October 26, 2025 • 50 mins
He was the upside-down man who brought imagination to life — with nothing more than a pencil for a nose and a blackboard for a stage. Mr Squiggle, the beloved children’s television icon, captured the hearts of generations with his wobbly lines, friendly charm, and boundless creativity.
Travel back to the earliest age of Australian TV to explore how Norman Hetherington’s quirky puppet became a national treasure. From his humble beginnings on ABC in 1959 to the stories the hosts' own mothers told them about the show, Mr. Jolly Squiggles (Simplified to Mr. Squiggle in later years) wasn’t just a puppet — he was a teacher, an artist, and a friend to millions.
Join Holly & Matthew as they uncover the legacy of Mr Squiggle and Friends, the artistry behind his creation, and the enduring magic of a character who taught Australia that a few squiggles and a bit of imagination could turn into anything at all.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Travel back to the earliest age of Australian TV to explore how Norman Hetherington’s quirky puppet became a national treasure. From his humble beginnings on ABC in 1959 to the stories the hosts' own mothers told them about the show, Mr. Jolly Squiggles (Simplified to Mr. Squiggle in later years) wasn’t just a puppet — he was a teacher, an artist, and a friend to millions.
Join Holly & Matthew as they uncover the legacy of Mr Squiggle and Friends, the artistry behind his creation, and the enduring magic of a character who taught Australia that a few squiggles and a bit of imagination could turn into anything at all.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way a number of Australians
have described the alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time
the Weird Crap in Australia podcast. Welcome to the wee
(00:45):
Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Sol. Joining
me for another episode is, of course, the lovely Researcher
extraordinaire herself, who looks ravishing in some thigh high boots.
Let me tell you, Holy Sol, that was Scooby Doo,
not me. We did just watch Scooby what's it called
Scooby Doo too? Scooby dooing harder, Scooby.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Doo two Electric Bungaloo Bigaaloo, Bogaloo.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, Scooby Doo too, electric Bugloo.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Scooby Doo. Two monsters unleashed.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh that's what it's called. Yeah, probably because all the
monsters were unleashed. Yep, as we are, sadly halfway through,
well over halfway through. Now I've Spootober. I always throw
in fun film for my Halloween viewing.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So that Holly doesn't complain that all she's watched his horror.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's a long movie. It's a very very long movie.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Which is surprising considering it's a kid's movie.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Does a clock in a nearly two hours orways? Just
the pacing felt off, possibly both. I feel like it
was nearly two.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Hours runtime one hour thirty three minutes.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh fell longer than that, for a lot longer than
that actually, So Scooby Doo does look nice, and Daphne
sty high boots Holley very well. Holly. We haven't done
an alien episode in a long time, and I thought
we should rectify that, especially for spook popa Well. Most
(02:09):
people don't realize that in nineteen fifty nine something was
discovered on the moon and stayed for goddamn nearly sixty
odd years forty years, forty years and eight days. Government
decided not to cover it up. Government decided to work
with it and gave it a regular spot on the ABC.
(02:31):
In case you haven't figured it out, ladies and gentlemen,
today we are talking about the classic children's character, the
most beloved Australian icon, and that is a mister Squiggle,
the man from the.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Moon, myth man from.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And for those who don't recognize that nostalgia, you are
dead inside.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
And look, there is going to be people who are
listening to this today who are you know, not aware
of mister Squiggle because he sadly finished up his run
ninety No. Two thousand, right.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Exactly forty years after debuts, so nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It makes me sad. So one of our listeners who's
been shooting through some emails, is a little shout out
for you, will You would have no idea who we're
talking about. Yeah, he's fourteen, but that's why you listen
to this podcast, William, so that we can teach you
all about Australian nostalgia. So holy take it away, mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Generations of Australians have grown up with a select core
of TV shows that shape their childhoods, from generation specific
shows such as The Pharaohs and Round the Twist to
more general.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So we haven't done Around the Twist set, Yeah we.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Did, Matthew's done. Like we've been so many episodes. I
have no idea what we've done left.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, weir.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
To more general shows such as play School, which we've
also done.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
There's a bear in there, and well that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well I was waiting because I didn't know whether you
were going to go the real version or the version
we all sang at school.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I don't like doing that too. Lovely TV shows.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wholesome TV shows right up until they build bombs on
the show. But only one show has managed to remain
on the air across five decdes entertaining children and inspiring
adults into new careers. That show was Mister Squiggle, the
beloved man from the Moon, whose pencil nose could turn
a few simple lines into a fully fledged picture, and
(05:14):
who for over forty years to find what children's television
could be in Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Off we go, Off we go, Walk Booon.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Walk we Go for forty years and eight days from
his debut on July one, nineteen fifty nine until his
final broadcast on July eight, nineteen ninety nine. Mister Squiggle
and Friends was more than a show about art. It
was a quietly revolutionary piece of educational entertainment. The Bridge
Generations shaped child cold imaginations and reflected the evolving spirit
(05:47):
of Australian creativity.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Mister Squiggle as a string puppet with a long sharpened
pencil as a nose, big brown eyes, the brainchild a
former political cartoonist Norman Heatherington. They have rington as mister Squiggle,
or so it seems when you talk to him. Like
his puppet. Norman has brown eyes, a long nose, unsharpened
and moves his head just like mister Squiggle. Anyone can
(06:11):
squiggle on paper, but it take someone with special quirky
talent to turn a squiggle into a squiggle. Quote from
The Australian Woman's Weekly, Wednesday, twenty fourth of July nineteen
seventy four, page fifty seven. Many happy returns to mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The magic of mister Squiggle was inseparable from the man
who created and performed him. Norman Heatherington born May twenty ninth,
nineteen twenty one in Lilyfield, Sydney, Heatherington grew up fascinated
by drawing, puppetry and animation, long before any of those
things were common career pass in Australia. He studied at
(06:49):
Sydney's Teacher's College, then served as a cartographer during World
War II, a job that honed his precision and sense
of visual storytelling.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Desi had to be a cartoonist and attended the East
Sydney National Art School, but later joined the Army and
went into the entertainment unit. The beginnings of mister Squiggle
was born in the Pacific War, where he became known
for lightning sketches making rabbit rabbit carricatures of those in
the audience. After the war he became a political cartoonist.
(07:20):
Norman attended Edith Murray's Covenly Theater in nineteen fifty two,
where he developed more interest in puppetry, similar to Richard
Bradshaw quote from Australian Puppetry Mister Squiggle School of Puppetry,
sixth of December twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Now Matthew and I went to the National Museum's Mister
Squiggle displayed.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And we reached out to knowing that that see it
kills us man it kills us. We'd love to promote
this ship before it's over. So if you listen to
this show and you're connected to any of these people
or any of these government institutions, please let them know
we'd like to help them promote.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Their shit, especially when it's Australia based.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Like fuck me. We would have done it for free.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
All I wanted was free tickets in and it was
a free entry, so they would have won.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know, we would have loved to have talked to
someone who curated that whole exhibition because it was wonderful.
You had all the puppets there, you also had a
large selection of the Heatherington like classic satire cartoons.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Caricatures, the political cartoons, no.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Stuff from his newspaper career all the way through to
Mister Squiggle and Friends.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
After the war, he became a cartoonist for The Bulletin magazine,
where his work, often humorous sketches and political caricatures, revealed
both a sharp wit and a gentle sense of character.
Heatherington's interest in puppetry went back to his childhood, when
he crafted marionettes from scrapwood and string. In the nineteen forties,
he began performing puppet shows for local children's hospitals and schools,
(08:58):
a hobby that would eventually formed the backbone of his
television career. When the ABC began developing children's programming in
the nineteen fifties, Heatherington saw an opportunity to merge his
love of performance, art and education. This creation, Mister Squiggle,
was first introduced in a short segment on the ABC
(09:19):
Children's TV Club in July nineteen fifty nine, a last
minute edition that quickly stole the spotler.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He made his firth. He made his first rather shy
appearance in nineteen fifty nine as a fill in for
a genda called Nicky Noodle, when he was rushed on
camera as a six week villain, but stayed to become,
without much doubt, Australia's best loved puppet. Quote from the
Australian Women's Weekly.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Mister Squiggle himself was a long, gangly puppet with a
pencil for a nose, a very tall, skinny green hat
and a gentle, slightly spacey voice. He descended from the
moon in his trusty ros rocket ship rocket to visit
his human co hosts and turn Squiggles, which was simple
line doodles sent in by children around the country into
(10:08):
whimsical drawings. Heatherington performed every part of mister Squiggle's character,
operating the puppet while voicing him live on air, often
improvising dialogue and drawings in real time. It was an
extraordinary feat of coordination and creativity, all done with the
charming clumsiness that children loved.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Remember turn it around, Miss Jane, upside down, upside down,
upside down, upside down.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Upside down. Remember he was doing all this while he
was looking down on the live on TV.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's crazy, it really is. What I love is the
fact that mister Squiggle was born before his children and
one of them ended up hosting the show forty years
down the track. I think it's a lovely full circle
that it stayed within the family in that way. Mister
Pinoso says there was no trickery in the show, and
mister Heathernington simply held onto mister Squiggle's hat from above
(11:02):
to draw the pictures. Things looked a bit different from
where he was sitting, which is partly why so many
of the pictures were turned around. It was so out
and out simple that it was innovative. Mister Ponanzo said
the puppets, the way they were made, the different functions
they had, they were also innovative and creative. Quote from
a man behind Mister Squiggle dies ABC News, Tuesday, the
(11:24):
seventh of December twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How many mister Squiggle puppets can you name just off
the top of your head?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Blackboard? Yep, uh, steam steamy steam truck was his name.
