For kids growing up in the '40s, '50s and into the '60s - did your local TV station have a kids' show host? An after-school program that had a mix of cartoons, maybe a studio set of puppets, farmer-characters in bib overalls, or cowboys?
Did that station also have a Saturday lunch movie-time showing Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, westerns, etc?
Then, a Friday and/or Saturday night monster-movie, probably after evening news?
I keep hearing "yes yes yes" but that's only from maybe a dozen cities. I'm wondering if this was a nation-wide activity? They used local talent in local studios. They might have had nationally syndicated shows like CAPTAIN KANGAROO and COWBOY BOB, maybe BOZO, too.
So far, I'm finding "yes" if the town was 100,000 or more and had a local TV station, or two or more within a broadcast radius of, say, 50 miles. I'm not sure about radius-distance, nor certain about population. East Coast will be far different than west-of-Mississippi, I've discovered.
Just curious.
My dad had Sir Graves Ghastly.
(Can you post city- or region-name, approx population and a range-of-year approximation?)
In Pittsburgh, we had Chiller Theatre with Chilly Billy Cardille. He ran from 63 all the way until 83, so he was my parents Sat night monster host but I also watched him as a kid. He was my first exposure to the Universal monsters.
I've been lucky enough to meet him in a few occasions. He's the nicest guy in the world. His daughter was also the lead in Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD
Our small town didn't have it's own TV station(s). Our "local" stations were from Ft. Wayne IN, 35 miles away. They had all the shows you mentioned, though. Kids cartoon show hosts ("Engineer John", for one), All kinds of movie series on the weekend afternoon. Carlie Chan, Bowery Boys, you name it. And, of course, the Fri/Sat night horror host movie. We had "Asmodeus" and "Sammy Terry". I think both shows were regionally syndicated and didn't originate in Ft. W.
We had Simon of SIMON' S SANCTORUM..he showed the classic Universal horrors and sci-fi on Saturday nights during the early '70's..
(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-bqDiVtyr_o/hqdefault.jpg)
He was based here in Boston, but also was syndicated for showings in St.Louis.
In L.A., we had this little puppet host named "Shrimpenstein". He has patterned after the "Son of Frankenstein" monster (animal fur & all). I don't remember that much about the shows' content, but I'm pretty sure he introduced short, cheesy cartoons (like those early Marvel Comics ones).
Not really a boomer, but I grew up in Maryland and had 2 (both did double duty)
From Baltimore we had George Lewis, aka "Captain Chesapeake", a sea captain kids show host that ran old cartoons and shows (Speed Racer, Scooby Doo, the Monkees, etc) and had a sea monster named Mondy. He ran from 1971-1990 on local UHF 45. On the weekends he was "Ghost Host" (mostly seen in shadows, kind of made up to look like Lugosi's Ygor in a turtleneck) and ran the old black&white horror films. Ghost Host, if memory serves, played it straight as a horror host.
From DC we got Dick Dyszel, by day he was Bozo and later kids show host Captain 20 (a Spock-like pointy eared alien). By night, he was (and still is...on the internet) Count Gore DeVol hosting the horror films with a comedic slant.
Saturday afternoons were wrestling and kung-fu flicks (can't remember which station ran which though), and for a while Sunday mornings were old comedies (Blondie, Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, etc...)
Hubby grew up in Austin, pop 200k at the time, and they had one local TV station in a pick-n-choose-from-networks for the most part, so he grew up on some shows (Red Skelton) but not others (Sid Caesar). They had a weekday morning host that also did after-school programming (perhaps 2 hours, from 3 to 5) from 1950 into the early '80s.
They had bleachers for kids and this was a special treat for birthday kids, as Hubby spent his 5th there. Big day, he remembers. Nothing else, just going, sitting and watching it all happen. The host was supposedly a jerk but not that day, not that time. "Being tired of kids" after hours might have been a 'privileges of rank', though. Part-and-parcel of the job.
San Antonio had more TV stations but at 80 miles away, "it was scratchy reception for people who bought on-top-of-house antennas."
It seems that every town with a local station had some kind of local host for at least a decade, or more often 2 or 3.
In London, we had umpteen stations but I don't recall children's programming or paying attention to anything except late weekend monster shows or mid-Saturday afternoon ones.
