Kukla, Fran, and Ollie

   

I have only fuzzy memories of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, a wonderful puppet show that was one of the first kids’ shows on TV.  I wish I could remember it more clearly, because from all accounts, it was one of the most creative, sophisticated, and entertaining kids’ shows in TV history.  Created by puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, who handled all the puppets on the program, the show debuted in 1947 on the NBC station in Chicago, the source of so many great children’s programs in the early days of television.  In 1949, it became an NBC network show and was broadcast nationwide until 1954, when it moved to ABC, where it ran until 1957.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie quickly became enormously popular and was the first children’s show to attract a large adult audience.  The format consisted simply of host Fran Allison standing in front of a puppet stage and interacting with Kukla and Ollie, the two puppet stars of the show, along with a host of other puppet characters. The secret to the show’s success was that it combined a simple format and seemingly gentle, sweet atmosphere with adult-level wit and sly satire.  

Amazingly, each show was completely ad-libbed, a fact that most child viewers must have been oblivious to (I certainly was).  When you watch old videos of the show today, you can hear the crew laughing off-screen during some of the funnier moments.  They were apparently as surprised and entertained by the unscripted comedy as the viewers at home were.

The puppets on the show were designed in the traditional Punch and Judy style, but they didn’t engage in slapstick, and their personalities were much more nuanced.  Kukla was a sweet and gentle clown who served as the sensible though somewhat over-earnest leader of the group.  Ollie was short for Oliver J. Dragon, a mischievous snaggle-toothed dragon who often instigated the funnier interchanges on the show.  There were a host of other puppet characters collectively referred to as the Kuklapolitans, including Fletcher Rabbit, the town mailman and fussbudget, Madame Ophelia Oglepuss, a former opera diva, Beulah Witch, a liberated witch, stage manager Cecil Bill, who spoke a language that only the other puppets understood, Colonel R.H. Crackie, a courtly southern gentleman, Ollie’s mother Olivia Dragon, and Ollie’s cousin, Dolores Dragon, who started out as a toddler and grew into a teenager during the years that the show ran.  Host Fran Allison, the only human who appeared on air, served as straightman to the puppets but could also hold her own during the often-rapid improvised banter.

What made Kukla, Fran, and Ollie unique was how well-developed and three-dimensional the puppets’ characters became during the show’s run.  Through the ad-libbed banter that took place during each episode, viewers learned more and more about the distinct personalities and individual as well as family histories of each of the characters, so that the show created a varied and engrossing world populated by characters that the audience felt they really knew and quickly came to love.

After ABC cancelled Kukla, Fran, and Ollie in 1957, it returned to NBC in the form of 5-minute vignettes.  In 1967, the KFO cast began hosting the CBS Children’s Theater, but they only provided a brief introduction to each show and segues between commercials.  The Kukla, Fran, and Ollie show was revived on PBS from 1969-1971, and later appeared in occasional syndicated specials. 

The earliest Kukla, Fran, and Ollie show kinescopes have only recently become available in a wonderful DVD set, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, the First Episodes: 1949-54.

You can also see Kukla, Fran, and Ollie in the DVD collection  Hiya Kids!  A 50's Saturday Morning Box.  

Wonderama

 

Wonderama was a very popular and long-running kids' show that aired from 1955 to 1978.  It originated from WNEW-TV in New York City and also appeared on the Metromedia-owned stations in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Cincinnati, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Kansas City. 

Wonderama was a variety show with a studio audience of enthusiastic kids and featured a range of segments that included games, contests, interviews, audience participation, musical performances, and cartoons.  The show ran three hours long on Sunday mornings, and there was also a one-hour weekday version for a time.   It had a series of hosts over the years, but the longest-running and best-known were Sonny Fox and Bob McAllister. 

