Our good buddy Joel, after very kindly linking and adding to my "Sloop John B" post, offers up a video of the most famous kid's TV show of all time.
Well, most famous after The Great and Powerful Captain Kangaroo, of course.
Where was I? Oh yeah...
Joel's post reminded me of the TV programming I watched as a kid. I never actually saw "Howdy Doody". I remember seeing it showcased on "Happy Days" (not the first time I'd heard of it but the first time I ever saw Howdy or Buffalo Bob in actual TV existence). But it jostled some old synapses to recollect some of the TV I saw while growing up.
There were the Warner Brothers cartoons (most excellent!) and other such, but for the standard weekday fare, my fondest memories are of Sheriff John, which was a local show on KTTV (channel 11) in the LA area (I grew up in San Bernardino, so Ch. 11 was one of our standard channels). "Sheriff John" Rovich is apparently still living in Idaho, and I send my best regards to him for all the fun and joy he brought to us while I was growing up all those years ago.
Here is a "documentary" type video homage to the guy:
I don't know what you would call this, puppeteering I suppose, but it was one of the best features on his show, a segment called "Diver Dan". I got the biggest kick out of this segment. Another post for another time, but kids are often smarter than we give them credit for and I got all the jokes and allusions in "Diver Dan", not least of which was "the Baron" (a barracuda who speaks with a Count Dracula accent and wears a monocle) with his doltish sidekick.
Also, here's a link to another episode, which includes the theme song.
My most vivid memory of the "Sheriff John" show, though, was not on actual TV, but offline (as it were). My friend and I were watching the show and Sheriff John was welcoming a young lady (probably a birthday girl) into the studio. Sheriff John bent to welcome her and to shake her hand, and he said "Hi, Laura!". My friend's Dad had just walked into the room, and as Sheriff John said "Hi, Laura!", my friend's Dad said:
"Hi, Dirty Old Man!"
Heh.
Kids! Kids in colonies!
1 week ago
2 comments:
Ken, have you spent much time here:
The Internet Movie Archive? If not, check them out. They're a repository of old, public-domain video. You can find old Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger, the Radar Men from the Moon, and just tons of eclectic stuff.
This is a sub-site, there are also text, audio, software and other archives. The audio is great because many of the old radio classics are now all public domain.
I watched Ding Dong School with Miss Frances. And I was emotionally damaged by Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop.
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