Growing up as a young lad in the 1980s, I loved The Friendly Giant.
Every weekday, the familiar tune of Early One Morning signaled the start of another episode as the camera panned over a small town until a giant’s foot appeared.
Then, in a deep voice, said.
“Look up…waaaaaay up.”
For the next 15 minutes, I was treated to the wonderful interactions between The Friendly Giant, Rusty the Rooster and Jerome the Giraffe.
But one day when I turned on the television to watch my show, I didn’t see that giant boot.
I didn’t hear the song.
There was no rooster. No giraffe.
Instead, there was a bearded man with a backpack, and he was running through the trees, jumping a fence in a field, then crawling through a log into a secret grove.
It was a shock at first but soon I would love this new show as much as I loved The Friendly Giant.
I’m Craig Baird and this is Canadian History Ehx…Biography!
Today, I am talking to the man that replaced the giant and became beloved by a generation of Canadians…This is Fred Penner!
Fred Penner was born in Winnipeg on Nov. 4, 1946, to Lydia and Edward Penner.
And from birth it seemed he was destined to perform.
Both his parents loved music.
His father played the drums, clarinet and ukulele. His mother was always playing the piano and organ.
Fred said their home in Winkler, Manitoba was musical.
He had an older brother and sister, and thanks to them he was also introduced to rock and roll in the 1950s.
All of these influences created the perfect recipe for music to become a big part of Fred Penner’s life.
By the time he was four, he started to make up songs while on the bus with his mother.
In grade school, he had taught himself to play the guitar.
Penner says music became his companion.
When Fred was nine, his sister, Susan, was born.
She had Down Syndrome, and through her he saw how powerful music could be as a therapeutic tool.
“We’d sing almost any song that was on the radio, and we’d dance around and just play with music and rhythm. I recall how deeply she was touched by music. It took a while for it to really settle in and for me to realize how incredible this was.”
In the early-1960s, Fred attended Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The school has a few notable alumni ranging from scientists, NHL players, and even one very famous musician who was taking their first steps to musical superstardom at around the same time.
Neil Young.
Both Fred Penner and Neil Young appeared in the 1963 yearbook, although they were a grade apart and as far as we know, weren’t friends but what a band that could have been!
Like most teens at his age, after high school, Fred had to make a choice about his future.
He knew music was his focus but didn’t think he could make a living at it.
So, he chose academics and attended the University of Winnipeg where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
Fred then considered becoming a civil servant.
He even passed the government exam before deciding he couldn’t put aside his true passion… music. And like every great musician, he started at the bottom by playing bars and lounges, anywhere that would let the young singer-songwriter perform.
This eventually led to a collaboration with Al Simmons and Bob King to form the Cornstalk Comedy Troupe Fred said, they toured for four years in the mid-1970s as he got his first taste of success.
Fred also honed on becoming a great performer during that time by joining a Manitoba theatre company and was in productions of plays like Death of a Salesman, Hello Dolly and Fiddler on the Roof.
But music was always front and centre.
He also knew he wanted to make the world a happier place through songs. Fred said years later that the best way to do that was to reach children first.
“Children begin as pure beings. Music is a pure, universal language. Therefore, children understand music intuitively.”
By the late 70s Fred was working on his first album, The Cat Came Back.
The title song was written by Harry S. Miller in 1893 and told the story of a cat that a man was unable to get rid of no matter what he did.
Many Canadians may remember it from the Oscar-nominated National Film Board short film with the same name that would be released in 1988.
But Fred was thrust into the limelight almost a decade earlier when he released the album.
It went platinum in Canada with 100,000 copies sold and earned a Juno nomination.
He also signed to the same publishing company of fellow children’s entertainer Raffi, who in 1992, The Washington Post would go on to call him “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world”.
Fred Penner was in good company as he achieved his dream of creating music for children and this was just the first step.
From 1979 to 1985, Fred released one album every two years.
The Polka Dot Pony in 1981, Special Delivery in 1983 and A House for Me in 1985.