The show reached its peak of popularity under McAllister, the former host of a children's show in Baltimore.  McAllister was a multi-talented performer who sang, played guitar, and clearly had a way with kids.  He presided as ringmaster over a fast-paced three hours of fun and games, including several regular features: 

• "Snake Cans" -- McAllister would choose a series of kids from the audience to open one of ten tin cans arrayed on a long table. Nine of the cans were filled with spring-loaded "snakes" that would fly out when the cans were opened. The tenth can held a bouquet of artificial flowers. All the kids received small prizes, but the child that picked the can with the flowers would win the grand prize, usually a fancy bicycle. All the children also had to answer trivia questions correctly before they received their prizes, but McAllister did his best to see to it that they got the answers right.
• "Does Anybody Here Have an Aardvark?" -- McAllister would pick kids from the audience to show off unusual objects they had brought in with them.
• "Wonderama-a-Go-Go" -- This was an American Bandstand-type dance contest, later renamed "Disco City," in which the kids competed to win a prize. The record that the children danced to was brought in by "The Disco Kid," a boy dressed in a Lone Ranger-like outfit.
• "Exercise, Exercise!" -- All the kids in the audience (and undoubtedly most of those watching at home) got up and worked out.
• "Good News" -- McAllister picked children from the audience to read happy news items from newspapers around the country, and then asked other audience members if they had any of their own good news that they wanted to share.
• "Whose is Whose is Whose?" -- Four children and four dads were introduced, and kids from the studio audience had to guess which dad was which child's father.
• "Guess Your Best" -- This was a game-show-type segment in which three kids competed to guess the results of audience polls and relay races.
• "Head of the House" -- This segment featured kids competing against each other in various quirky competitions, like gerbil races, balloon-breaking contests, and so on. The child who won the most competitions was named "Head of the House."

Because it originated from New York, Wonderama was able to feature some of the top stars of the day, including Abba, the Jackson Five, Jerry Lewis, the cast of Monty Python, and even boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, who competed against each other in a game of marbles. 

The show would end with McAllister singing the show's theme song "Kids Are People, Too."  This became the program's title when it later aired briefly as a national network show on ABC. 

This song embodied McAllister's approach to the show, which he treated as a kids' version of The Tonight Show combined with The Today Show, with a little touch of circus thrown in.  He was never patronizing to his young audience and seemed genuinely to be having a good time interacting with his guests and the audience as he kept things moving along.  Wonderama and McAllister developed a loyal and devoted following who still remember the show fondly today. 

Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney

Paul Winchell was a superb ventriloquist, comedian, singer, and all-around multi-talented performer who appeared with his featured dummy sidekick Jerry Mahoney on NBC in the 1950's.  Winchell and his wooden co-star were originally seen in primetime on the Spiedel Show and later moved to Saturday mornings, where they hosted the Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show.

 

Broadcast live, the show was set in Jerry Mahoney's Clubhouse and featured an audience of twenty children who competed for prizes and were entertained by the antics of Jerry Mahoney, the club president.  Other clubhouse members included Knucklehead Smiff, a country bumpkin who served as the club's vice-president, and Irving the Mouse, a scholarly rodent who lived in a piece of cheese at the clubhouse and helped Knucklehead Smiff with this homework. 

Jerry's personality was that of a sassy wise-cracking child/adolescent, and his interactions with Winchell usually consisted of Winchell becoming increasingly exasperated with Jerry's antics and insolence.   As you watch the hilarious clips below,  keep in the mind that this performance was broadcast on live TV.

 

As noted in comments to a previous post, there is often something unsettling and a little creepy about watching ventriloquists and their dummies, and the sketch in these videos certainly plays off that unease.   

After the Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show on NBC went off the air, Winchell and Jerry moved to ABC, where they hosted Circus Time and later the Paul Winchell Show on Sunday afternoons.

Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney can be seen on DVD in Rare Christmas TV Classics - Volume 1  and More Kids TV of the 50's and 60's!    

Winky Dink and You

   An interactive TV show in the 1950’s?!?  That’s right, Winky Dink and You, which aired Saturday mornings on CBS from 1953 to 1957, employed a simple but brilliant marketing gimmick that actually allowed kids to “interact” with the TV. The show featured host Jack Barry and his sidekick, the aptly-named Mr. Bungle, who showed clips of the animated adventures of a crudely-drawn star-headed, big-eyed little boy named Winky Dink and his dog Woofer.  

What made the show unique was the use of a “magic drawing screen” and set of special crayons that came in a kit that children could buy in order to interact with the cartoon.  The screen was actually a large TV-shaped piece of see-through vinyl that stuck to the TV screen by static electricity.  At a climactic point in every Winky Dink cartoon, Winky would encounter some obstacle or danger, along with a connect-the-dots picture included in the scene.  Winky Dink would then ask the children at home to help him out by connecting the dots on the screen with their crayons, and the resulting drawing would turn out to be a rope, ladder, bridge, or whatever Winky needed to solve his problem. 

