This is a Headgun Podcast.

In 1958, a man named Franklin Clark Fry, the then-president of the United Lutheran

Church in America, set aside $1 million to fund production of a TV series.

Fry recognized the power of the medium and had a vision of gifting a program free of distribution

charges to television stations across the nation.

He was a Trojan horse for the teachings and the brand of the Lutheran Church.

Having taken notice of the popular Claymation series Gumby, the church contacted creator

Art Clokey.

While Art Clokey has a name implying some sort of international jewel thief, he was actually

just a stop-motion animator and before that a seminary school dropout, when he met his

wife Ruth at seminary in the late 40s, they shared the common goal of making religious

films.

When they got the call, Art and Ruth jumped at the opportunity to fulfill this abandoned

spiritual vocation saying, quote,

It's a wonderful miracle that the church saw Gumby on TV and I flew out to California

to make a deal to use the Gumby technique to make this religious series.

It's just what I wanted to do.

Gumby Lou, yeah, indeed!

On February 25, 1961, Davy and Goliath premiered in syndication.

The show centered on good Christian boy, Davy Hanson and Goliath is talking dog that

often acted as Davy's canine conscience.

Each episode focused on Davy as he and his friends and family learned about the love

...