Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins

Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins
Genre	Children's sitcom
Starring	Robin Eveson John Candy Gilda Radner
Country of origin	Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
Production
Executive producer(s)	Don Elder[1]
Producer(s)	Trevor Evans[1]
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBC Television
Original run	23 September 1974 (1974-09-23)[2] – 14 April 1975 (1975-04-14)

Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins was a CBC children's television series which ran three afternoons a week from 23 September 1974 to 14 April 1975.

Although the show was cancelled after one season, it was notable for the number of cast members who went on to successful careers. Some of the cast members were also seen in the following season on the CBC Television series Coming Up Rosie.

Cast

• John Candy
• Robin Eveson (as Billy Meek)
• Dan Hennessey
• Bob McKenna
• Rosemary Radcliffe
• Gilda Radner
• Fiona Reid
• John Stocker

Premise

The show centered around scenes set in the bedroom of a young boy named Billy Meek with robot/computer-like puppets called Zunkins named Zooey and Dunkin who would come to life each episode out of a comic book featuring the adventures of the never seen superhero Dr. Zonk. The rest of the cast were featured in randomly-themed comedy sketches that the Zunkins would show to their human friend.

Reception

A survey of 600 potential viewers found that the series was deemed childish and that viewership was being lost to competing American sitcoms. This led the producers to feature several of the performers in an entirely new series, Coming Up Rosie, based on a more conventional sitcom concept.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Can Rosie catch up with the kids?". Montreal: The Gazette. 27 September 1975. p. TV Times 16. http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=1FQ0AAAAIBAJ&pg=4598,3688285. Retrieved 10 May 2010. 
2. ^ Corcelli, John. "Coming Up Rosie". Canadian Communications Foundation. http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=620. Retrieved 2010-04-27. 
3. ^ Corcelli, John (August 2005). "Dr. Zonk & the Zunkins". The History of Canadian Broadcasting. Canadian Communications Foundation. http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=1079. 

External links

• Queen's University Directory of CBC Television Series: Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins (text link)
• Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins at the Internet Movie Database