The interactive screen was also used to send secret messages to the audience. A message would appear on the screen, but only the vertical lines of the letters in the message were visible.   Viewers at home would quickly trace these lines onto their magic screen. Then a second screen would appear showing only the horizontal lines, and when viewers also traced these onto their magic screens, the full message would appear.

Another way the magic screen was used was to have the viewers create the outline of a character with whom host Jack Barry would have a conversation. The scene appeared meaningless to viewers without the magic screen and the drawing.

Because of the ingenious magic screen, Winky Dink and You became a big hit in the 1950’s.  And the producers profited handsomely from sales of the screen and crayon kits, which every child had to have.  Of course, you can guess what happened in the homes of kids whose parents wouldn’t buy them the kits.  Some of them simply got out their own crayons and drew right on their TV screens, which couldn’t have been good for their parents’ expensive shiny new Philco or RCA set.   

Winky Dink and You was revived in syndication as a five-minute stand-alone cartoon from 1969-1973, but production was halted because of parents’ concerns about the possibility of radiation emanating from TV sets and about kids’ harming their eyesight by watching the TV screen from so close-up.  The continuing problem of kids drawing directly on the TV screen probably didn’t help matters either.

In an ironic footnote to the show’s history, host Jack Barry went on to fame and notoriety when he later became the host of Twenty-One, a popular prime-time quiz show that he also co-produced.  In 1958, it was revealed that Twenty-One’s top-prize winner Charles Van Doren had secretly been given the answers to some of the questions he correctly answered on the show.  Twenty-One was taken off the air, and Barry’s career was over. 

 

You can see the original version of Winky Dink and You on DVD in Kids' TV of the 50's or the later syndicated version ("magic screen" and special crayons included) in Winky Dink and You! Vol. 1-3.     

Soupy Sales

   

The Soupy Sales show was a unique kids’ show with lots of adult appeal that made us all feel like little hipsters.   Soupy, a multi- talented performer, hosted several local, national, and syndicated children’s shows from the 1950’s through the 1970’s, with broadcasts originating from Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York.   He reached the height of his popularity with the syndicated show produced in New York City beginning in 1964. 

Soupy’s show was a kind of ironic twist on the standard conventions of earlier kids’ TV shows, combining vaudeville antics (primarily in the form of frequent pies in the face, which became Soupy’s trademark), puppets, Laugh-In-style comedy sketches, musical numbers that made use of Soupy’s extensive jazz record collection, and guest appearances by major stars of the day, like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and singing groups like the Shangri-Las and the Supremes.  Much of the show was ad-libbed, which gave it a loose and slightly dangerous feeling – you knew that anything could happen on the show, and it often did.

The puppets on the show were pretty strange.  White Fang, billed as “The Biggest and Meanest Dog in the USA,” appeared only as a giant white shaggy paw at the edge of the TV screen.  Fang spoke only in grunts and growls, which Soupy hilariously translated for the viewers.  Fang threw pies at Soupy when Soupy’s jokes bombed.   There was also Black Tooth, “The Biggest and Sweetest Dog in the USA,” who  appeared as a giant furry black paw and spoke with similarly unintelligible but somewhat more feminine doggy sounds, and would pull Soupy off-camera to give him loud wet kisses.

Pookie the Lion was a little hand-puppet who appeared on a puppet stage behind Soupy.  Despite his cuddly appearance, Pookie was a hipster who engaged in rapid-fire repartee with Soupy.  He often greeted Soupy with, “Hey bubby, want a kiss?”  Pookie would mouth the words to jazz, soul, or pop recordings while he and Soupy bopped around to the music. 

 

Soupy’s show also featured a number of live characters, including Peaches, Soupy’s girlfriend, played by Soupy in drag; Philo Kvetch, a private detective played by Soupy; The Mask, Philo’s evil nemesis, also played by Soupy and later revealed to be deposed USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev; and Onions Oregano, The Mask’s henchman, played by actor Frank Nastasi, who was always eating onions.  Every time he breathed in Philo’s direction, Philo would choke and make faces, spray air freshener around, and exclaim, “Get those onions out of here!”

