follows:
Chris, a young boy of about 12, had a massive computer in his bedroom with a laughable amount of dials and levers that somehow was able to hook up a video feed to the future, where Ingrid lived on a spaceship in a space colony. Ingrid was a girl of about 13, I would guess. Chris would talk to her about what life was like on Earth, and Ingrid would talk to Chris about what life was like in the space colony.
There were only a few camera shots on the set. One was Chris's bedroom. One was Ingrid's bedroom on the spaceship. The other was a shot of another area of Ingrid's spaceship, when she would be talking to her Aunt Val and her (unnamed) father.
A reoccuring theme would be Chris hiding the fact that he was able to speak to Ingrid in the future. Knocks on the door and visitors in his room always ended up with him quickly turning off his monitor or simply jumping up and standing in front of it. I don't recall why he was hiding her presence, only that it was an integral theme to the show.
Besides Chris, Aunt Val, and her father, the only other communication Ingrid had was with her Dear Diary, a robot-like globe with dials that would speak back to her in a monotone voice. Audio samples of Dear Diary are included on this page. Ingrid also had a goat named Capricorn.
Chris would frequently be visited by his Uncle Pete, a middle-aged black man who would offer words of wisdom when Chris needed it. I seem to recall him wanting to tell Uncle Pete about Ingrid in one of the episodes, but I can't be positive of it. Chris's mom was never visible, you'd just hear her talking through his bedroom door from time to time as he'd scramble to turn the screen off where Ingrid was shown.
Chris and Ingrid would often play each other
short movies. Chris had a
The last episode's cliffhanger entailed Chris and his mom moving, and how he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hook up to Ingrid at the new location.
The last skit, always shown during the last 10 minutes of the show, was the extremely memorable The Edge Of Space, which was a space-based puppet segment starring Krikles, Zornad, and their robot assistant Giz exploring the universe in their spaceship. It had its own theme song and music, also included on this page. The Edge Of Space was a continuing story every week. From Mark Ritts, lead puppeteer for the show;
"I taped the puppet bits separately, perhaps a half dozen at a time, on a day when the main cast was off learning their lines. So I don't remember even meeting them ... Krikles's voice was a simple, light character voice that I have used years, variously adapted, for a string of characters, including Storytime's "Kino" (PBS). Zornad's voice was a bit of a steal from a favorite comic of mine who used to be a regular on the old Steve Allen Show -- Dayton Allen, whose signature line was "Whyyyyy not??!""
The following are the show's credits, for completion's sake:
Starstuff Cast:
|
Chris |
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Ingrid |
Johanna Hickey |
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Aunt Val |
Margaret Hunt |
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Uncle Pete |
Johnnie Hobbs |
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Chris's Mom |
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|
Ingrid's Dad |
Gary Silow |
Starstuff Staff:
|
Writer |
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Director |
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Executive Producer |
Inez Gottlieb |
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Associate Producer |
Suzanne Hansberry |
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Production Assistant |
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Set Design |
John Ferlaine |
|
Set Construction |
Chuck Wells |
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Lighting Director |
Al Vanaman |
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Videotape |
Pat Lynch |
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Field Camera |
Phil Carroll |
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Technical Director |
Charles Cleveland |
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Camera |
Art Pitcairn |
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|
Pete Cain |
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|
Jim Manning |
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|
Irv Gubin |
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|
Joe Sidlo |
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Audio |
David Bowa |
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Video |
Bill Wagner |
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|
Ted Vawter |
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|
Al Strelau |
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|
Dan Falzani |
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Floor Managers |
Jess L. Schooley |
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|
Raymond Fiedler |
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|
William Cawley |
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Field Audio |
George Schumaker |
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Editing |
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The Edge Of Space Staff:
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Writer |
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Puppeteer |
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Puppet Design |
Eli Bauer |
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Puppets Built By |
Kathy Rogers |