He had a big tongue. Bill Bill build a steam
steamer truck, steam shovel because he see exhibit obviously rocket
yep was a puppet. I suppose I feel like a
(11:52):
missing one. Flat board yep, mister squiggle Bill the steam shovel,
the rocket.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And dust the snail.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Oh yeah, because it was a TV.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah yeah. Mom and Dad came around to actually see
it on. I think it was like the last.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Date that it was running was pretty close to the end.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And Mum actually seemed a little bit excited to go
see Guss and Bill.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think it's one of those things where you you know,
you come into close contact these things that sort of
sad in your childhood, you know, and when you do
get to come face to face with them, and you
have this sort of tactoleness with them, and we're being
extraordinarily lucky that we've had to we've been able to
(12:37):
have all those experiences, you know, whether it's it's coming
closer to the Wiggles, or whether it's you know, going
to see Mister Squiggle at the museum, seeing Godzilla one
of the actual suits in Japan. You know, it's just
one of those magical things I think, where you know,
(12:57):
childhood becomes real again. And I think it's it's sort
of interesting at the moment. The millennials, Yeah, we're the
old ones now by the way, the elder millennials, you know, anybody.
You know, we're becoming known as colloquially as the Forgotten generation.
(13:20):
Was where sandwiched between two rapid points of change, and
so I think that sometimes people forget that we're wedged
into this, you know, this place where you sort of
have to be very you know, you have to have
a toe in both worlds. You know, you have to
be very fluent with the old and very fluent with
the new. And so we get to be kids again
(13:43):
when we're in front of these puppets, you know, like
when we're at the Mister Squiggle exhibition and they're playing
the episodes up on the big screen, and there's just
something that's you know, that's so gentle and nice and
warm about these things that we had when we were kids,
and you know, there was just no sort of malice
(14:04):
or ill intent around them. You know, you just generally
feel very I feel I get a little emotional when
I'm around them, and I know that sounds funny, it's just,
you know, it just reminds me of a simple time
when you know, children's entertainment was sort of pulling you
(14:25):
into its world. I think that's sort of the difference
with Austrain and entertainment is that you know, you were
really meant to be a part of the show, and
especially like they would be like, oh, you know, this
squiggle comes from this kid in Queensland, and you're like,
I'm a kid in Queensland, or you know this one
came from New South Wales. And then you go up
to your parent you'd be like, you know, can I
(14:47):
send in a mister squiggle a squiggle to mister squiggle?
Can I get that on the TV show? Or you know,
can I draw a picture and send it into agro
Pece TV. You know Austray and Ldren's programming was very,
very interactive. So I think a lot of us feel that,
you know, they're like they're kind of your friends, you know,
(15:09):
they were those early friends. You know. I watched too
much helviishon when I was a child, so it was
very you know, it was very informative for me.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
We when we first met, we went to a lot
of conventions, We met a lot of people. Was seeing
mister Squiggle a bigger thing or was this a live
action celebrity that you felt was bigger?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Hmmm?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Which one did you have a bigger reaction to?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Do you want me to leave you with it and
we'll come back to.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
No. No, I mean I think I can answer it
because I think it's different. I think when it comes
to something like mister Squiggle, obviously there was you know,
a very talented puppeteer behind him, but you know when
you see mister Squiggle there that is mister Squiggle. You know,
it would be very similar to meeting one of the muppets,
(15:59):
like I think.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Sammy Street character one of those guys.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, John Oliver talked about meeting Fuzzy Bear and who
was recounting the story about how he's meeting Fuzzy Bear
and he immediately gets sucked into the this is actually
Fuzzy Bear, and Fuzzy Bear is alive, and he said
he could tell the puppeteer was like, Oh, this is
(16:22):
going to be one of these ones, you know, And
so yeah, I think when I'm seeing in front of
a puppet, I probably have more of a connection than
with a celebrity, because I think with a celebrity there's
a lot of distance. You know, when Alan Tuodick is
in line not doing the voice of Chickens when he's
(16:45):
you know, when you're sitting there and you're waiting in
line for Alent two Dick, you know you're meeting the actor,
and unless you're having a parasocial relationship, you should have
you know, you should have that distance. I think like
when I met the guys from last podcast on the Left,
that was very overwhelming for me because their work opened
(17:11):
it up for the rest.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Of us, very specifically us.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And very specifically us like I heavily influenced us. And
so when I met them, that's probably one of those
rare occasions in my life where do get star struck
and I just have nothing to say, Like my my
brain just evacuates my body and goes away, though very quickly.
A funny story. When I met Nathan Fillion, Nathan Phillim
(17:38):
was a fucking pro man. He give you, like his
full attention for a minute. You could ask him a question,
he'd give you a bit of a response. He would
be engaged with you next person like that. Dude is
a fucking master of conventions. I tell you that much.
I said to him, I'm like, man, you know I've
listened to you do Hal Jordan in a lot of
Green Latin animated projects, and I think you could still
(18:00):
pull off hol Jordan. Man, Like, I still think you
could be a green Land. And that motherfucker said to
me that he doesn't have the abs to play a
green Land.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Twenty twenty five, Superman comes.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
In, fucking lion bastard. So yeah, no, I think I
have a stronger connection after that rambling nonsense. Holy, I
think I have a stronger connection with seeing a puppet.
You know. If, yeah, like, if I was sitting next
to Kermit the Frog, I'm gonna have a very visceral reaction.
(18:33):
I love puppetry so much that here's something for everybody.
If you're like fucking Jesus Matthew, like give it a rest.
If you want to bawl your eyes out with puppets,
go to YouTube.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And type in I know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Jim Henson's funeral, right, and.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Then you're not crying by the end of it you
have no soul.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And watch Sweeney, Who's puppety big bird as he always had.
Watch that man sing fuck what it was either over
the rainbow or being green or something like that. Watch
that man sing as a marpet at that funeral, and
(19:17):
you tell me that you don't break it is. It's
one of the most brutal things that I've never watched.
And I watched Martyrs, like when he died. That hit
me in the guts, you know. Like when any of
those puppeteers go, you know they I think they take
(19:41):
the the magic goes away because the puppet never has
them inhabiting with no it's never the same. Like Jim
Henson was Kermit for fuck what like forty fifty years.
Like Kermit was one of his original creations, one of
the only characters that did time on on bo Sasame
(20:01):
Street and the Muppets and had his own little you know,
bits and pieces, And I mean, you know when Jim
Henson dies, like come went with Jim Henson, Like it's yeah,
so no, I have a bigger reaction to the physicality.
I can feel it, I can see it. It's real.
You know. It's like if the someone was in like
(20:23):
a proper Godzilla costume when we went to the Godzilla Museum,
he like came stumping out men, I have give him
a hug. I'd be like, you know, it's Godzilla.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You'd hug the big city destroying monster. Yeah, that sounds
like you.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I don't have a beef with Godzilla. He wants to
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Speaker 2 (21:36):
Behind the scenes of Mister Squiggle, the show was a
family affair. Heatherington's wife, Margaret Heatherington, was a program's producer
for decades, ensuring its smooth operation through countless format changes
and cast rotations. Their daughter, Rebecca Heatherington, joined as co
host in the nineteen eighties and nineties, bridging the generational
(21:57):
gap between the show's earliest fans and their children. The
family dynamic brought a warmth and consistency to Mister Squiggle
that set it apart from imported children's fair. While I
was researching this, after we'd already gone to the display,
I actually.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Looked it up.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Mister Squiggle's grand Heatherington's grandson is now a master puppeteer
who puppets, some of Heatherington's original puppets.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
What a shark.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
He's the one who set up how the puppets were
actually displayed in that that set up because he knows
those puppets. He was taught by his mother, who was
taught by her father.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Australia quite a big tradition with puppetry, doesn't it. Like
if you think, what's one of Australia's most successful science
fiction shows, Fast Gap, Yes, all produced with Jim Henson puppets, Yes, Agro,
mister Squiggle, the Pharaohs to a certain extent, like Friends
(22:55):
is also Australian. Yes, that is right, Yeah, yeah, Johnson
and Friends, which we'll we'll have to do as well,
Bananas and Pajamas to a certain extent, you could call
like there's there was like and and it's sort of interesting,
Like there's elements of puppetry in so much Australian television programming.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I'm pretty sure you'll find it all through play school
as well.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Who was the Owl? There was a This was after
my time, but there was like pick which show? It
was on the ABC. The Owl was a sidekick to
a guy.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Huti Alie, you're being very very specific there, Huti the
ow giggle.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And hoot, giggle and hoot, that's the one. Yeah, see
what I can do. I mean you think about the Wiggles,
all of those characters were Henry the Octopus is part puppet, yep,
because you have to have someone operating, you know, his
technacles they're attached to him. Yeah, yeah, you know that.
There's and I remember like the Wiggles movie is just
full of puppets. Puppets everywhere anyway. I like puppets.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And Matthew has a quote to read.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
God in of Matthew Solm the Weirdcraft and Autraia podcast,
who likes puppets? You could have heard a pin drop.
This morning at the National Museum of Australia were puppeteer
Tom Heatherington Welch, grandson of the famous creator of Mister Squiggle,
Norman Heatherington, introduced a crowd of over excited kids to
Mister Snowman and other favorite characters. Do squirls have delighted?
(24:27):
Heatherington Welch asked anyone ever seen a bear in roller skates?
One minute later he produced one, as well as Mister
plum Pudding. Vote from Mister Squiggle still captivates the young
at launch Heather Muser, CBR City News at July third,
twenty twenty five, AH City News. My old enemy Matthew
(24:48):
has beef two reasons. One, I used to have to
sell ads against them, so I was at the camera
times and it was competitive because their ads were cheap
and shit, and their movie reviewer hates movies, but he
likes free shit, so that's why he's their movie reviewer.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Each episode of Mister Squiggle unfolded with the same comforting rhythm.