 

There are a couple of notorious incidents that took place on the show that illustrate how unpredictable and edgy the live show could be.   One occurred on New Year’s Day in 1965, when Soupy was apparently annoyed about having to do the show on a holiday.  At the end of the broadcast, Soupy urged his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents’ bedrooms and remove the “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of US presidents” from their parents’ wallets.  Soupy told the kids to put the bills in an envelope and mail them to him, promising to send them back a postcard from Puerto Rico.  Then he got hit in the face by a pie. 

When Soupy began receiving envelopes with cash in the mail, he was forced to explain on his show that he had only been kidding and would donate the unreturnable money to charity.  But complaints by parents poured into WNEW, the New York City station that produced Soupy’s show, and the station’s management suspended Soupy’s show for two weeks to try to appease the public.  Of course, this only generated a backlash by Soupy’s outraged fans, and even led to children picketing the station’s offices.  When Soupy returned to the air, he was more popular than ever. 

Another time, Soupy’s studio crew played a joke on Soupy on his birthday.  The show supposedly took place in Soupy’s living room, and a continuing skit involved someone knocking on Soupy’s door and Soupy opening the door to find a guest celebrity or an off-screen character that the home audience couldn’t see, that Soupy would comically interact with.  On Soupy’s birthday, Soupy opened the door to encounter an off-screen stripper who proceeded to perform her act to the tune of “The Stripper,” a popular musical number at the time.  Though the home viewers only saw the beach ball that the “stripper” used strategically as part of her act, Soupy saw the entire number and thought that the home audience could see her, too.   Soupy and the crew cracked up, but Soupy seemed a little worried about audience complaints.  Sure enough, though nothing explicit was broadcast, controversy ensued, which only enhanced the delight that Soupy’s outlaw behavior generated among his young fans. 

You can see Soupy for yourself in several DVD collections, including Soupy Sales Collection (Volume 1),  Soupy Sales Collection (Volume 2),  Soupy Sales Collection: The Whole Gang is Here!, and Soupy Sales: In Living Black and White.   You can read more about Soupy in his autobiography Soupy Sez!: My Zany Life and Times (paperback) and in From Soupy to Nuts: A History of Detroit Television (paperback).  Soupy fans might also want to buy Stop Me if You Heard It!  Soupy Sales Favorite Jokes (paperback). 

Shari Lewis

Shari Lewis and her puppets Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, and Charlie Horse, entertained and delighted several generations of children during the five decades that they appeared on television.  Unlike other kids’ show hosts who worked with puppets, Shari Lewis was a talented ventriloquist who manipulated and provided the voices for her puppets as she interacted with them on the air. 

Though many of us were first introduced to Shari and her puppets on the nationally telecast Shari Lewis Show, which ran on NBC from 1960-1963, Shari Lewis had previously hosted two local kids’ shows in New York in the 1950’s, The Kartoon Club and Shari and Her Friends.  On The Kartoon Club, Shari played the role of the Mayoress of the mythical kingdom of Kartoonia.  The show featured a live studio audience, whom Shari entertained with cartoons, games, songs, stories, arts and crafts, magic tricks, informational segments, and skits with puppet characters Taffy Twinkle, Randy Rocket, and Pip Squeak.

The national Shari Lewis Show debuted in 1960, when it replaced The Howdy Doody Show on NBC.  Starring the effervescent and multitalented Ms. Lewis with her flaming red hair, the show also featured a set of hand-puppets that Shari brought to hilarious life.  Lamb Chop was essentially a sock puppet whose character was that of a shy, soft-spoken, but mischievous and wise-cracking 6-year-old little lamb, who seemed to serve as a sassy alter-ego for Shari. Hush Puppy was a sweet 7-year-old country bumpkin, and Charlie Horse was a cocky, buck-toothed 10-year-old.  In addition to her skits with the puppets, Shari also exhibited her song and dance talents on the show, often teaching moral lessons through her performances. 

 

Some 15 years later, Shari starred in a new version of The Shari Lewis Show that aired on NBC and in syndication from 1975-1977.  This show focused on pro-social storylines and featured a cast of twenty-five animal puppets including Lamb Chop and a kangaroo named Captain Person, who worked for Bearly Broadcasting Studios (BBS).

In the 1990s, Shari Lewis hosted Lamb Chop’s Play-Along on PBS, a half-hour interactive show that encouraged children to participate by acting out stories, songs, stunts, games and activities. She also starred in another hit PBS series The Charlie Horse Music Pizza show, which was one of her last projects before her death in 1998.  

