Gumby Makes Comback for New Kids’ Show
By Movieguide® Contributor
Despite decades of shows and movies, viewers still haven’t seen the last of Gumby.
The green clay figure and his sidekick Pokey are coming back to television through Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment in two new shows, both a kids’ show and an adult show.
Deadline reported, “GUMBY KIDS comes from Deeki Deke, who wrote on the first season of Disney’s Mickey Mouse shorts and was head writer for all three seasons of Netflix’s THE CUPHEAD SHOW!”
GUMBY KIDS will be a 52-part series containing 11-minute episodes. The show will focus on Gumby, the architect, who is a friendly planner of the city Gumbtasia. The city welcomes all misfits and outcasts, and Gumby’s shape-shifting abilities are used to help those in need.
Joining Gumby’s show are Gumby’s best horse friend Pokey, dinosaur Prickle, mermaid Goo and The Blockheads, Gumby’s enemies who try to bring down his big plans for the city.
Bento Box Head of Production Dana Cameron told Deadline, “We want to bring the character to kids, a lot of kids don’t know Gumby but the parents are the ones that are really going to vibe with Gumby Kids [initially]. Deeki Deke, who is our showrunner, is amazing and we feel that he’s got a really strong idea for the series that we’re really excited about. We’ve got a strong pitch and strong designs.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the history of Gumby:
Fox Entertainment recently acquired the rights to the iconic Gumby character and franchise.
“The original series had some very overt Christian episodes,” said Movieguide® Founder and Publisher Dr. Ted Baehr…
Art Clokey’s 1953 short film, GUMBASIA, featured the iconic clay, stop-motion animation style which caught the eye of producer Sam Engel.
Clokey created Gumby and other characters for the pilot episode of THE GUMBY SHOW called “Gumby on the Moon” in 1955. NBC would pick up Clokey’s first series in 1956 and help finance another show called GUMBY ADVENTURES.
Gumby also received a feature-length movie in 1995 called GUMBY: THE MOVIE.
Clokey was also known for DAVEY AND GOLIATH, a series that ran—on and off—from 1960 to 2004 and sought to teach children biblical and moral lessons.