Mister Squiggle would arrive from the moon Banter with his
human co host and draw pictures from children's squiggles. Alongside
him were a small cast of supporting pupplic characters that
we've talked about, Miss Pat who was always the co
host no matter what her name actually was, Bill Steamshovel,
(25:31):
Gus the Snail, and the perpetually grumpy Blackboard, whose catchphrase
hurry yup.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Horry Yup became Horry.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Became iconic.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I hope I'm doing these justice. I am actually trying.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
He's trying to remember Horry hurry up. While the humor
was simple, there was an undercurrent of improvisational wit that
appealed to adults watching with their kids. The shows for
values were famously modest, but that was part of its charm.
The hand painted sets, the visibly handmade puppets, the unpolished transitions,
(26:09):
all of it felt intimate and accessible, as if the
audience was part of the playroom. More than that, mister
Squiggles celebrated imperfection. The very premise of turning messy, unfinished
Squiggles into art port generations of children. The mistakes could
be the beginning of creativity, not the end of it,
which is something I continually fail to remember.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, watch you may not know about me, watching me
know about me? Is I am a decent painter point
now where people are very happy to actually receive my
work as gifts. And I cannot tell you how many
(26:52):
times I fuck something up look at it and go, huh,
that's cool, that it's interesting. You can do something with this,
And you can, and you know, you follow those mistakes through.
There's this incessant need, I think, these days of people
wanting to get everything right. And I've got to get
the I got to get the perfect say done, I've
(27:16):
got to get the perfect exam results.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I have to write the perfect book the first time
with no editing.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, I have to make the perfect podcast. I have
to have the perfect life. I have to have the
perfect this. I have to have the perfect that. And
I love the moral of mister Squigglers. You know, creativity
starts in a in a mass of chaos. That's kind
of the fun of it, you know, in a world
where everyone is striving for the perfect self and the
perfect family and the perfect kids, and perfect perfect dog,
(27:45):
the perfect cat on top of the dog, and then
there's a mouse on top of the cat writing the dog.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Corpross on top of the mouse, and then you call.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Protected always extend so far, Holly, Yes, you know I
do like the like the moral of mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You know, mister Squiggle was supplying happy accidents and fixing
happy accidents long before Bob Ross even got into it.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Miss Heatherington's father was a talented cartoonist who was drawn
to puppets because he saw them as three dimensional cartoons.
Heatherington's puppets, Nicky and Noodle, were even on air on
the first night ever of ABC TV broadcasting, but mister
Squiggle was by far the most successful. A lot of
young people talk about the fact that mister Squiggle helped
them to pick up a pencil and just start drawing.
(28:32):
Miss Heatherington said, my father loved that because he didn't
want to be didactic about how you draw. You just
needed to let your imagination take you wherever it led.
Quote from National Museum of Australia requires collection of miss
we will create a Norman Heatherington Blotty Toyford ABC, Monday,
twenty ninth of April twenty twenty four. So I'm assuming
(28:52):
mister Squiggle will be part of a permanent display of
Australian at some point.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So as far as I've been able to work it out,
part of his collection is in the National Archives, and
part of it is in the National Museum, and part
of it's in the National Library.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Whether or not they'll all be on display in a
rotation or whether they'll be put into like at the
moment in the National Museum, having all of them at once,
I don't know. I'm unfortunately I'm not privy to that
kind of informations.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It's safe.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Everyone's got a piece of it, so even if one
building floods, some part of it will survive. Which has
happened in the National Archives before you give me that shit.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
National Archives one of the most haunted buildings in camera.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
As television evolved through the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties,
Mister Squiggle remained steadfastly itself. The ABC shifted it through
different timeslots, updating the set design and introducing new hosts,
including Pat Lavelle, the first host, Jane Fennel, and Miss
Julie Miss Jane.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
My mum grew up with Miss Jane, so that's the
whenever you bring up Mister Squiggle with mum, it's a
he's Miss Jane, Miss Jane.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Whereas we grew up with Miss Rebecca, which was Heatherington's
order because she was the nineteen nineties host. Heatherington's quiet
genius held it all together. His puppetry was entirely manual.
There was no hidden wires or automation. He often described
himself as a one man band, juggling, sketching, dialogue and
(30:26):
performance simultaneously while peering through the bottom of the puppet
stage to see what he was drawing.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Upside down.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
He was upbraiding all three of those puppets at once,
and the only way he could actually draw. And I
figured this out watching stuff was there was actually a
rod through mister Squiggle's hat and that's how he could
control it. The longest time I thought he was doing
it with strings and couldn't work out how he got
the pressure, like it's an oil pastel on the tip
of his nose, which I also found out watching the documentaries.
(30:55):
But I could never work out how he got the
pressure to actually draw, and that's how he did it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It makes sense.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Heatherington's artistry extended far beyond the puppet. He continued to
work as a cartoonist and an illustrator, producing educational materials
and comics, and was deeply involved in the Australian puppetry community.
He served as president of the Puppetry Guild of New
South Wales, mentoring younger puppeteers and promoting the craft as
an art form. His influence can still be traced through
(31:24):
generations of Australian artists, animators and educators who grew up
watching him make magic out of lines and laughter.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Thirty five years ago, twelve year old boy in Newcastle
wrote to Norman, not really expecting a reply from such
a prominent person. The boy was already a member of
the Puppetry Guild of which Norman was president. He asked
how to go about stringing a marionette for a trapeze act.
A reply came with the detailed drawing alternative methods of stringing,
references for further research Hiss from personal experience, and it
(31:54):
was signed all the best in h The puppet's construction
began that afternoon. That boy Surry Rain became a very
successful puppet here and as an adult, struck up a
close friendship with Norman, who became a mentor. A week
before Norman died, Murray was at his bedside getting advice
on his latest puppet, Murray's launchy cabaret marionettes, decked out
(32:15):
in feathers and sequins, were hardly what mister Squiggle would
have been used to on the moon, but with a
quick swirl of a pencil, Norman captured the mood with
designs for Murray's sexy divers. As he often said, you
never know what you can do until you try. Quote
from Norman Heatherington, nineteen twenty one, twenty ten, Open Magazine,
(32:35):
December tween ten.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
By the nineteen nineties, mister Squiggle had become an absolute institution.
It was one of the longest running children's programs in
Australian TV history, with an estimated two thousand episodes produced.
They were only about five ten minutes long, but they're
still it's a lot of episodes. The show evolves subtly
over time. The plet palette brighton because of course it
(33:00):
went from black and white and into color. The Squiggles
became more elaborate, but its tone never really wait. In
an era increasingly dominated by fast paced imported animation, Mister
Squiggle stood out as handmade and distinctly Australian.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Heatherington was philosophical about the huge advances in television production
since nineteen fifty nine. What you saw is what happened,
he said of the early days, but indicated it hadn't
all been to his artistic paste. Everything's on computer now.
I find it rather depressing, but you've got to move
with the times. I guess I prefer the folk art
sort of approach rather than the slick computer generated images.
(33:41):
I've got a couple of grandchildren or way out in
space with these computer games. That's incredible, he said, genuinely impressed,
rather than boomboozled. What they were able to experience on
their computer screens. Oh well, time marches on, he sighed
before saying the agabys. But mister Squiggles still got to
keep the moon to make sure it's shiny and bright.
(34:03):
When the new moon has to appear, the squiggle a
day keeps well something away. Ha ha goodbye. Quote from
thank you, mister Squiggle for the Moon, Jeff Sheerer at
The Courier Mail, December nine, twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
When the show finally ended in July nineteen ninety nine,
it wasn't because audiences had lost interest. It was because
Heatherington's health was declining and he felt it was time
to step away. He was seventy eight years old and
after forty years of bending over a puppet stage, his
hands and back could no longer keep up with the
demands of life puppetry.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And guess who was in power at the time who
stripped the ABC of funding.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Well, it was possibly their cheapest show to produce because
everything had been made forty years before.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But have they been told to cut? I mean, think
about everything that died around this time? Twist majamas went
on pajamas. You know what else was killed off? Lift
off got two seasons.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Johnson and Friends was gone by then.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
There's a lot of there's a lot lot of shit
gone within that that period of time, and a lot
of it is because of the Howard cuts to the ABC.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
The ABC marked the show's end with quiet dignity, allowing
mister Squiggle to drift back to the moon rather than
fizzle out. After the show's retirement, Heatherington received numerous honors
for his contribution to Australian culture.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Heatherington was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in nineteen
ninety for services to children's programs and puppetry. Last year,
he was presented with the coveted Jim Russell Award by
the Australian Cartoonist Association for outstanding contribution to Australian cartooning.
Quote from End of the Line for Mister Squiggle animator
Lenie Vessek The Australian, December seven to twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
He also received an Award for Excellence in Art Design
and Education in two thousand and five from the University
of New South Wales College of Finance. Heatherington continued to
give interviews and attend puppet festivals right up until he's
passing in twenty ten at the age of eighty nine.
His wife, Margaret, who wrote the scripts for Mister Squiggle
(36:20):
and worked alongside her husband for his whole run on
the show, passed away in twenty eleven. Even after its
final broadcast, Mister Squiggle's shadow lingered large in Australian cultural memory.
The puppets are now housed at the Australian National Museum
of Australia. Are now housed at the National Museum of
Australia for their Mister Squiggle and Friends exhibit an anniversary
(36:43):
specials occasionally resurface, sparking ways of nostalgia. In twenty nineteen,
to mark the show's sixtieth anniversary, the Australian Mint released
a commemorative coinset featuring Mister Squiggle, blackboard gusts and bill
steam shovel.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And guess what's behind you in that ace?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We don't have mister Squiggle. We have pajamas.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
No, no, we have mister Squiggle too. When did you
get that, oh ages.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Ago, Well there you go. We have mister Squiggle.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Don't let my aunt we have mister Squiggle. We've got
bananas and pajamas. We've got the Wiggles and we have Bluey.
