Damned if I Know!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Kid's Shows

I'm not sure why (other than the 3 glasses of wine I've had tonight), but I was thinking about some of the more memorable kid's shows from MY childhood (yes, I was one once!!!), through the early days of my kids.

Here, dear friends, is my (somewhat) twisted view of what these shows were REALLY about:

Captain Kangaroo

Here's a slightly chubby, middle age guy with a pageboy hairut and mustache, who hangs out with a farmer, a rabbit and a moose. . . I'm thinkin' there was some pretty wierd shit goin' on back stage. . . No wonder I would rather just forget my childhood. . .

Howdy Doody

Ol' Buffalo Bob hangin' with Howdy, whose strings are forever being yanked by bad jokes. Worse, they made the poor little wooden head hawk sugar-coated breakfast cereals and other useless crap. . . Then there's Clarabelle the Clown, Princess Winter-Spring-Summer-Fall and a few others just to add to the wierdness. Great character-building stuff that was . . . . Tell me drugs weren't popular in the 50s. . . .

Romper Room

I'm thinkin' Miss Nancy had another agenda going on behind the scenes. Nobody is that sweet. . . Not even me LOL!!

The Mickey Mouse Club

Let's face it, Ol' Walt was a perv. . . He had a thing for Annette, or maybe Tommy. . . Or both. . .

Bozo the Clown

This was a franchise deal with a different Bozo in every major city. . . Not unlike Congress. . . My fondest memory of our local Bozo (this was a live broadcast in the late 60s) was a wide shot of the studio audience with a little boy about 6, flipping off the camera. Bozo squatted down beside the little darling and said: "That's a Bozo No-No". . . To which the kid replied. . . "Climb it clownie". . . . Priceless!!

Soupy Sales

Based in Motown and syndicated around the country, the Soupster was the master of the double entandre. His show was as much for adults as the kids. Some of the outtakes I've seen from his show are priceless.

I had the good fortune to meet him in the mid-90s when he was doing a comedy club tour. His stage show was a masterpiece. I cried when I heard he had passed away.

H.R. Pufnstuf

I don't think it's any secret what Ol' H.R. was puffin. . . . 'Nuff said???

Mr. Rogers

Sorry, I'm not even goin' there. . . I think Eddie Murphy nailed it on SNL. . .

PeeWee's Playhouse

Let's see. . . Ol' PeeWee gets nailed by the cops for "skinin' the lizzard" in a porno theater. . . What more do we need to know??

Teletubbies

I'm pretty sure those things on the tops of their heads were handles, so you could throw them far far away from your children. . .

Barney and Friends

Don't even get me started on what was wrong with THAT picture. . .

Feel free to add any of your favorites. I'm sure I forgot a few. . .

Plus, I know there were hundreds of local kids’ shows in other major markets. Among them here:

Mr. Hotdog (yes, I CAN prove it!!!), Captain Muddy (a tug boat captain on the Detroit River), Johnny Ginger (a bellhop, who hosted some of the worst cartoons ever seen) and Al E. Kat & Panzy (really bad puppets with seemingly no script or other direction). . . They weren't good at "winging it". . .

Enjoy your weekend!!!

HUGGSS!!

Posted by Lauren :: 8:41 PM :: 8 comments