 

Though Shari Lewis modernized and adapted her shows to suit the pace and sophistication of each successive generation of young viewers, she never deviated from her essential philosophy and format of actively engaging and educating her audience as she entertained them.  With her vivacious personality and childlike excitement, she often seemed like a kid herself rather than a teacher or mother-figure.  Together with the wonderful hand-puppets she created, I think that’s what made her show so special.

 

You can watch Shari Lewis and her puppets on these DVD's:  A Shari Lewis Christmas (1960), Lambchop's Chanukah and Passover Surprise (1997), and The Shari Show - Featuring Shari Lewis and Lambchop.     

Watch Mr. Wizard

One of my favorite shows when I was growing up was Watch Mr. Wizard.  This was one of commercial television’s earliest educational efforts for grade-school and pre-teen children.  Conceived and hosted by the affable Don Herbert, it made science exciting and understandable for kids without any glitz or special effects and without dumbing the science down.   The 30-minute show premiered on the NBC station in Chicago in 1951 and moved to the NBC network in New York in 1955, where it ran for another decade, with a brief revival in 1971-1972. 

Herbert played the role of Mr. Wizard, a friendly scientist that the neighborhood kids loved to drop in on at his home, where he would have them assist him in carrying out simple but fascinating scientific experiments.  The style of the show was very low-key, with Mr. Wizard and his assistant seeming to ad-lib all their dialogue.

 

What I loved about this show was that Mr. Wizard treated his child assistant with respect and dignity, never talking down to him or her. And each assistant seemed to be smart and capable.   I also loved the fact that his assistant was often a girl, despite the fact that in those days, girls weren’t expected to be interested in or good at science.  The experiments demonstrated on the show were fascinating and magical, but not so complicated that you couldn’t recreate many of them at home on your own.

Watch Mr. Wizard was quite a TV sensation for a while and generated an interest in science for many children.  There were Mr. Wizard science clubs all across the country with a combined membership of over 100,000.  There were Mr. Wizard science kits for purchase, and Herbert also created a very successful business supplying science films and other educational materials to schools.

 

Sadly, the simple format and gentle pace of the show seemed outdated by the time NBC finally cancelled it in 1972.  In 1983, Herbert developed a faster-paced science show called Mr. Wizard’s World, which ran on Nickelodeon until 1990, with reruns broadcast until 2000. 

You can still "Watch Mr. Wizard" on these DVD's:  Kids' TV of the 50's, Watch Mr. Wizard, Watch Mr. Wizard - Electricity and More, and Watch Mr. Wizard - Everyday Illusions and More.  Several paperback books written by Don Herbert are still available, including Mr. Wizard's Experiments for Young Scientists, Mr. Wizard's Supermarket Science,  and Mr. Wizard's 400 Experiments in Science.

Bozo the Clown

There probably isn’t an adult in the US today who hasn’t watched some version of Bozo the Clown when they were growing up.  In one form or another, Bozo was one of the longest-running kids’ shows in TV history.  The earliest version of the Bozo show began airing in 1949 in Los Angeles, and the show continued to air around the country until 2001.  Like Romper Room before it, Bozo’s show was both syndicated and franchised, which means that many local TV stations produced their own version of the show.  Each show was hosted by an actor made up as Bozo the Clown, a circus clown with typical white-face make-up, red clown nose, and brightly-colored clown suit with a large frilly collar.  What made Bozo special was his hair – a huge bright red-orange mass that stuck out and up about a foot from the sides of his white bald head. 

Like many children’s shows in the early days of TV, the show at first had a fairly simple format in which the host just introduced and transitioned among a series of cartoon segments, including a cartoon that featured an animated Bozo.  Later, the Bozo the Clown show (sometimes called Bozo’s Circus or Bozo’s Big Top) took on more of a circus or vaudeville format, with many of the local shows seeming to take place inside a circus tent, with a live studio audience of children (sometimes mixed with parents), and offering a variety of circus acts, comedy routines, cartoons, and segments that featured other recurring characters and often local children engaging in games and contests.

The most successful and probably best-known local version of the Bozo franchise was the show produced in Chicago by WGN-TV, which featured Bob Bell as Bozo.  It evolved into Bozo’s Circus, a live hour-long show with a 13-piece orchestra, 200-member live studio audience, and multiple cast of characters, including Ringmaster Ned, Oliver O. Oliver, Sandy the Clown, Mr. Bob the Bandleader, and Cooky the Cook .  At one point, there was a ten-year wait for tickets to be part of the show’s studio audience.  The Chicago show was also syndicated to stations around the country which didn’t or couldn’t produce their own version of the show.