Don't let my art he sad? Does she? After mister
Squiggle say it?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I remember when it came out, mom, and everyone was
trying to find one for her.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Oh did no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
But the glass cases of the Museums exhibit. Isn't the
end of the puppets performances. As part of the preservation
of mister Squiggle and his friends, the National Museum has
recorded his grandson Tom performing with them, taking scans to
understand the mechanics and such of them and to preserve
the performances of these icons into the future. It's a
living You don't just put them in a box and
(37:55):
leave them.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
I hate puppets being put in boxes and there you know.
They gotta gotta breathe life into the man. The Museums
Changeable in Digital Collections team, in collaboration with doctor Andrew
Yep from the uns W Sydney, has captured the puppet
performer relationship and the puppeting artistry transmitted from Norman to Tom,
using techniques often seen in the films, highlighting puppets chosen
(38:19):
by Tom for their intricate working on personal memories of
Norman the dentists, the Octopus and Punch and Judy. Punch
and Judy are classics. They come from Ali. They I
don't know, you tell me. They come from Comedia d' latte.
So part of my HSA was unpuppeting. We specifically look
(38:40):
at punching Judy. There was a couple of classic characters
that used to be Italian.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
They seventeenth century Italian.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
There you go, Yeah, that makes sense. Comedia dallate. Yeah,
that sounds Italian, doesn't it, not French. I'm an idiot. Yeah,
So they're they're classics. And Judy, you know, it's like
an angry married couple. So and see, the thing is
is these comedic sensibilities have a through line. Right. So
(39:11):
you start in Italy and then you end up with
the Honeymooners, and then you end up with the Flintstones,
and then you end up with the Simpsons, right, and
it has a through line in the middle of that
is that married with children. That's one It's one of
the reasons why that like whenever there's austerity, you know,
(39:32):
whenever times are tough, what's the first fucking thing that
people bring up after we need to stop off all
aid funding other countries. What's the second thing that comes up,
run into the arts. Cut the arts, cut the arts,
cut up those arts, make sure those artists have no hands,
cut their hands off. That's the first thing that fucking
(39:53):
comes up, straight after the no more aid funding to
any other country. That is in Australia, Heatherington doesn't exist
without arts punning, all right. All that beloved shit from
the Abaca that you love when you're a kid you
here from, right, all of that goes away without arts punning, Right,
(40:19):
That's why we're so fucking bankrupt when it comes to
stuff for kids outside of Blue Eye, Well.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
We have to go to America for all of it now.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Right when you cut like Sesame Street has been privately
owned now for I think half a decade so HBO
Max was funding it and now I believe it's moving
over to Netflix, right because the Americans cut funding for PBS,
(40:48):
right because they didn't lie the fucking big Bird was
teaching kids to get on right, it's always the arts
to get cut. And every time that happens we lose
this sort of stuff every fucking time. The Howard era,
the Liberal government they were in the woreus for gutting
the shit out of stuff like this. You know. Now,
(41:10):
obviously Heatherington did require but do you think discussions were
had about continuing on. Probably not, because they thought, well,
we cut this and that's at least six salaries that
we don't have to pay anymore. Yep, you know that's
that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Like you lose the arts, you lose all the fun
shit that comes with it. Very sad.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
When you were a kid. Like when I was a kid,
I always assumed that the drawings and stuff that came
into TV shows was just shit that the producers built
at the backyard.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
No I bought in fully, I was like, kids sent
this in.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, I always thought that it was like I said,
it was that kind of crap. And then I found
an act short instance of someone who is in the
public public space now who actually had one her squiggles
shown on Mister Squiggle, and that is MP Anika Wells.
(42:18):
Actually have a video of her responding to this.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Roll the clip. Polly. Now, I wanted to start by
asking you about something we found deep within the ABC archive.
It's on the classic children's program Mister Squiggle.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Let's run the tape.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So what should I make Rebecca well I don't know,
but maybe Anika Wells does because she's sent it in
from eight mile planes in Queensland.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Queensland, so you'll have to do something for something funny warm.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
It's a fish who's going for a holiday to the
tropics to Queensland.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
There we go, minut, Is there a holidaying fish? Now?
Was that the highlight of your childhood?
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I'm really proud of the age care reforms we've delivered.
I'm really proud of getting birth to twins in COVID
is the most marginal set in Parliament. But yeah, that
might be my proud spos So there you go. Her
greatest achievement is not her political career. It's being a
mister Squiggle.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
That's fair. I agree not to say that she's a
bad mpig. I just think that. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
If I got a Squiggle or mister Squiggle, it would
definitely be the highlight.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Of my world. Fuck yeah, Look. One of my favorite
moments of creative recognition was not being nominated for an
URALUS Award. It was when Medigliana's puppeteer thanked us for
the show, you know, thank us for doing that episode
(43:49):
that that was fucking kudos man.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
It felt good.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, fuck yeah I did because.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
I'm like, oh, I'm I'm validated. I didn't say anything,
and then the next weekend my dad rang up and said,
you fuck this up on Bathurst again.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
I take no responsibility. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Ultimately, mister Squiggle's legacy isn't just about nostalgia or television history.
It's about what Norman Heatherington and his family have managed
to achieve with little more than felt strength and imagination.
They built a world where creativity mattered more than polish,
where kindness and curiosity were the guiding principles, and where
(44:30):
a man with a pencil for a nose could show
millions of children that art in life is what you
make of it.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Absolutely, and Holly, I think very fittingly to see us out,
we might play a clip year of mister Squiggle returning
to the moon. Here we go. Well, thank you very much, Squiggle,
(44:58):
mister Squiggle doing that outro for.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Us coming out of retirement and visiting us.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It the wonders of editing. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank
you so much for joining us. Hope you've enjoyed this
road of nostalgia. I hope that if you wanted to
go see mister Scoggle. You did go to the National Museum.
We love the National Museum. While I give them shit
for not help not laying as help promote their stuff,
(45:26):
Holly and I visit the National Museum at least two
three times a year, depending on that. The exhibitions held
these institutions are really important. A lot of them are free.
The majority of stuff is free, and it's free because
they have government funding. You know, please please remember, please
remember as we move into economic uncertainty that every time
(45:50):
someone says the words let's cut funding to government institutions
like the National Museum, you are taking something away from
children every time you do that. You know, very important
because I thought it was a great exhibition that they
put on for mister Squiggle, and it definitely brought a
smile to my face and taught me a few things
about its creator, which is what it's designed to do.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Also, did you know there's a link between Norman Lindsay
and Norman Heatherington, Because I fucking didn't until we went there.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I don't think Heatherington would have been a sexy guy.
I think he was too wholesome. But Norman Lizzy liked
very large poster areas.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I like big but again.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
That last oh he lied all the time and he
liked big butts, so it's a contradiction. Well, ladies and gentlemen,
before we let you go, do you like big butts?
Send us in an email wee craft in Australia at
gmail dot com. Or do you like to draw pictures
of big butts? Would you like to send those into us?
Thank you? I knew you were do that. That was
(46:53):
too wholesome for the whole episode, Holly, you gotta let
me get in a little bit of unwholesomeness. You can
also find us out on your social media of choice.
Just hoping we crapping Australia into that search, but we
should pop up. I said, like, you know, if you
want to show us an email week crap in australiat
gmail dot com, because I'm sure you're too busy laughing
at my wonderful joke to actually hear the email address.
(47:16):
So you can also help support the show. We don't
have any government funding. We are just two people and
two microphones. If you would like to help us out,
you can head to our Patreon friendly five dollars USD
a month, you get access to our bonus minisodes as
well as these episodes at least to you, completely uncut,
including big butt editions. That's a new thing that's coming out.
(47:37):
You know, it's funny. It's now uploading our Plasic episodes
to YouTube. So there's some great animation actually, and I
don't want to oversell it. It's just a little bit
of animation, but there's a little bit of animation there'd
like to revisit some of those classic episodes or share
them with a friend who doesn't like podcasts, likes YouTube,
please do. And you know, one of our while our listeners,
(48:01):
was like, oh, we'd love to see the hosts do
a podcast rather.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Than just like the animation loop. And you recorded this
seven and a half years ago. That is not happening.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I'm going to destroy your illusions here people, right, I've
got headphones on at the moment. I'm pretty sure I've
got a nasty fucking cold. I'm wearing track pants, wet
pants in America, Polly still in a working uniform. Do
you really want like there.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Is no there is no hair and makeup in this house.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
There's no hair and makeup. There's no fabulous studio, you know,
so we'll probably save the video podcast for who are
more photogenic like Conan O'Brien. Yes, he does have lovely guests.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know, he used to have lovely hit he did.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
He did. You can also check out our book series
week Crap in Australia. We want to Six are available
from our Great makes Impact Comics dot com dot a.
You mail will send that out to you wherever you
are in the world. Don't forget if you are going
to give some money to your small local businesses, think
about Impact Comics. It's really tough time at the moment
for all small business so that's why we sell our
(49:11):
physical books through them. If you're living overseas and you
still want that book, you can head to our print
onto me and service at Lulu dot com. And if
you want to grab the digital edition and why would you?
These books are fantastic and it's nice to hold something.
