Word: dragonet
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Freberg--who at 73 is living in Los Angeles and still does a syndicated radio show--likes to recall that St. George and the Dragonet, his chart-topping parody of Dragnet, was a big hit in Australia even before the TV show was seen there. Later, when it finally arrived, an Aussie fan came up to Freberg and marveled, "Somebody has gone and built a whole TV show around your record!" For a satirist, that's the Academy Award...
...young Stan served as "coat stuffer" for that old vaudevillian. By 1955 Freberg was well established as a minor comic in TV and a far-out satirist on records. His liveliest: a drama of passion whose only dialogue consisted of the words "John" and "Marsha"; St. George and the Dragonet, a take-off on Jack Webb's Dragnet, which sold 1,000,000 records in three weeks...
...spell which Webb has cast over the U.S. people, both young and old. There is hardly a child above the age of four who does not know and constantly voice the brassy notes (dum du dum dum) of Dragnet's theme music. Phonograph records (St. George & the Dragonet, Little Blue Riding Hood, Christmas Dragnet) which parody Dragnet's terse, low-keyed dialogue have sold 1,326,000 copies, and Sergeant Friday's calm "All we want are the facts, ma'am" has become a conversation staple. But millions who laugh at Dragnet jokes are spirited back...
...Friday, they scream: "He's out on a case!" An orchestration of Dragnet's ponderous musical theme (DUM-da-da-DUM) became No. 7 on the Hit Parade, and the show's deadpan characters have been parodied on such bestselling records as St. George and the Dragonet and Little Blue Riding Hood...
That's Rich (Fri. 9:30 p.m., CBS radio) stars Stan Freberg, known to televiewers as the voice of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent on Time for Beany, and to record fans as the author and star of the bestselling Dragnet parody, St. George and the Dragonet. In his new show, Freberg plays the part of Richard E. Wilt ("When you think of wilted lettuce, think of me"), a gentle bird watcher and shipping clerk, whose lack of aggressiveness makes Wally Cox's Mr. Peepers seem like a pushing extrovert. Scriptwriters Frank and Doris Hursley have supplied Freberg...