''Diver Dan'' is a series of 104 seven-minute live-action shorts made for

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television show, television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during ...

from 1960 to 1970. Made by Brian Cartoons, it was syndicated (mainly to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliates)Kennedy's TV SF Guide
, accessed 29 September 2007 and distributed by

ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme Compan ...

. The shows were sometimes re-edited into half-hour (including

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

) blocks by local stations. The series featured the adventures of a diver in an old-fashioned

diving suit A diving suit is a garment or device designed to protect a diver from the underwater environment. A diving suit may also incorporate a breathing gas supply (such as for a standard diving dress or atmospheric diving suit). but in most cases the te ...

who talked to the passing fish. The series was filmed in live action with

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

fish; the underwater effect was achieved by shooting through an aquarium.

Production

''Diver Dan'' debuted in 1960, the brainchild of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, cartoonist J. Anthony (John) Ferlaine, as a spinoff of his

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

, ''Fish Tales''. Ferlaine, who worked as an

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

at Philadelphia's

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

affiliate

WCAU-TV WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

, produced two ''Fish Tales'' live-action

marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or reveale ...

pilots. When CBS did not pick up the show, Ferlaine and promoter Martin Young partnered with Philadelphia producer Louis W. Kellman, who with his staff produced local TV spots and film shorts and filmed

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games. They produced the shorts over nine months and syndicated them. In

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, ''Diver Dan'' shorts ran as part of ''Felix & Diver Dan'', a 30-minute children's show airing from January 4, 1960, to August 31, 1962, which also included ''

Felix the Cat Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon charac ...

''. In Chicago during the 1960s, Diver Dan was regularly shown on the

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

show "

Ray Rayner Ray Rayner (born Raymond M. Rahner; July 23, 1919 – January 21, 2004) was an American television presenter, actor and author, he was the staple of Chicago children's television in the 1960s and 1970s on WGN-TV. Early life Rayner (the name was ...

and His Friends" even though Rayner would frequently read on-air letters from children requesting that he get other cartoons.

Main cast

Allen Swift Ira Stadlen (January 16, 1924 – April 18, 2010), known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American voice actor, best known for voicing cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the ''Underdog'' cartoon show. He took his pr ...

as the voices of many puppets, the unseen Captain Murphy and the narrator * Frank D Freda played Diver Dan. Freda is a playwright who received the Waldo Bellow Award for his play, ''Lunchtime''. He has acted in a number of TV commercials, and was an early

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird and ...

. Frank lived from 1936 to April 12, 2016. He performed in plays in Philadelphia and Broadway before ''Diver Dan''. He made many Pall Mall and Budweiser commercials. In addition to acting Frank was a pioneer in sales of the cellphone, HBO cable TV company. He sold the first car cell phone in NYC for $20,000. * Suzanne Turner as Miss Minerva, a

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

, who referred to Diver Dan only as "the Diver" and shyly kept away from him.

Characters

Humans

* Diver Dan * Miss Minerva * The Captain (''heard but not seen'')

Puppet Fishes

* Baron Barracuda - A predatory, ray-finned fish who wore a monocle in one eye, and spoke in a vaguely European accent * Trigger - A idiotic

trigger fish Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest species richness in the Indo-Pacifi ...

and always had an apparently unlit cigarette jutting from the side of his mouth * Finley Haddock - * Doc Sturgeon - * Georgie Porgy - * Gabby the Clam - * Gill Espy - * Glow Fish- * Goldie - the Goldfish who spoke only in peeps and squeaks * Hermit Crab - * Sam the Sawfish - * Scout Fish - * Sea Biscuit the Seahorse - * Skipper Kipper -

Themes

''Honeymooners''."The Ballad of Diver Dan" The series opening and closing themes were written, performed, and sung by the show's

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

, Jack Sky, in a double tracked recorded voice. *Opening theme Below in the deep there's adventure and danger;
That's where you'll find Diver Dan!
The sights that he sees are surprising and stranger
Than ever you'll see on the land! Following those opening lyrics, the narrator sums up the recent situation in a short group of rhymes, during the second half of the song as an instrumental, before the episode resumes. Before the closing sung lyrics, the narrator brings up the new situation in a short group of rhymes, during the first half of the song, as an instrumental, as the episode concludes. *Closing theme He moves among creatures
Of frightening features:
Flashing teeth, slashing jaws,
Flapping fins, snapping claws!
He protects and he saves
His friends under the waves;
That's where you'll find Diver Dan!

Episodes

Credits

*Produced by Louis W. Kellman *A Brian Cartoons, Inc. production in association with Young Productions, Inc. *Executive producer: Hal Tunis *Associate producer: Harvey Blake *Created by J. Anthony Ferlaine *Writers included: Joseph Bonaduce, Ron Ronszel *Puppeteers: Martin Kreiner, John Caracciolo, Harold Taylor, Alfred Sandstrom *Directors: Leon Rhodes, Mort Heilig *Production manager: Ben Berk *Cameraman: Morris Kellman *Script supervisor: Ruth Clyman *Editors: Arthur Spieller, Margot Mor *Sound: Jack Sky *Art director: Frank Heininger *Lighting: John Wynn

DVD release

Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...