All three went platinum.
He also toured the country, playing at libraries, concert halls and gymnasiums.
Occasionally when he performed, young fans yelled out “Hi Raffi!”.
Fred never seemed to mind, and he came to expect it. He told Macleans in 1983,
“Sometimes they wander onto the stage for a chat. I expect spontaneity.”
CBC was also keeping an eye on Fred’s rise to prominence.
They were looking for a new show; butt it would come at a great cost.
In 1958, The Friendly Giant, starring Bob Homme, debuted on CBC long b before Mr. Dressup, Chez Helene or even Sesame Street, became the gold standard children across the country loved The Friendly Giant.
It was the best show on children’s television and one red-headed kid living in Armstrong, British Columbia always tuned in.
Me.
But there was one thing even a giant couldn’t handle.
Politics.
In 1984, the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney won 211 seats in the federal election.
The arrival of a new government meant deep cuts to the CBC and one of the victims was The Friendly Giant.
While CBC executives stated the cancellation had nothing to do with the cuts, Canadians across the country were outraged.
An editorial in the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix stated,
“No Friendly Giant on television! That’s like telling Virginia there is no Santa Claus! All the bureaucrats in the CBC hierarchy survived the budget cut but the Friendly Giant wasn’t big enough and the voices of the millions he has befriended over the years weren’t to be heard. Ahh, now who will our little people have to look up to? And where will parents ever find a better morning babysitter than the giant?”
The Friendly Giant ran for two more years in reruns, but its original time slot had to be filled.
For that, CBC turned to the man they had been tracking for the past few years.
Fred Penner.
Fred said he was surprised when he was suddenly approached by the CBC and feels like it fell right into his lap.
When they suggested the idea of a TV show to him, Fred viewed it as an opportunity to provide an alternative in children’s programming.
He felt shows were filled with violence and advertisements.
He asked CBC how the series would be structured, and they told him that whatever he wanted the show to be, they could make it happen.
That gave birth to Fred Penner’s Place
It had a simple premise.
Each episode began with Fred walking along a beach and into a forest.
Along the way, he observed animals in their natural habitat then he crawled through a hollow log, lined with carpet on the inside.
As he emerged on the other side, he introduced himself to the viewers.
The next 15 minutes were filled with songs, dances and a calm and relaxed atmosphere which Fred cultivated for his viewers.
The show debuted in late-1985, and Fred Penner’s Place received rave reviews.
Winnipeg Sun TV critic Rick Forchuk said,
“Penner’s personality is a delight, sitting somewhere between Raffi and Kermit the Frog.”
Despite the great reviews there were some that labeled Fred as “The Giant Killer”.
Taking over from the longest-running children’s show in North American history at the time would make some people question if they were up to the challenge.
Fred says he wasn’t fazed.
During that first year, the work schedule was rigorous to say the least.
Over the course of three months, he filmed four shows a day to get a full year’s worth of episodes ready.
Fred and the crew worked hard to finish production, which he said was an intense process and felt like a complex dance.
If a segment was filmed and it didn’t strike the right tone for Fred, it would be rewritten on the fly.
Fred says he wanted to respect his young audience by not insulting their intelligence with silly storylines.
Fred performed not just the opening music, but also ensured songs were part of every episode.
He worked closely with Dave Jandrisch, the musical director and a composer for the show.
Together, they worked closely to score the music for the series were. Fred often wrote the songs the night before taping.
Fred said in 1995,
“That’s my challenge as a creator is to write a good tune. Something that parents don’t get sick of when they hear it over and over.”
Fred Penner’s Place could not have come at a better time.
Baby Boomers were demanding quality entertainment for their children.
Fred says that in Canada, the answer was a new generation of entertainers like him, Raffi and Sharon, Lois and Bram.
Canada had three main channels back then.
Global, CTV and CBC.
When children watched TV in the mornings, they only had a few choices for programming.