The Boston version of the Bozo the Clown show was also very popular locally and syndicated nationwide for several years.  Hosted by Bob Avruch as Bozo, the show at one time featured actor/puppeteer Caroll Spinney as “Mr. Lion” and “Kookie the Boxing Kangaroo.”  Spinney later went on to portray Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. 

In New York, WPIX was the first station to produce a local version of the Bozo the Clown show in 1959, starring Bill Britten as Bozo.  In 1964, WOR created and produced its own Bozo Show, featuring singer/actor Gordon Ramsey as Bozo, together with a cast of characters that included Grandma Nelly, Professor Tweetiefoofer, Slimjim, Snappy Pappy, and the Circus Boss.  

Before he became the TODAY Show’s weatherman, Willard Scott starred as Bozo in the Washington D.C. version of the Bozo show.   Scott went on to portray the Bozo-inspired “Ronald McDonald” clown character in McDonald’s commercials.

Over the years, stories have circulated about children on the Bozo show who used profanity or said something nasty to Bozo on the air, or about Bozo himself saying something nasty back to one of the kids when he didn’t think the microphone was on.   Though it’s clear that Bozo was the inspiration for the curmudgeonly Krusty the Klown character on the Simpsons, I guess we’ll never know if any of these stories about bad behavior on the Bozo show are actually true.   

You can watch Bozo the Clown in several DVD collections:  Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown, Vol. 1 and Vol.2, Volume 1 - Best of Bozo, Larry Harmon's Bozo: Shows 4-6, or Hiya Kids! A 50's Saturday Morning Box.   

Romper Room

During its five decades on the air, Romper Room gave millions of young children their first exposure to a preschool/kindergarten environment.  The show featured a hostess who would lead a group of 7-8 children in various educational and play activities.  The children were about 4-5 years old, and were rotated every couple of months.  Running from 1953-1994, Romper Room was originally filmed in Baltimore, later moved to Chicago, and then returned to Baltimore in 1981.  The show was franchised and syndicated, which means that local stations could opt to produce their own versions of the show instead of airing a national telecast.   So if you watched the show when you were little, chances are that you saw a different hostess and different kids on the set than viewers in other parts of the country did. 

Just like real schoolrooms in those days, each show would begin with the hostess leading the kids in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then the hostess would read books to the kids, teach them the alphabet, and direct them in playing games, doing exercises, singing songs, and learning moral lessons and polite behavior, all accompanied by background music.   

Consistent with the show's schoolroom ethos, many of the Romper Room hostesses were former kindergarten teachers who knew how to deal with young children, and they were always addressed as “Miss” by the children on the show, as real teachers were addressed by their students in those days.   When Romper Room debuted in Baltimore, its first hostess was Nancy Claster (“Miss Nancy”), who helped produce the series together with her husband.  She was later replaced by her daughter, “Miss Sally.”  In New York City, Romper Room was hosted by “Miss Louise,” followed by “Miss Mary Ann” and then “Miss Nancy” (Nancy Terrell).

The show also featured Do-Bee, a recurring character in a bumblebee costume, whose role on the show was to teach the children manners and proper behavior.   He would always start his sentences with “Do Bee…” and then add a statement about how children should behave (e.g., “Do Bee polite to your parents!”).   

One of the show’s features that I remember well would come at the end of the show, when the hostess would hold a “magic mirror” up to her face (actually just an open hand mirror frame, minus the mirror) and look through it to see all the viewers out in “televisionland.”  She would then recite this rhyme:  “Romper, bomper, stomper, boo!  Tell me, tell me, tell me do.  Magic Mirror, tell me today, have all my friends had fun at play?”  Then she would start naming some of the children that she could “see” watching at home:  “I can see Scotty and Kimberly and Julie and Jimmy and Kelly and all of you boys and girls out there!”  Parents would mail in their kids’ names, so that they would be read out loud on the show.   Of course it was quite a thrill if you heard your name called out (and if you had a fairly common name, chances were good that you would hear it at some point)! 

Nancy Claster, the original hostess of Romper Room, wrote several books that are still available, including The Romper Room do bee book of manners and Romper Room Exercise Book: Physical Fitness for Boys and Girls . 

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!