Little Girl Blue

The television industry seems to have the notion on occasion that it is a tribe of electronic Watusi. too tall to recognize anyone but giants. At award time each spring, the critics bow before Hope, proclaim faith in Dinah, show charity toward Sullivan. Last week the Peabody Awards committee changed TV scripture by singling out a cheery and engaging local show for one of its top awards. Shown only over Chicago's independent WGN-TV (Mon., 7:30-8 p.m.), The Blue Fairy in little more than a year captured Chicago youngsters without a struggle; now it has recognition as one of the top children's programs of 1958 and the further distinction of being the only program on an independent station on the list.

The weekly fascination begins when one of the daintiest (5 ft. 3 1/2 in., 87 Ibs.) of fairies, 14-year-old Brigid Mary Bazlen, floats into view on elfin wings. Waiting for her. seated on imitation mushrooms in the Blue Forest, are half a dozen moppets. Brigid sings her charges a song, offers a quiet moral (letter writing is a good thing), and manages to keep her wings on even when things go a little wrong, as they did when one recent guest announced plainly: "I hate you. Blue Fairy."

It is not a widely held opinion. Nor is the show merely a catchall collection of kids exercising their ids. The lords of the Blue Forest are really a remarkable group of puppets created by ex-Actor George Nelle, 34. and Writer-Director Don Kane, 30. As Hostess Brigid and her small guests sit by and offer advice, creatures named Tugnacious R. Jones and Myrtle Flower ("She's an Eloise type") join an old, nasal-voiced wizard in such projects as constructing a popcorn machine that will not stop popping, and making a sewing machine that turns out marbles.

If the show must admit kinship to Kukla, Fran and Ollie and Walt Disney, it is still the healthiest baby in the TV nursery. Brigid Bazlen claims no professional antecedents at all. Daughter of Chicago Fashion Commentator Maggie Daly Bazlen (Brigid's father is dead), she began at the age of ten with a part in an ABC network soaper called Hawkins Falls, lasted 2 1/2 years before she was tapped for Puppeteer Nelle's show. A miracle of poise on camera, the Blue Fairy is still a refreshingly down-to-earth teen-ager offstage. Celebrating the Peabody with her mother at Chicago's glossy Pump Room, Brigid downed two full dinners, including two bowls of whipped cream for dessert. The professional goodies are just starting. After the Peabody Award last week, the Blue Fairy is almost a sure bet for a network time slot soon.

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