Which meant Fred had a huge audience share, and he became famous overnight?
To Canadian children, Fred was a hero.
But for one girl in Ontario, he became a literal hero soon after the show debuted.
In the summer of 1986, a car and van collided on a highway outside Sault Ste. Marie.
A ten-year-old girl was trapped inside the car which had flipped over.
She was bleeding from her head and was in a state of shock.
Soon after the accident, a married couple pulled up, and the husband approached the car and started to calm the child.
The girl was shaking and hanging upside down, she looked over and yelled,
“Fred Penner is here! Fred Penner is here!”
It became one of Fred’s most cherished memories.
(PAUSE MUSIC TRANSITION)
Meanwhile, Fred’s career continued to prosper.
In 1987, what was a 15-minute show was expanded to 30-minutes as Fred Penner’s Place continued to receive rave reviews.
He picked up a Juno Award in 1989 for Children’s Album of the Year.
Two years later, he added the Order of Canada to his name.
With all the accolades and admiration, one memory from the show sticks out, but it was one that came as a result of a terrible tragedy.
In 1992, a driver suffered a seizure while behind the wheel on Yonge Street in Toronto.
The car went off the road and hit Marlene Coombs, killing her instantly.
She was the wife of Mr. Dressup actor Ernie Coombs, who was waiting for her arrival at a Mr. Dressup wrap party.
He was scheduled to appear on Fred Penner’s Place two weeks later.
While Fred told him they could cancel, Coombs insisted they continue as the appearance was something both, he and his wife were excited about.
It was one of the most emotional moments of his life.
By the mid-1990s, changes were on the horizon.
CBC had gone through management changes at the Children’s and Family Programs Division, and the decision was made to move away from the programming that had defined the network for decades.
Many landmark shows ended or were about to end.
Under the Umbrella Tree finished in 1994.
Mr. Dressup stopped production after 4,000 shows in 1996.
That same year Canadian Sesame Street ended after 24 years on the air.
CBC Playground, which included Dig & Dug with Daisy and Sharon, Lois & Bram, were on borrowed time because they were off the air by 1998.
Fred says that after 12 years on the air his show also didn’t survive.
The loss was devastating.
The show had served as a major creative outlet for over a decade.
He wrote hundreds of songs for the series and now wondered where that creative energy would go.
But as the saying goes… when one door closes another one opens and so he threw himself into creating music for other children’s shows like Tipi Tales which aired on APTN and YTV.
The extra time also allowed him to focus on his work with organizations such as UNESCO, World Vision and the National Conference on Down Syndrome.
But there was another avenue that Fred had never considered.
Performing for adults.
Mr. Dressup ended in 1996, Ernie Coombs embarked on a college tour called Tales from the Tickle Truck and it was highly successful as students flocked to see the man they grew up with.
Fred thought he could try the same thing.
It was more successful than he could ever have imagined.
The same kids who tuned in for Fred Penner’s Place were now in college and ready to hear from the musical man who came through the log.
And it helped him remain busy.
He released Sing with Fred in 2003, followed by albums Where in The World and Hear the Music in 2014 and 2017.
All three won a Juno Award for Children’s Album of the Year.
Because his adult fans were becoming parents and sharing his music with their kids.
And as he approaches 80 years old, Penner has no intention of stopping.
Over the course of his entire career, he has sold over one million albums and performed for more than one million fans.
What he has created is a legacy through song.
In 2011 he received the Order of Manitoba, the highest honour in the province which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence and achievement, thereby enriching the social, cultural or economic well being of residents.
In 2023, the University of Alberta bestowed Fred with an honorary for his work in supporting inclusivity and children’s advocacy.
In a world that can feel chaotic at times, it is nice to know there are people like Fred Penner out there making it just a little better.
I hope you enjoyed that look at the life of Fred Penner.
In two weeks, we are back with another episode of Canadian History Ehx Biography.
I’ll be chatting with actor, comedian and musician Lauren Ash!
