Casey and Finnegan were the puppet characters created by puppeteer, Judith Lawrence, for Mr. Dressup. One of the longest-running children’s shows on CBC television, it entertained and educated generations of Canadian children.
The show began in 1967, with Mr. Dressup going into his ‘tickle trunk’ and finding costumes in which to dress up. Casey, who was gender-neutral, and Finnegan, who did not speak to anyone but Casey, would watch as costumes and characters came together.
Ernie Coombs suffered a stroke and died in September 2001, but Judith Lawrence now lives on Hornby Island, 100 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. She still entertains people with the characters she created, ans is often shocked by their reaction: “People cry, which is not at all what I really expected,” she said in a recent interview on CBC Radio. “But they get all weepy because it’s part of their youth.”
Lawrence, originally from Australia, came to Canada to get some “overseas” work in order to qualify to work in Australia’s 1956 Summer Olympics.
While things worked out well at CBC working with Coombs, Lawrence said, working from year-to-year contracts and always wondering if Mr. Dressup would be renewed the following year, was not easy.
She worked with the team for 23 years eventually leaving when she became concerned about the consumption and commercialization of television. Judith Lawrence has left the two puppets to the CBC in her will. Then Casey and Finnegan will then be back in their tree-house, which awaits them in the CBC Museum.
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