But if you would like the digital edition, you can
find that on the hindle stop. Otherwise, as is our customer,
give Plea the final words.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
So when I go back through all of this and
do all the editing stuff, what I'm going to do
is I'm actually going to get a clip of blackboard,
and every time you go off on a random rant,
I'm going to have him in the background going, oh,
I think that'll be a bit of fun immersion.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
So hurry and at the end of the upside Down,
so all you have to do is flip your phone
upside down and listen to.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Us again upside down on upside down hurry up. Well
that's it for all. That's all the nostalgia that you
can bleed from my old dead.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
Hands, at least for this episode anyway.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Old dead larynx for this week, ladies and gentlemen, and
until next week, please be safe, be fund to each other,
and we will see you next week for more Weird
Crap in Australia. Until then, it's off at the.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Moon upside down, upside down, hurry up.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with the tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way a number of Australians
have described the alleged encounter with the Yowi. It's time
the Weird Crap in Australia podcast. Welcome to the wee
(00:45):
Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host Matthew Sol. Joining
me for another episode is, of course, the lovely Researcher
extraordinaire herself, who looks ravishing in some thigh high boots.
Let me tell you, Holy Sol, that was Scooby Doo,
not me. We did just watch Scooby what's it called
Scooby Doo too? Scooby dooing harder, Scooby.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Doo two Electric Bungaloo Bigaaloo, Bogaloo.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, Scooby Doo too, electric Bugloo.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Scooby Doo. Two monsters unleashed.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Oh that's what it's called. Yeah, probably because all the
monsters were unleashed. Yep, as we are, sadly halfway through,
well over halfway through. Now I've Spootober. I always throw
in fun film for my Halloween viewing.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So that Holly doesn't complain that all she's watched his horror.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
It's a long movie. It's a very very long movie.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Which is surprising considering it's a kid's movie.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Does a clock in a nearly two hours orways? Just
the pacing felt off, possibly both. I feel like it
was nearly two.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Hours runtime one hour thirty three minutes.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh fell longer than that, for a lot longer than
that actually, So Scooby Doo does look nice, and Daphne
sty high boots Holley very well. Holly. We haven't done
an alien episode in a long time, and I thought
we should rectify that, especially for spook popa Well. Most
(02:09):
people don't realize that in nineteen fifty nine something was
discovered on the moon and stayed for goddamn nearly sixty
odd years forty years, forty years and eight days. Government
decided not to cover it up. Government decided to work
with it and gave it a regular spot on the ABC.
(02:31):
In case you haven't figured it out, ladies and gentlemen,
today we are talking about the classic children's character, the
most beloved Australian icon, and that is a mister Squiggle,
the man from the.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Moon, myth man from.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
And for those who don't recognize that nostalgia, you are
dead inside.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
And look, there is going to be people who are
listening to this today who are you know, not aware
of mister Squiggle because he sadly finished up his run
ninety No. Two thousand, right.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Exactly forty years after debuts, so nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It makes me sad. So one of our listeners who's
been shooting through some emails, is a little shout out
for you, will You would have no idea who we're
talking about. Yeah, he's fourteen, but that's why you listen
to this podcast, William, so that we can teach you
all about Australian nostalgia. So holy take it away, mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Generations of Australians have grown up with a select core
of TV shows that shape their childhoods, from generation specific
shows such as The Pharaohs and Round the Twist to
more general.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
So we haven't done Around the Twist set, Yeah we.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Did, Matthew's done. Like we've been so many episodes. I
have no idea what we've done left.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, weir.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
To more general shows such as play School, which we've
also done.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
There's a bear in there, and well that's it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well I was waiting because I didn't know whether you
were going to go the real version or the version
we all sang at school.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I don't like doing that too. Lovely TV shows.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Wholesome TV shows right up until they build bombs on
the show. But only one show has managed to remain
on the air across five decdes entertaining children and inspiring
adults into new careers. That show was Mister Squiggle, the
beloved man from the Moon, whose pencil nose could turn
a few simple lines into a fully fledged picture, and
(05:14):
who for over forty years to find what children's television
could be in Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Off we go, Off we go, Walk Booon.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Walk we Go for forty years and eight days from
his debut on July one, nineteen fifty nine until his
final broadcast on July eight, nineteen ninety nine. Mister Squiggle
and Friends was more than a show about art. It
was a quietly revolutionary piece of educational entertainment. The Bridge
Generations shaped child cold imaginations and reflected the evolving spirit
(05:47):
of Australian creativity.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Mister Squiggle as a string puppet with a long sharpened
pencil as a nose, big brown eyes, the brainchild a
former political cartoonist Norman Heatherington. They have rington as mister Squiggle,
or so it seems when you talk to him. Like
his puppet. Norman has brown eyes, a long nose, unsharpened
and moves his head just like mister Squiggle. Anyone can
(06:11):
squiggle on paper, but it take someone with special quirky
talent to turn a squiggle into a squiggle. Quote from
The Australian Woman's Weekly, Wednesday, twenty fourth of July nineteen
seventy four, page fifty seven. Many happy returns to mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
The magic of mister Squiggle was inseparable from the man
who created and performed him. Norman Heatherington born May twenty ninth,
nineteen twenty one in Lilyfield, Sydney, Heatherington grew up fascinated
by drawing, puppetry and animation, long before any of those
things were common career pass in Australia. He studied at
(06:49):
Sydney's Teacher's College, then served as a cartographer during World
War II, a job that honed his precision and sense
of visual storytelling.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Desi had to be a cartoonist and attended the East
Sydney National Art School, but later joined the Army and
went into the entertainment unit. The beginnings of mister Squiggle
was born in the Pacific War, where he became known
for lightning sketches making rabbit rabbit carricatures of those in
the audience. After the war he became a political cartoonist.
(07:20):
Norman attended Edith Murray's Covenly Theater in nineteen fifty two,
where he developed more interest in puppetry, similar to Richard
Bradshaw quote from Australian Puppetry Mister Squiggle School of Puppetry,
sixth of December twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Now Matthew and I went to the National Museum's Mister
Squiggle displayed.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And we reached out to knowing that that see it
kills us man it kills us. We'd love to promote
this ship before it's over. So if you listen to
this show and you're connected to any of these people
or any of these government institutions, please let them know
we'd like to help them promote.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Their shit, especially when it's Australia based.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Like fuck me. We would have done it for free.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
All I wanted was free tickets in and it was
a free entry, so they would have won.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know, we would have loved to have talked to
someone who curated that whole exhibition because it was wonderful.
You had all the puppets there, you also had a
large selection of the Heatherington like classic satire cartoons.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Caricatures, the political cartoons, no.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Stuff from his newspaper career all the way through to
Mister Squiggle and Friends.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
After the war, he became a cartoonist for The Bulletin magazine,
where his work, often humorous sketches and political caricatures, revealed
both a sharp wit and a gentle sense of character.
Heatherington's interest in puppetry went back to his childhood, when
he crafted marionettes from scrapwood and string. In the nineteen forties,
he began performing puppet shows for local children's hospitals and schools,
(08:58):
a hobby that would eventually formed the backbone of his
television career. When the ABC began developing children's programming in
the nineteen fifties, Heatherington saw an opportunity to merge his
love of performance, art and education. This creation, Mister Squiggle,
was first introduced in a short segment on the ABC
(09:19):
Children's TV Club in July nineteen fifty nine, a last
minute edition that quickly stole the spotler.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
He made his firth. He made his first rather shy
appearance in nineteen fifty nine as a fill in for
a genda called Nicky Noodle, when he was rushed on
camera as a six week villain, but stayed to become,
without much doubt, Australia's best loved puppet. Quote from the
Australian Women's Weekly.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Mister Squiggle himself was a long, gangly puppet with a
pencil for a nose, a very tall, skinny green hat
and a gentle, slightly spacey voice. He descended from the
moon in his trusty ros rocket ship rocket to visit
his human co hosts and turn Squiggles, which was simple
line doodles sent in by children around the country into
(10:08):
whimsical drawings. Heatherington performed every part of mister Squiggle's character,
operating the puppet while voicing him live on air, often
improvising dialogue and drawings in real time. It was an
extraordinary feat of coordination and creativity, all done with the
charming clumsiness that children loved.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Remember turn it around, Miss Jane, upside down, upside down,
upside down, upside down.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Upside down. Remember he was doing all this while he
was looking down on the live on TV.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It's crazy, it really is. What I love is the
fact that mister Squiggle was born before his children and
one of them ended up hosting the show forty years
down the track. I think it's a lovely full circle
that it stayed within the family in that way. Mister
Pinoso says there was no trickery in the show, and
mister Heathernington simply held onto mister Squiggle's hat from above
(11:02):
to draw the pictures. Things looked a bit different from
where he was sitting, which is partly why so many
of the pictures were turned around. It was so out
and out simple that it was innovative. Mister Ponanzo said
the puppets, the way they were made, the different functions
they had, they were also innovative and creative. Quote from
a man behind Mister Squiggle dies ABC News, Tuesday, the
(11:24):
seventh of December twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How many mister Squiggle puppets can you name just off
the top of your head?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Blackboard? Yep, uh, steam steamy steam truck was his name.
He had a big tongue. Bill Bill build a steam
steamer truck, steam shovel because he see exhibit obviously rocket
yep was a puppet. I suppose I feel like a
(11:52):
missing one. Flat board yep, mister squiggle Bill the steam shovel,
the rocket.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And dust the snail.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Oh yeah, because it was a TV.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah yeah. Mom and Dad came around to actually see
it on. I think it was like the last.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Date that it was running was pretty close to the end.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And Mum actually seemed a little bit excited to go
see Guss and Bill.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think it's one of those things where you you know,
you come into close contact these things that sort of
sad in your childhood, you know, and when you do
get to come face to face with them, and you
have this sort of tactoleness with them, and we're being
extraordinarily lucky that we've had to we've been able to
(12:37):
have all those experiences, you know, whether it's it's coming
closer to the Wiggles, or whether it's you know, going
to see Mister Squiggle at the museum, seeing Godzilla one
of the actual suits in Japan. You know, it's just
one of those magical things I think, where you know,
(12:57):
childhood becomes real again. And I think it's it's sort
of interesting at the moment. The millennials, Yeah, we're the
old ones now by the way, the elder millennials, you know, anybody.
