Davey and Goliath's Holiday Spectacular!

Nostalgia buffs, particularly baby boomers, will recall the stop-motion shorts featuring young Davey and his dog Goliath that were fixtures on Sunday morning television in the 1960s and ‘70s, when the FCC still required stations to provide time for religious programming. Produced by the Lutheran Church and made by Clokey Productions (the same folks responsible for the original Gumby programs of the 1950s), each episode was designed to illustrate how Christian principles could be applied to everyday life in a way that very young children could understand. A total of 65 15-minute shorts were eventually shot, and beginning in 1965 they were supplemented by a series of half-hour specials, mostly holiday-oriented. This three-DVD collection contains 18 of the regular episodes, six per disc, clustered around the topics “Caring for Others,” “Forgiveness,” and “Helping Each Other,” as well as a 30-minute holiday special on each (the Christmas, New Year's and Halloween shows), along with several extras—a trivia game, five downloadable DVD-ROM coloring pages, and five downloadable DVD-ROM maze games. Digitally remastered, the programs look and sound fine, considering they go back 40 years and more, and while the three discs are also available separately, the package offers significant savings. Recommended. [Note: also newly available is Davey and Goliath's Snowboard Christmas, priced at $16.99.] Aud: P. (F. Swietek)