released two collections of ''Diver Dan'' episodes on DVD (Region 0). All episodes in both volumes are black & white. ;Diver Dan (Catalog # ALP 5152D, UPC #0 89218 51529 2, Release Date September 26, 2006) * 01 (Episode #34) THE BUBBLING PIT * 02 (Episode #35) THE VOLCANO * 03 (Episode #36) DEPTH CHARGE * 04 (Episode #25) GOLDIE'S HEROISM * 05 (Episode #26) DYNAMITE * 06 (Episode #27) GHOST IS CLEAR * 07 (Episode #37) SCHOOL DAZE * 08 (Episode #38) STRANGE VINES * 09 (Episode #39) SAVAGE SEAWEED * 10 (Episode #12) BARON'S CAPTURE * 11 (Episode #13) AN UNUSUAL TREASURE * 12 (Episode #14) TRIGGER'S REVENGE * 13 (Episode #20) RIDDLE OF THE HERMIT CRAB * 14 (Episode #21) SARGASSO SEA * 15 (Episode #22) LOST IN THE SARGASSO SEA ;Diver Dan Volume 2 (Catalog # ALP 5710D, UPC #0 89218 57109 0) * 01 (Episode #01) HARD WATER * 02 (Episode #02) GOLDIE THE GOLDFISH * 03 (Episode #03) TALKING FISH * 04 (Episode #04) SKIPPER'S GOLD * 05 (Episode #05) TREASURE SHIP * 06 (Episode #06) SAWFISH RESCUE * 07 (Episode #32) THE STRANGE FISH * 08 (Episode #33) THE BOMB * 09 (Episode #23) CURRENT FLOW * 10 (Episode #24) THE STORM * 11 (Episode #11) TEETERING ROCK * 12 (Episode #40) THE MAGNET * 13 (Episode #31) CRAWLING DANGER * 14 (Episode #16) THE VERDICT * 15 (Episode #17) HORACE'S DILEMMA Three DVD (Region 0) releases have also been produced by East West Entertainment LLC. All episodes in all three volumes are black & white. ;Diver Dan Vol. One (UPC #8 43156 02012 2) * Episode #01 - HARD WATER * Episode #02 - GOLDIE THE GOLDFISH * Episode #03 - TALKING FISH * Episode #04 - SKIPPER'S GOLD * Episode #05 - TREASURE SHIP * Episode #06 - SAWFISH RESCUE * Episode #07 - SHELL-O-PHONE * Episode #08 - THE OCTOPUS * Episode #09 - MURDER INK ''Note'': Each of the first 8 episodes has its own chapter stop except for Episode #09. It continues immediately after Episode 08. Pressing >> skips Episode 09 and cycles back to Episode 01. ;Diver Dan Vol. 2 (UPC #8 43156 02014 6) * Episode #01 - HARD WATER * Episode #02 - GOLDIE THE GOLDFISH * Episode #03 - TALKING FISH * Episode #04 - SKIPPER'S GOLD * Episode #05 - TREASURE SHIP * Episode #06 - SAWFISH RESCUE * Episode #07 - SHELL-O-PHONE * Episode #08 - THE OCTOPUS * Episode #09 - MURDER INK ''Note'': Followed by five Van Beuren Corporation and three Fleischer Studios cartoons on Track 2. ;Diver Dan Vol. 3 (UPC #8 43156 02015 3) * Episode #19 - THE TRAP IS SPRUNG * Episode #20 - RIDDLE OF THE HERMIT CRAB * Episode #21 - SARGASSO SEA * Episode #22 - LOST IN THE SARGASSO SEA * Episode #23 - CURRENT FLOW

In other media

Dell Publishing Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...

issued a ''Diver Dan''

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

, as issue #1254 (February–April 1962) of its series ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

''. A follow-up issue, #2 was also published, dated June–August 1962.Grand Comics Database (GCD) - "Diver Dan"
/ref> In 1964, songwriter and record producer Tony Piano of Columbia Records put out a children's album based on the series titled ''Diver Dan and the Bermuda Onion''. With the exception of the theme song, which he legally borrowed from the series, Piano wrote the story, music, and lyrics for the album. His inspiration for producing it was his two young children at the time, who were 'hooked' on the ''Diver Dan'' TV series. In addition to producing the album, Piano took on three of the roles: Trigger, Sam the Sawfish, and Skipper Kipper. Aiding Piano on the album was the comedian

Del Close Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was ...

, playing the role of Baron Barracuda. "Birthday House" and children's album star

Kay Lande Kathryn Lande Selmer (born November 6, 1930) is an American composer and singer who is best known for her compositions and performances for children, which include three operas, many songs, and appearances on television, including as co-host of th ...

played Minerva the Mermaid.

Legacy

The

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

animated children's show ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...

'' seems to have been somewhat influenced by ''Diver Dan'', either in directly parodying or by paying homage to it. In the ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' episode, "One Krabs Trash",

Mr. Krabs Eugene Harold Krabs, better known as simply Mr. Krabs, is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy tel ...

goes to a graveyard to retrieve a "soda-drink-hat", and there is a gravestone that reads "Diver Dan".

References

External links

* * {{Internet Archive film, id=DiverDan_Ep01_Hard_Water, title=Diver Dan - Ep 01 "Hard Water"
TV Party: Lost Kids Shows
Television series by ITC Entertainment 1960s American children's television series 1960 American television series debuts 1962 American television series endings First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Fictional scuba divers American television shows featuring puppetry Nautical television series