You know, we're becoming known as colloquially as the Forgotten generation.
(13:20):
Was where sandwiched between two rapid points of change, and
so I think that sometimes people forget that we're wedged
into this, you know, this place where you sort of
have to be very you know, you have to have
a toe in both worlds. You know, you have to
be very fluent with the old and very fluent with
the new. And so we get to be kids again
(13:43):
when we're in front of these puppets, you know, like
when we're at the Mister Squiggle exhibition and they're playing
the episodes up on the big screen, and there's just
something that's you know, that's so gentle and nice and
warm about these things that we had when we were kids,
and you know, there was just no sort of malice
(14:04):
or ill intent around them. You know, you just generally
feel very I feel I get a little emotional when
I'm around them, and I know that sounds funny, it's just,
you know, it just reminds me of a simple time
when you know, children's entertainment was sort of pulling you
(14:25):
into its world. I think that's sort of the difference
with Austrain and entertainment is that you know, you were
really meant to be a part of the show, and
especially like they would be like, oh, you know, this
squiggle comes from this kid in Queensland, and you're like,
I'm a kid in Queensland, or you know this one
came from New South Wales. And then you go up
to your parent you'd be like, you know, can I
(14:47):
send in a mister squiggle a squiggle to mister squiggle?
Can I get that on the TV show? Or you know,
can I draw a picture and send it into agro
Pece TV. You know Austray and Ldren's programming was very,
very interactive. So I think a lot of us feel that,
you know, they're like they're kind of your friends, you know,
(15:09):
they were those early friends. You know. I watched too
much helviishon when I was a child, so it was
very you know, it was very informative for me.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
We when we first met, we went to a lot
of conventions, We met a lot of people. Was seeing
mister Squiggle a bigger thing or was this a live
action celebrity that you felt was bigger?
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Hmmm?
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Which one did you have a bigger reaction to?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Do you want me to leave you with it and
we'll come back to.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
No. No, I mean I think I can answer it
because I think it's different. I think when it comes
to something like mister Squiggle, obviously there was you know,
a very talented puppeteer behind him, but you know when
you see mister Squiggle there that is mister Squiggle. You know,
it would be very similar to meeting one of the muppets,
(15:59):
like I think.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Sammy Street character one of those guys.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, John Oliver talked about meeting Fuzzy Bear and who
was recounting the story about how he's meeting Fuzzy Bear
and he immediately gets sucked into the this is actually
Fuzzy Bear, and Fuzzy Bear is alive, and he said
he could tell the puppeteer was like, Oh, this is
(16:22):
going to be one of these ones, you know, And
so yeah, I think when I'm seeing in front of
a puppet, I probably have more of a connection than
with a celebrity, because I think with a celebrity there's
a lot of distance. You know, when Alan Tuodick is
in line not doing the voice of Chickens when he's
(16:45):
you know, when you're sitting there and you're waiting in
line for Alent two Dick, you know you're meeting the actor,
and unless you're having a parasocial relationship, you should have
you know, you should have that distance. I think like
when I met the guys from last podcast on the Left,
that was very overwhelming for me because their work opened
(17:11):
it up for the rest.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Of us, very specifically us.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
And very specifically us like I heavily influenced us. And
so when I met them, that's probably one of those
rare occasions in my life where do get star struck
and I just have nothing to say, Like my my
brain just evacuates my body and goes away, though very quickly.
A funny story. When I met Nathan Fillion, Nathan Phillim
(17:38):
was a fucking pro man. He give you, like his
full attention for a minute. You could ask him a question,
he'd give you a bit of a response. He would
be engaged with you next person like that. Dude is
a fucking master of conventions. I tell you that much.
I said to him, I'm like, man, you know I've
listened to you do Hal Jordan in a lot of
Green Latin animated projects, and I think you could still
(18:00):
pull off hol Jordan. Man, Like, I still think you
could be a green Land. And that motherfucker said to
me that he doesn't have the abs to play a
green Land.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Twenty twenty five, Superman comes.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
In, fucking lion bastard. So yeah, no, I think I
have a stronger connection after that rambling nonsense. Holy, I
think I have a stronger connection with seeing a puppet.
You know. If, yeah, like, if I was sitting next
to Kermit the Frog, I'm gonna have a very visceral reaction.
(18:33):
I love puppetry so much that here's something for everybody.
If you're like fucking Jesus Matthew, like give it a rest.
If you want to bawl your eyes out with puppets,
go to YouTube.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And type in I know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Jim Henson's funeral, right, and.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Then you're not crying by the end of it you
have no soul.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And watch Sweeney, Who's puppety big bird as he always had.
Watch that man sing fuck what it was either over
the rainbow or being green or something like that. Watch
that man sing as a marpet at that funeral, and
(19:17):
you tell me that you don't break it is. It's
one of the most brutal things that I've never watched.
And I watched Martyrs, like when he died. That hit
me in the guts, you know. Like when any of
those puppeteers go, you know they I think they take
(19:41):
the the magic goes away because the puppet never has
them inhabiting with no it's never the same. Like Jim
Henson was Kermit for fuck what like forty fifty years.
Like Kermit was one of his original creations, one of
the only characters that did time on on bo Sasame
(20:01):
Street and the Muppets and had his own little you know,
bits and pieces, And I mean, you know when Jim
Henson dies, like come went with Jim Henson, Like it's yeah,
so no, I have a bigger reaction to the physicality.
I can feel it, I can see it. It's real.
You know. It's like if the someone was in like
(20:23):
a proper Godzilla costume when we went to the Godzilla Museum,
he like came stumping out men, I have give him
a hug. I'd be like, you know, it's Godzilla.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
You'd hug the big city destroying monster. Yeah, that sounds
like you.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I don't have a beef with Godzilla. He wants to
squish humans. I don't blame him. Looking for the perfect
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soon forget. Hurry now back to the show.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Behind the scenes of Mister Squiggle, the show was a
family affair. Heatherington's wife, Margaret Heatherington, was a program's producer
for decades, ensuring its smooth operation through countless format changes
and cast rotations. Their daughter, Rebecca Heatherington, joined as co
host in the nineteen eighties and nineties, bridging the generational
(21:57):
gap between the show's earliest fans and their children. The
family dynamic brought a warmth and consistency to Mister Squiggle
that set it apart from imported children's fair. While I
was researching this, after we'd already gone to the display,
I actually.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Looked it up.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Mister Squiggle's grand Heatherington's grandson is now a master puppeteer
who puppets, some of Heatherington's original puppets.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
What a shark.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
He's the one who set up how the puppets were
actually displayed in that that set up because he knows
those puppets. He was taught by his mother, who was
taught by her father.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Australia quite a big tradition with puppetry, doesn't it. Like
if you think, what's one of Australia's most successful science
fiction shows, Fast Gap, Yes, all produced with Jim Henson puppets, Yes, Agro,
mister Squiggle, the Pharaohs to a certain extent, like Friends
(22:55):
is also Australian. Yes, that is right, Yeah, yeah, Johnson
and Friends, which we'll we'll have to do as well,
Bananas and Pajamas to a certain extent, you could call
like there's there was like and and it's sort of interesting,
Like there's elements of puppetry in so much Australian television programming.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I'm pretty sure you'll find it all through play school
as well.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Who was the Owl? There was a This was after
my time, but there was like pick which show? It
was on the ABC. The Owl was a sidekick to
a guy.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Huti Alie, you're being very very specific there, Huti the
ow giggle.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
And hoot, giggle and hoot, that's the one. Yeah, see
what I can do. I mean you think about the Wiggles,
all of those characters were Henry the Octopus is part puppet, yep,
because you have to have someone operating, you know, his
technacles they're attached to him. Yeah, yeah, you know that.
There's and I remember like the Wiggles movie is just
full of puppets. Puppets everywhere anyway. I like puppets.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And Matthew has a quote to read.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
God in of Matthew Solm the Weirdcraft and Autraia podcast,
who likes puppets? You could have heard a pin drop.
This morning at the National Museum of Australia were puppeteer
Tom Heatherington Welch, grandson of the famous creator of Mister Squiggle,
Norman Heatherington, introduced a crowd of over excited kids to
Mister Snowman and other favorite characters. Do squirls have delighted?
(24:27):
Heatherington Welch asked anyone ever seen a bear in roller skates?
One minute later he produced one, as well as Mister
plum Pudding. Vote from Mister Squiggle still captivates the young
at launch Heather Muser, CBR City News at July third,
twenty twenty five, AH City News. My old enemy Matthew
(24:48):
has beef two reasons. One, I used to have to
sell ads against them, so I was at the camera
times and it was competitive because their ads were cheap
and shit, and their movie reviewer hates movies, but he
likes free shit, so that's why he's their movie reviewer.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Each episode of Mister Squiggle unfolded with the same comforting rhythm.
Mister Squiggle would arrive from the moon Banter with his
human co host and draw pictures from children's squiggles. Alongside
him were a small cast of supporting pupplic characters that
we've talked about, Miss Pat who was always the co
host no matter what her name actually was, Bill Steamshovel,
(25:31):
Gus the Snail, and the perpetually grumpy Blackboard, whose catchphrase
hurry yup.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Horry Yup became Horry.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Became iconic.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I hope I'm doing these justice. I am actually trying.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
He's trying to remember Horry hurry up. While the humor
was simple, there was an undercurrent of improvisational wit that
appealed to adults watching with their kids. The shows for
values were famously modest, but that was part of its charm.
