The Pinky Lee Show

I know I’m not the only middle-aged adult with vivid, fond, and yes, sometimes even scary memories of the TV shows I watched as a child.  As a very young immigrant to the U.S., these shows were my main source of instruction in the language, culture, and shared myths and fantasies of my new country.  They also conveyed a tacit vision of what adults thought about children at that time – their needs, their interests, and what might entertain and/or educate them. 

In this blog, I want to talk about the children’s shows we watched when we were young, from whatever years that constituted for each of us.  I’d like to focus on shows that were created specifically for kids, not the sitcoms or other general-audience shows that we also watched (although that could be a great topic for another blog). 

One of my most vivid memories from my earliest days of TV watching is the day that I watched the live broadcast of the Pinky Lee Show when Pinky Lee appeared to have a heart attack right in front of his studio audience and millions of young, impressionable at-home viewers.   For those of you too young to have seen his show, Pinky Lee was clearly the inspiration for the Peewee character in Peewee’s Playhouse.   He was a demented clown-like and child-like little man in baggy pants, a loud checked jacket, a bow-tie and a funny little hat, who jumped and ran around a lot and sang funny songs.   I remember that he was very mischievous, always doing what he was told not to do, and often egging his audience on to misbehave as well. 

On the day in question, I was sitting on the living-room floor watching the show as my mother was in the kitchen.   I think it was at some point near the end of the show when Pinky suddenly stopped singing and running around and clutched his chest, looking straight at the camera, and said something like “Somebody please help me” before he keeled over onto the floor.   I think the camera stayed on the empty spot where Pinky had been standing for a few seconds, and then the TV went blank.  I remember running breathlessly into the kitchen and wailing at my mother, “Mommy, Pinky Lee fell down!  Pinky Lee fell down!” before I burst into tears.  

Some accounts say that Pinky didn’t actually have a heart attack but only collapsed due to some other ailment, but who knows what really happened?  At the time, I was sure that he had died, but he apparently survived this incident, though his TV career was never the same again.  Needless to say, this was a very traumatic event for me, something that could only have happened in those early days of live, unedited TV. 

I guess this is a pretty macabre memory.  I do have plenty of cheerful recollections as well, like my memories of Ding Dong School (one of the key ways that I learned English), Shari Lewis’ puppet show, and Captain Kangaroo, to name just a few. 

If you'd like to see more of Pinky Lee or your other favorite classic kids' TV shows, check out these DVD's:  Pinky Lee Show, Volume 1 ,  Kids TV of the 50's , or Hiya Kids: A Saturday Morning Box . 

Can you remember some of the first kids’ TV shows that you watched? Do you have gaps in your memories that you wish others could fill in?  I’d love to hear from you! 

 

 

Comments

[TT]

Great blog idea!
This story is part of my family history. On the monumental morning that our first TV (a Philco) was delivered and set up in the living room, we kids settled in to watch. Mom told the story that, after some hours, my brother, a bit bleary-eyed, wandered into the kitchen where she was making dinner. “How do you like the new television?” she asked. He replied with some hesitation, “It’s –ok.” “What’s the matter,” Mom asked, “Don’t you like it?” He replied with a perspective unique to that moment in history, before children were inculcated from birth in the technique of watching TV. He said, “It’s just -- it’s too long!”

[Judy Glassman]

I remember a local show called Captain Video & His Video Rangers. It was Star Trek on a budget, very low tech but to a 6 year old it was magic.
This was before Sputnik and the Apollo missions, so there was still an enormous amount of mystery involved in space travel. My parents thought it was junk, so of course I wanted to watch it all the more. I did have my illusions dashed however, when I won some sort of contest and was given tickets to a live broadcast. That space ship that looked so impressive on our black and white 10" Dumont set was pretty puny in the studio. Nevertheless an impression was made, and years later I went into television production as my life's profession!

[Marilyn Singer]

I watched Captain Video, too. I think he was my first crush. And I was also a Pinky Lee fan. Two of my favorite shows when I was a bit older (eight) were Robin Hood with Richard Greene and Sir Lancelot with William Russell. I wanted to BE Robin Hood and Sir Lancelot, not any of those namby-pamby maidens. I think that's why I took a class in fencing in college...

Fun idea, Jo!

[Didi]

Hadn't thought about these shows in ages - I remember Romper Room, Bozo the Clown, Shari Lewis and I think Mr. Rodgers (although this one might be a planted recovered memory). My son resisted watching the Rocky and Bullwinkle videos I brought home, but then absconded with them. I can tell you that those, at least, hold up pretty well.

[Ellen]

wonderful post! I never saw this show before - but after watching him run around and pant breathlessly, I can understand how he had a heart event.

[TT]

Did anyone see the show with Bozo the Clown when he thought the camera was off? I've heard several versions. In one, told to me by someone who did actually claim to have seen it, a kid said something which today would be bleeped and made a rude hand gesture. In another, Bozo made a strongly worded comment about the audience. Did these things really happen? Are there recordings somewhere? These must be the legendary origins of Crusty.

[Jo Holz]

Thanks for all the great comments and stories, everyone! TT, there are so many tales about kids' TV show hosts using profanity or saying nasty things about the audience when they wrongly thought that the microphone was turned off, it's hard to know which of them, if any, are actually true. In my home town of Boston, I think there was a local kids tv show host ("Big Brother" Bob Emery)whose show was cancelled when he said something bad on the air, but maybe this is just another variation on the myth. Perhaps it really did originate with Bozo. Does anyone know the real story?

[Steve Gorelick]

I aboslutely share this obsession with early kids programming. My Dad had been a radio actor who did kid's shows locally in LA when TV arrived. He couldnt make the transition for a perfectly understandable reason. His radio specialty was doing babies and little kids! A 22 year old who did 3 year olds was a bit of a problem for TV!

As someone who grew up in almost the same years that TV grew up, I soaked this stuff up. A lot of it, as you know Jo, was local and, if you ask anyone -- I mean anyone -- who grew up in 1950s and early 1960s LA who Tom Hatten or Engineer Bill or Sherrif John were, they will know. And they will start to sing theme songs immediately. A lot of local stations produced kid's shows to wrap around nationally distributed cartoons like Popeye.

One thing I have thought a lot about. Those hosts were gentle men. I can;t tell you how much I think I owe to a bunch of male hosts whose "brand" revolved around sweetness. The world was packed with enough macho posturing. These men showed a different way. Bob Keeshan, Tom Hatten, Fred Rogers, Bill Stulla, John Rovick.

I wrote something about this when Fred Rogers died.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0303/p09s01-coop.html

I can't wait to follow the blog. Good luck.

PS I can't wait till we get to Frances Horwich and Ding-Dong School!

[Jo Holz]

Steve, great observation about the "gentle men" who hosted many of these kids' shows back then. Seems to me they constituted one category of male hosts, while Pinky Lee represented a contrasting model of the wacky, mischievous, and more childlike persona(though Pinky was also sweet in his own way). We'll definitely be discussing Ding-Dong School soon...

[Lida daidaihua]

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