I was the first generation introduced to the electronic baby sitter: the television set. Moms across America discovered that Saturday mornings, as well as after school, could be less of a burden by placing their kids in front of the box while they did their household chores, and the programmers knew it. By today’s standards, early kids television shows required a substantial need for imagination due to restricted and low budgets, but it worked.
There was Smilin’ Ed’s Gang which gave the appearance it was filmed before a large, live audience but each week, it became obvious that it was the same enthusiastic kids jumping up and down in their seats as the week before. It was still the same kids when the show was later hosted by Andy Devine. Even Gunga the Indian Boy, in the serial film short, was attacked by the same tiger time and again.
There were shows like Rootie Kazootie and Fury (a horse story), but the ones I like the best were the sci-fi programs like Space Patrol and Space Cadets. Each week the loyal crews would embark on interplanetary missions against the cardboard backdrops of outer space. Space ships with cigarettes stuck in their exhaust gave the appearance of rocket smoke as wire suspended ships zoomed through twinkle light space to fight evil meanies that looked like Uncle Louie after an all nighter. Even as a kid, you had to watch with a degree of suspended disbelief as the cameras tilted left to right and up and down to convey motion as the crew sat amid normal tables and chairs simulating the ship’s bridge. Some early first generation Star Trek episodes even employed the same tactics, I seem to recall.
My Uncle George was always on the forefront of innovation. Once, when we went to visit, he had a plastic color tinted film to place over the TV screen to give the appearance of color to the black and white set. It was cut to fit the size of the screen and was held in place by static electricity. It was a simple plastic film with graduating colors starting with green on the bottom, light tan in the middle and blue on top. It was great if you were watching the old westerns such as Gene Autry or Hopalong Cassidy because you would have your brown sagebrush and blue sky, but close ups and any other show made actors look like aliens from another world (which made it great for watching Captain Video and his Video Rangers.
Speaking of plastic screens, there was a show called Winky Dink and You. It was a semi-animated show with a live host. It was unique because you had to order a special magic screen to place over the tube in order to draw right on the television set with the special crayons also provided. The show’s premise was to help Winky by drawing what he needed (ropes, a car with wheels, balloons, etc) to succeed in his endeavor.
Most kids could not wait the two or three weeks to get their magic screen, much less spend the required cash and a boxtop to get it so we just drew directly onto the TV screen. This did not please mom at all as the regular crayons were a bit difficult to wipe off, so we were forbidden to participate in the show and thus stopped watching it, which may be the reason it was canceled after a short run.
There were other kids shows that had cartoon specialties such as Crusader Rabbit, Tom Terrific (with his mighty wonderdog, Manfred); some live action shows like Susan’s Show where she sat on a kitchen chair and was magically flown to a place with talking furniture which featured a table named Mr. Pegasus whose legs wobbled and mouth was the front drawer. They were cheapo sets and crude scripts but imagination in those years was king and sorely needed if you were watching this stuff.
There was Super Circus (another story), Garfield Goose, a puppet show with Frazier Thomas who also employed a magic screen to view cartoons, and a goose who didn’t talk but clacked his beak. Thomas, however, knew exactly what the clacking goose was saying. There was Kukla Fran and Ollie, another puppet show created by Burr Tilstrom, with Fran Allison. Both the aforementioned shows were more creative than the others and lasted for a long while.
These are only a few of the kids shows (there were many more) available to sit us for free while mom did her daily chores or visited with friends. I’ll share more of the shows that played a major role in my early childhood development, such as Elmer the Elephant, Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody and Ding Dong School later on. Right now, I want to see if I can catch Spongebob Squarepants.