The hand painted sets, the visibly handmade puppets, the unpolished transitions,
(26:09):
all of it felt intimate and accessible, as if the
audience was part of the playroom. More than that, mister
Squiggles celebrated imperfection. The very premise of turning messy, unfinished
Squiggles into art port generations of children. The mistakes could
be the beginning of creativity, not the end of it,
which is something I continually fail to remember.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah, watch you may not know about me, watching me
know about me? Is I am a decent painter point
now where people are very happy to actually receive my
work as gifts. And I cannot tell you how many
(26:52):
times I fuck something up look at it and go, huh,
that's cool, that it's interesting. You can do something with this,
And you can, and you know, you follow those mistakes through.
There's this incessant need, I think, these days of people
wanting to get everything right. And I've got to get
the I got to get the perfect say done, I've
(27:16):
got to get the perfect exam results.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I have to write the perfect book the first time
with no editing.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, I have to make the perfect podcast. I have
to have the perfect life. I have to have the
perfect this. I have to have the perfect that. And
I love the moral of mister Squigglers. You know, creativity
starts in a in a mass of chaos. That's kind
of the fun of it, you know, in a world
where everyone is striving for the perfect self and the
perfect family and the perfect kids, and perfect perfect dog,
(27:45):
the perfect cat on top of the dog, and then
there's a mouse on top of the cat writing the dog.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Corpross on top of the mouse, and then you call.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Protected always extend so far, Holly, Yes, you know I
do like the like the moral of mister Squiggle.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You know, mister Squiggle was supplying happy accidents and fixing
happy accidents long before Bob Ross even got into it.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Miss Heatherington's father was a talented cartoonist who was drawn
to puppets because he saw them as three dimensional cartoons.
Heatherington's puppets, Nicky and Noodle, were even on air on
the first night ever of ABC TV broadcasting, but mister
Squiggle was by far the most successful. A lot of
young people talk about the fact that mister Squiggle helped
them to pick up a pencil and just start drawing.
(28:32):
Miss Heatherington said, my father loved that because he didn't
want to be didactic about how you draw. You just
needed to let your imagination take you wherever it led.
Quote from National Museum of Australia requires collection of miss
we will create a Norman Heatherington Blotty Toyford ABC, Monday,
twenty ninth of April twenty twenty four. So I'm assuming
(28:52):
mister Squiggle will be part of a permanent display of
Australian at some point.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
So as far as I've been able to work it out,
part of his collection is in the National Archives, and
part of it is in the National Museum, and part
of it's in the National Library.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Whether or not they'll all be on display in a
rotation or whether they'll be put into like at the
moment in the National Museum, having all of them at once,
I don't know. I'm unfortunately I'm not privy to that
kind of informations.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
It's safe.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Everyone's got a piece of it, so even if one
building floods, some part of it will survive. Which has
happened in the National Archives before you give me that shit.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
National Archives one of the most haunted buildings in camera.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
As television evolved through the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties,
Mister Squiggle remained steadfastly itself. The ABC shifted it through
different timeslots, updating the set design and introducing new hosts,
including Pat Lavelle, the first host, Jane Fennel, and Miss
Julie Miss Jane.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
My mum grew up with Miss Jane, so that's the
whenever you bring up Mister Squiggle with mum, it's a
he's Miss Jane, Miss Jane.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Whereas we grew up with Miss Rebecca, which was Heatherington's
order because she was the nineteen nineties host. Heatherington's quiet
genius held it all together. His puppetry was entirely manual.
There was no hidden wires or automation. He often described
himself as a one man band, juggling, sketching, dialogue and
(30:26):
performance simultaneously while peering through the bottom of the puppet
stage to see what he was drawing.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Upside down.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
He was upbraiding all three of those puppets at once,
and the only way he could actually draw. And I
figured this out watching stuff was there was actually a
rod through mister Squiggle's hat and that's how he could
control it. The longest time I thought he was doing
it with strings and couldn't work out how he got
the pressure, like it's an oil pastel on the tip
of his nose, which I also found out watching the documentaries.
(30:55):
But I could never work out how he got the
pressure to actually draw, and that's how he did it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
It makes sense.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Heatherington's artistry extended far beyond the puppet. He continued to
work as a cartoonist and an illustrator, producing educational materials
and comics, and was deeply involved in the Australian puppetry community.
He served as president of the Puppetry Guild of New
South Wales, mentoring younger puppeteers and promoting the craft as
an art form. His influence can still be traced through
(31:24):
generations of Australian artists, animators and educators who grew up
watching him make magic out of lines and laughter.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Thirty five years ago, twelve year old boy in Newcastle
wrote to Norman, not really expecting a reply from such
a prominent person. The boy was already a member of
the Puppetry Guild of which Norman was president. He asked
how to go about stringing a marionette for a trapeze act.
A reply came with the detailed drawing alternative methods of stringing,
references for further research Hiss from personal experience, and it
(31:54):
was signed all the best in h The puppet's construction
began that afternoon. That boy Surry Rain became a very
successful puppet here and as an adult, struck up a
close friendship with Norman, who became a mentor. A week
before Norman died, Murray was at his bedside getting advice
on his latest puppet, Murray's launchy cabaret marionettes, decked out
(32:15):
in feathers and sequins, were hardly what mister Squiggle would
have been used to on the moon, but with a
quick swirl of a pencil, Norman captured the mood with
designs for Murray's sexy divers. As he often said, you
never know what you can do until you try. Quote
from Norman Heatherington, nineteen twenty one, twenty ten, Open Magazine,
(32:35):
December tween ten.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
By the nineteen nineties, mister Squiggle had become an absolute institution.
It was one of the longest running children's programs in
Australian TV history, with an estimated two thousand episodes produced.
They were only about five ten minutes long, but they're
still it's a lot of episodes. The show evolves subtly
over time. The plet palette brighton because of course it
(33:00):
went from black and white and into color. The Squiggles
became more elaborate, but its tone never really wait. In
an era increasingly dominated by fast paced imported animation, Mister
Squiggle stood out as handmade and distinctly Australian.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Heatherington was philosophical about the huge advances in television production
since nineteen fifty nine. What you saw is what happened,
he said of the early days, but indicated it hadn't
all been to his artistic paste. Everything's on computer now.
I find it rather depressing, but you've got to move
with the times. I guess I prefer the folk art
sort of approach rather than the slick computer generated images.
(33:41):
I've got a couple of grandchildren or way out in
space with these computer games. That's incredible, he said, genuinely impressed,
rather than boomboozled. What they were able to experience on
their computer screens. Oh well, time marches on, he sighed
before saying the agabys. But mister Squiggles still got to
keep the moon to make sure it's shiny and bright.
(34:03):
When the new moon has to appear, the squiggle a
day keeps well something away. Ha ha goodbye. Quote from
thank you, mister Squiggle for the Moon, Jeff Sheerer at
The Courier Mail, December nine, twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
When the show finally ended in July nineteen ninety nine,
it wasn't because audiences had lost interest. It was because
Heatherington's health was declining and he felt it was time
to step away. He was seventy eight years old and
after forty years of bending over a puppet stage, his
hands and back could no longer keep up with the
demands of life puppetry.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
And guess who was in power at the time who
stripped the ABC of funding.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Well, it was possibly their cheapest show to produce because
everything had been made forty years before.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But have they been told to cut? I mean, think
about everything that died around this time? Twist majamas went
on pajamas. You know what else was killed off? Lift
off got two seasons.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Johnson and Friends was gone by then.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
There's a lot of there's a lot lot of shit
gone within that that period of time, and a lot
of it is because of the Howard cuts to the ABC.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
The ABC marked the show's end with quiet dignity, allowing
mister Squiggle to drift back to the moon rather than
fizzle out. After the show's retirement, Heatherington received numerous honors
for his contribution to Australian culture.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Heatherington was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in nineteen
ninety for services to children's programs and puppetry. Last year,
he was presented with the coveted Jim Russell Award by
the Australian Cartoonist Association for outstanding contribution to Australian cartooning.
Quote from End of the Line for Mister Squiggle animator
Lenie Vessek The Australian, December seven to twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
He also received an Award for Excellence in Art Design
and Education in two thousand and five from the University
of New South Wales College of Finance. Heatherington continued to
give interviews and attend puppet festivals right up until he's
passing in twenty ten at the age of eighty nine.
His wife, Margaret, who wrote the scripts for Mister Squiggle
(36:20):
and worked alongside her husband for his whole run on
the show, passed away in twenty eleven. Even after its
final broadcast, Mister Squiggle's shadow lingered large in Australian cultural memory.
The puppets are now housed at the Australian National Museum
of Australia. Are now housed at the National Museum of
Australia for their Mister Squiggle and Friends exhibit an anniversary
(36:43):
specials occasionally resurface, sparking ways of nostalgia. In twenty nineteen,
to mark the show's sixtieth anniversary, the Australian Mint released
a commemorative coinset featuring Mister Squiggle, blackboard gusts and bill
steam shovel.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And guess what's behind you in that ace?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We don't have mister Squiggle. We have pajamas.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
No, no, we have mister Squiggle too. When did you
get that, oh ages.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Ago, Well there you go. We have mister Squiggle.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Don't let my aunt we have mister Squiggle. We've got
bananas and pajamas. We've got the Wiggles and we have Bluey.
Don't let my art he sad? Does she? After mister
Squiggle say it?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I remember when it came out, mom, and everyone was
trying to find one for her.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Oh did no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
But the glass cases of the Museums exhibit. Isn't the
end of the puppets performances. As part of the preservation
of mister Squiggle and his friends, the National Museum has
recorded his grandson Tom performing with them, taking scans to
understand the mechanics and such of them and to preserve
the performances of these icons into the future. It's a
living You don't just put them in a box and
(37:55):
leave them.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
I hate puppets being put in boxes and there you know.
