Pixanne was a children's television program, created and hosted by singer-actress Jane Norman, that ran from 1960 to 1969 on WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was then syndicated nationally, and ran for another seven years.
During the show's run, Norman also wrote and performed in special, holiday-themed shows featuring Pixanne and her Enchanted Forest friends. Pixanne also became the first local children's television show to be filmed at major world events, including at the World's Fair in New York and at Expo '67 in Canada.
Beginning
The show began when Norman, a onetime child prodigy who had been playing and composing music since she was 3 years of age, contacted one of her professors from Temple University, where Norman was majoring in Early Childhood Education and minoring in Radio, TV and Theatre. In addition to being a member of Temple's faculty, her professor was also working at what was then WFIL and later became WPVI-TV. Norman, who had taught kindergarten at the Shoemaker School in Cheltenham Township after graduating from Temple, pitched a possible children's program featuring a Peter Pan-like character to her former professor. Knowing there were no openings available at WFIL, he suggested that she approach the management of the then-CBS-owned-and-operated station WCAU-TV. Norman walked in with no appointment, described the show to the program director, and, within three weeks, was on the air with her new show, which quickly achieved a loyal following of children and their parents.
Features
Norman appeared on the show as a "pixie" with a green outfit, tights and a hat with a feather. She worked out a method of "flying" using a similar apparatus to that which Mary Martin had used as Peter Pan, but with only one wire supporting her instead of the several that had harnessed Martin on stage. Producers of Norman's show, in fact, actually hired theatrical flight specialist Peter Foy, who had designed the "flying" technology for Martin and other Broadway actresses, in order to build Norman's rigging for television. When interviewed about the experience later in life, Norman recalled that perfecting the technique was quite painful, but proved so effective as to be maintained for the entire run of the program.
Taped before a live audience of children on Friday evenings, beginning at 7:30 p.m., the show aired on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. The show became so popular that admission to the set was by ticket only. Each show opened with Norman "flying" onto and off the set, which was designed to appear to young viewers as an enchanted forest with a stepping-stone path meandering through the forest's flowers, Spanish moss-draped trees and toadstools.
The supporting cast of puppets included Oggie Owl, Fliffy Butterfly, Herkimer, Tearesa, Galumpagus, Dandy Lion, and the puppets of Addis Williams. Pixanne had at least two alter-egos as well — one was a witch called Windy, whom Norman also acted out. Guest appearances included singer Tiny Tim.
Songs Norman sang on the show included "Swinging on a Star," "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake," "I've Gotta Crow" from the 1954 musical Peter Pan, "Look at That Face" from the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd, and "Beautiful Things" from the 1967 movie Doctor Dolittle. The show's background music included Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and a selection from Carl Orff's Music for Children, the theme of Pixanne's daily cartoon introduction with her march with a magical flag. On the show, Norman also introduced adventure films and made children's crafts, such as puppets and hats.
Initially broadcast in black and white, the program began airing in color, six days every week, beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, November 21, 1966.
Norman also wrote and performed in special, holiday-themed shows that featured Pixanne and her Enchanted Forest friends, including "Pixanne's Christmas Fantasy," which aired at 5:30 p.m. on WCAU on December 23, 1967. Skits involved Pixanne's time travel back to Philadelphia during colonial times, where she visited a toymaker's shop with antique dolls and toy soldiers, a blacksmith's shop where horses were being shoed, a tailor's shop where period clothing was being sewn, and the shops of a butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Pixanne also became the first local children's television show to be filmed at major world events, including at the World's Fair in New York and at Expo '67 in Canada, and gave children the opportunity to watch segments about the Ice Capades and the Moscow Circus, both of which were filmed on location while the groups were on tour on the East Coast