May 10, 2005

CHICAGO (ELCA) – Original television episodes of "Davey and Goliath" will be available on DVD in retail stores across the United States starting June 7. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Starlight Home Entertainment, Inc., Los Angeles, made select episodes available in a two-disc "Collector's Edition" package.

Davey and Goliath is a classic stop-motion animated television series starring Davey Hansen and his talking dog Goliath. Aired on commercial television in the 1960s and 1970s, Davey and Goliath is a property of the ELCA. The church's mission with Davey and Goliath is to bring "moral and faith-based values to a new generation of children in lively and engaging ways."

Disc one contains four 15-minute episodes – "Blind Man's Bluff," "Finders Keepers," "Stranded on an Island" and "The Kite" – and an interactive read-along of "The Kite." All programs have been restored.

"The restoration brightens the film without losing the charm of the original look," said Kristi S. Bangert, director for marketing and interpretation, ELCA Department for Communication. The restoration, completed by Screen Time Images, Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., "was a manual, frame-by-frame process requiring much care and detail," she said.

Disc two contains the 30-minute special "To the Rescue." At summer camp Davey, Goliath and friends rescue survivors of a plane crash. The special is also known as "Summer Camp."

The 2003 Davey and Goliath documentary "Oh, Davey! History of the Davey and Goliath Television Series" is also on disc two. Produced by the ELCA and broadcast on ABC television, the one- hour documentary showcases the development of Davey and Goliath and the stop-motion animation process. The documentary features interviews with Art and Ruth Clokey, original animators and creators of Davey and Goliath, Richard Sutcliffe, the program's original executive producer, and others.

Starlight Home Entertainment will distribute the two-disc set through B.J.'s Wholesale Club, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Wal-Mart and other retail stores nationwide. The DVDs will also be available at http://www.daveyandgoliath.org/ and Amazon.com on the Internet.

"I want to help bring back Davey and Goliath to people who watched it when they were kids and to a whole new generation of viewers," said Matt Feinstein, president, Starlight Home Entertainment.

"Starlight has fantastic relationships with important buyers for all major DVD titles on the ‘new releases' shelves of every major retail outlet in the country. That's really where Davey and Goliath DVDs need to be," he said.

"Faith-based programming is crossing over to mainstream audiences at one of the highest rates of all time, and classic TV on DVD sales are bigger than ever," according to Feinstein.

ELCA News Service