They gotta gotta breathe life into the man. The Museums
Changeable in Digital Collections team, in collaboration with doctor Andrew
Yep from the uns W Sydney, has captured the puppet
performer relationship and the puppeting artistry transmitted from Norman to Tom,
using techniques often seen in the films, highlighting puppets chosen
(38:19):
by Tom for their intricate working on personal memories of
Norman the dentists, the Octopus and Punch and Judy. Punch
and Judy are classics. They come from Ali. They I
don't know, you tell me. They come from Comedia d' latte.
So part of my HSA was unpuppeting. We specifically look
(38:40):
at punching Judy. There was a couple of classic characters
that used to be Italian.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
They seventeenth century Italian.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
There you go, Yeah, that makes sense. Comedia dallate. Yeah,
that sounds Italian, doesn't it, not French. I'm an idiot. Yeah,
So they're they're classics. And Judy, you know, it's like
an angry married couple. So and see, the thing is
is these comedic sensibilities have a through line. Right. So
(39:11):
you start in Italy and then you end up with
the Honeymooners, and then you end up with the Flintstones,
and then you end up with the Simpsons, right, and
it has a through line in the middle of that
is that married with children. That's one It's one of
the reasons why that like whenever there's austerity, you know,
(39:32):
whenever times are tough, what's the first fucking thing that
people bring up after we need to stop off all
aid funding other countries. What's the second thing that comes up,
run into the arts. Cut the arts, cut the arts,
cut up those arts, make sure those artists have no hands,
cut their hands off. That's the first thing that fucking
(39:53):
comes up, straight after the no more aid funding to
any other country. That is in Australia, Heatherington doesn't exist
without arts punning, all right. All that beloved shit from
the Abaca that you love when you're a kid you
here from, right, all of that goes away without arts punning, Right,
(40:19):
That's why we're so fucking bankrupt when it comes to
stuff for kids outside of Blue Eye, Well.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
We have to go to America for all of it now.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Right when you cut like Sesame Street has been privately
owned now for I think half a decade so HBO
Max was funding it and now I believe it's moving
over to Netflix, right because the Americans cut funding for PBS,
(40:48):
right because they didn't lie the fucking big Bird was
teaching kids to get on right, it's always the arts
to get cut. And every time that happens we lose
this sort of stuff every fucking time. The Howard era,
the Liberal government they were in the woreus for gutting
the shit out of stuff like this. You know. Now,
(41:10):
obviously Heatherington did require but do you think discussions were
had about continuing on. Probably not, because they thought, well,
we cut this and that's at least six salaries that
we don't have to pay anymore. Yep, you know that's
that's the problem.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Man.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Like you lose the arts, you lose all the fun
shit that comes with it. Very sad.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
When you were a kid. Like when I was a kid,
I always assumed that the drawings and stuff that came
into TV shows was just shit that the producers built
at the backyard.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
No I bought in fully, I was like, kids sent
this in.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Well, I always thought that it was like I said,
it was that kind of crap. And then I found
an act short instance of someone who is in the
public public space now who actually had one her squiggles
shown on Mister Squiggle, and that is MP Anika Wells.
(42:18):
Actually have a video of her responding to this.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Roll the clip. Polly. Now, I wanted to start by
asking you about something we found deep within the ABC archive.
It's on the classic children's program Mister Squiggle.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Let's run the tape.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
So what should I make Rebecca well I don't know,
but maybe Anika Wells does because she's sent it in
from eight mile planes in Queensland.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Queensland, so you'll have to do something for something funny warm.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
It's a fish who's going for a holiday to the
tropics to Queensland.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
There we go, minut, Is there a holidaying fish? Now?
Was that the highlight of your childhood?
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I'm really proud of the age care reforms we've delivered.
I'm really proud of getting birth to twins in COVID
is the most marginal set in Parliament. But yeah, that
might be my proud spos So there you go. Her
greatest achievement is not her political career. It's being a
mister Squiggle.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
That's fair. I agree not to say that she's a
bad mpig. I just think that. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
If I got a Squiggle or mister Squiggle, it would
definitely be the highlight.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Of my world. Fuck yeah, Look. One of my favorite
moments of creative recognition was not being nominated for an
URALUS Award. It was when Medigliana's puppeteer thanked us for
the show, you know, thank us for doing that episode
(43:49):
that that was fucking kudos man.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
It felt good.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, fuck yeah I did because.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
I'm like, oh, I'm I'm validated. I didn't say anything,
and then the next weekend my dad rang up and said,
you fuck this up on Bathurst again.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
I take no responsibility. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Ultimately, mister Squiggle's legacy isn't just about nostalgia or television history.
It's about what Norman Heatherington and his family have managed
to achieve with little more than felt strength and imagination.
They built a world where creativity mattered more than polish,
where kindness and curiosity were the guiding principles, and where
(44:30):
a man with a pencil for a nose could show
millions of children that art in life is what you
make of it.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Absolutely, and Holly, I think very fittingly to see us out,
we might play a clip year of mister Squiggle returning
to the moon. Here we go. Well, thank you very much, Squiggle,
(44:58):
mister Squiggle doing that outro for.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Us coming out of retirement and visiting us.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It the wonders of editing. Well, ladies and gentlemen, thank
you so much for joining us. Hope you've enjoyed this
road of nostalgia. I hope that if you wanted to
go see mister Scoggle. You did go to the National Museum.
We love the National Museum. While I give them shit
for not help not laying as help promote their stuff,
(45:26):
Holly and I visit the National Museum at least two
three times a year, depending on that. The exhibitions held
these institutions are really important. A lot of them are free.
The majority of stuff is free, and it's free because
they have government funding. You know, please please remember, please
remember as we move into economic uncertainty that every time
(45:50):
someone says the words let's cut funding to government institutions
like the National Museum, you are taking something away from
children every time you do that. You know, very important
because I thought it was a great exhibition that they
put on for mister Squiggle, and it definitely brought a
smile to my face and taught me a few things
about its creator, which is what it's designed to do.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Also, did you know there's a link between Norman Lindsay
and Norman Heatherington, Because I fucking didn't until we went there.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
I don't think Heatherington would have been a sexy guy.
I think he was too wholesome. But Norman Lizzy liked
very large poster areas.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I like big but again.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
That last oh he lied all the time and he
liked big butts, so it's a contradiction. Well, ladies and gentlemen,
before we let you go, do you like big butts?
Send us in an email wee craft in Australia at
gmail dot com. Or do you like to draw pictures
of big butts? Would you like to send those into us?
Thank you? I knew you were do that. That was
(46:53):
too wholesome for the whole episode, Holly, you gotta let
me get in a little bit of unwholesomeness. You can
also find us out on your social media of choice.
Just hoping we crapping Australia into that search, but we
should pop up. I said, like, you know, if you
want to show us an email week crap in australiat
gmail dot com, because I'm sure you're too busy laughing
at my wonderful joke to actually hear the email address.
(47:16):
So you can also help support the show. We don't
have any government funding. We are just two people and
two microphones. If you would like to help us out,
you can head to our Patreon friendly five dollars USD
a month, you get access to our bonus minisodes as
well as these episodes at least to you, completely uncut,
including big butt editions. That's a new thing that's coming out.
(47:37):
You know, it's funny. It's now uploading our Plasic episodes
to YouTube. So there's some great animation actually, and I
don't want to oversell it. It's just a little bit
of animation, but there's a little bit of animation there'd
like to revisit some of those classic episodes or share
them with a friend who doesn't like podcasts, likes YouTube,
please do. And you know, one of our while our listeners,
(48:01):
was like, oh, we'd love to see the hosts do
a podcast rather.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Than just like the animation loop. And you recorded this
seven and a half years ago. That is not happening.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
I'm going to destroy your illusions here people, right, I've
got headphones on at the moment. I'm pretty sure I've
got a nasty fucking cold. I'm wearing track pants, wet
pants in America, Polly still in a working uniform. Do
you really want like there.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Is no there is no hair and makeup in this house.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
There's no hair and makeup. There's no fabulous studio, you know,
so we'll probably save the video podcast for who are
more photogenic like Conan O'Brien. Yes, he does have lovely guests.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know, he used to have lovely hit he did.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
He did. You can also check out our book series
week Crap in Australia. We want to Six are available
from our Great makes Impact Comics dot com dot a.
You mail will send that out to you wherever you
are in the world. Don't forget if you are going
to give some money to your small local businesses, think
about Impact Comics. It's really tough time at the moment
for all small business so that's why we sell our
(49:11):
physical books through them. If you're living overseas and you
still want that book, you can head to our print
onto me and service at Lulu dot com. And if
you want to grab the digital edition and why would you?
These books are fantastic and it's nice to hold something.
But if you would like the digital edition, you can
find that on the hindle stop. Otherwise, as is our customer,
give Plea the final words.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
So when I go back through all of this and
do all the editing stuff, what I'm going to do
is I'm actually going to get a clip of blackboard,
and every time you go off on a random rant,
I'm going to have him in the background going, oh,
I think that'll be a bit of fun immersion.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
So hurry and at the end of the upside Down,
so all you have to do is flip your phone
upside down and listen to.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Us again upside down on upside down hurry up. Well
that's it for all. That's all the nostalgia that you
can bleed from my old dead.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
Hands, at least for this episode anyway.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Old dead larynx for this week, ladies and gentlemen, and
until next week, please be safe, be fund to each other,
and we will see you next week for more Weird
Crap in Australia. Until then, it's off at the.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Moon upside down, upside down, hurry up.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
The Weird Crap in Australia podcast is produced by Holly
and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown. If you've enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review on your favorite podcatching app.
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