An interesting note: The United Lutheran Church provided the show free of charge to any station willing to air it. The shows in the series were aired without commercial interruption.
Posted on 05/21/2008 2:44:49 PM PDT by Between the Lines
DALLAS — The creator of the popular religious children's television show "Davey and Goliath" has died.
A memorial service will be held May 31 at St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas for Richard Towne "Dick" Sutcliffe. He died May 11 in Dallas from complications of a stroke. He was 90.
Sutcliffe created "Davey and Goliath," a Christian-themed children's show about a boy and his talking dog that used stop-action animation.
Along with Gumby creators Art Clokey and Ruth Clokey Goodell, Sutcliffe created the Sunday-morning series to spread a religious message without losing younger viewers with overly complicated concepts, his daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe, told The Dallas Morning News.
Church leaders approached Sutcliffe about using television to reach young people when he was director of Lutheran radio and television ministry in New York. He chose a format that would offer sound theology while being entertaining, his daughter told the newspaper.
Sutcliffe is survived by his wife, Judy Sutcliffe; daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe; son, Michael Sutcliffe; brother, Paul Sutcliffe and three grandchildren.
An interesting note: The United Lutheran Church provided the show free of charge to any station willing to air it. The shows in the series were aired without commercial interruption.
I watched every episode as a kid.
Ping for later
One of my fondest childhood memories was watching this show just before going to church every Sunday. I knew that the theme song was a hymn, but I never found out which one. (the little trumpeter guys at the start of the program.)
God bless him and his family.
“What are we gonna do now, Davey?”- that’s the one line I recall that the dog, Goliath, said a lot. : )
Daaa-veeey.
I loved that show as a kid, had no idea he lived next door!
bump
Youtube has what they call Davey & Goliath's theme song and it is "A Mighty Fortress".
I loved that show as a kid. My sister does a perfect “Goliath” voice. We’d race home from Sunday School to watch it. :)
Haven’t seen that in years! I only remember the one about when he forgot the cotter-pin securing a front wheel on his soapbox derby racecar. Oops.
Me too.
ping
The best show on Sunday morning T.V. when it was on. Some would say the ONLY show on Sunday morning for kids to watch, and that didn’t hurt its entire run either.
What a shame. I watched that show. It was a positive children’s show.
Hope he trusted in the free grace of God in Christ alone, as Luther did, rather than niceness or human merit of any sort.
I loved that show. Used to watch it every morning when my son was little.
Day-Vee....
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, Martin Luther
"...And flights of angels guide thee to thy rest."
ping
Thanks, guys!
It wasn’t a staple hymn in our church, so I always wondered what it was. Another childhood mystery solved! : )
It looks like the series is available on DVD. http://www.daveyandgoliath.org/
Sorry, I don't know how to make it a hot link.
I Loved this show. I can still hum the theme song myself. I was actually talking to my kids about this a couple of weeks ago. I am going to have to check out the DVDs.
bookmark
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