Here in New York City we had The Cool Ghoul Zacherley for our spooky fun. We also had shows for kids hosted by Sonny Fox (Wonderama ), The Sandy Becker Show, Howdy Doody Show and for the really small kids was Romper Room. There were a few others but I think they were nationwide kid shows.
Quote from: kordindustries on February 21, 2016, 12:44:07 PM
Not really a boomer, but I grew up in Maryland
Welcome to the UMA, kordindustries! (Tim) :)
Sir Graves Ghastly was in Detroit in the 70's. Sorry for the long response. I had actually tried to comment but the window accidentally closed and I couldn't find the page again.
Quote from: kordindustries on February 21, 2016, 12:44:07 PM
Not really a boomer, but...
Fine. I think my interest lies in that transition period you witnessed (perhaps unknowingly) where local efforts were wiped out and the national shows (Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Bozo, etc) took over.
That makes me wonder - wasn't Bozo a 'local show' with locals all being Bozo's, by name - as a syndicated 'product', more or less, but with local, live talent?
So, rather than a Dick Clark BANDSTAND show on Saturdays (was that morning or noon, or later in the day?), they'd have a local Bozo actor hosting cartoons and filler-time?
(As a corollary, I understand there are many markets that have something of a local Monster-TV host even to this day, although more of the digital networks - ME-TV, for example - hire a Svengoolie character. I'd think this would be so attractive on Saturdays like it was for baby-boomers, appealing to the kids of all ages. That's why I think MST3K can have at least a modicum of success.)
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 01:08:09 PM
Fine. I think my interest lies in that transition period you witnessed (perhaps unknowingly) where local efforts were wiped out and the national shows (Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody, Bozo, etc) took over.
It was actually the reverse of that. Dyszel started in DC as Bozo and then switched over to the Captain 20 persona later.
So for the DC area, this is one example where a local-use of a nationally syndicated 'act' was reduced to a local-only movie host. Interesting. At least that station maintained the local-talent-as-MC focus.
I'm fascinated that local TV stations apparently, in the late '70s into the '80s and even now, have abandoned the local-kids-host concept for TV. And the after-school TV schedule is flat-out horrendous in the dearth of options for child-centric watching. Channels like DISNEY seem to offer that, but their programs are often 14-minutes of 'programming' and 16 minutes of commercials. Plus, of that 14 minutes, there are so many Disney product-placements that children are marketed AT with this shotgun affect. Amazing. Yet, during the West's Baby Boom generations with a proportionally larger child-audience, local stations had the revenues to maintain these local-talents/local shows, apparently almost everywhere.
Now, they seem to be limited to a few giant market monster-hosts that are comedic spoofs for nostagia's sake.
I see a lot of great horror show hosts listed but I understand the question to be about kids shows hosted locally. When I was a kid in Texas we had Mr. Peppermint in the morning. He did his show and had Felix the Cat cartoons. Of course on national scale Captain Kangaroo and Soupy Sales. Our Bozo show was locally produced and we had Miss Carols Clubhouse which I was on 2 times when I was a kid. Since it was in Texas it was western themed and she had rodeos and kids games and showed Popeye and Looney Tunes cartoons. I haven't thought about these shows in years. I am a little surprised I still remembered them. After all it was about 56 years ago and a lot has happened since then.
Quote from: Universal Steve on February 22, 2016, 01:54:13 AM
I haven't thought about these shows in years. I am a little surprised I still remembered them. After all it was about 56 years ago and a lot has happened since then.
I still remember kids' shows from 62 years ago - and can sing some of the commercial jingles all the way through.
(But don't ask me about anything I learned in school.)
Quote from: Universal Steve on February 22, 2016, 01:54:13 AM
...in Texas...
What size of town, and what years did this Mr Peppermint and Miss Carol's Clubhouse run? This will be the first woman I've discovered that was show-host, by the way.
In NYC Romper Room was hosted by a woman that I had mentioned in my first post.
Quote from: Kidagain on February 22, 2016, 08:28:13 AM
In NYC Romper Room was hosted by a woman that I had mentioned in my first post.
They were mostly for the pre school set, often playing a teacher conducting classroom activities. I remember one, but can't remember the show title or the host's name. She would start the show by ringing a large hand bell.
I know there was a woman sock-puppeteer, Shari Lewis, with Lambchop and ?? Charley Horse ?? centered out of NYC and she achieved some national fame, if not syndication.
I'm surprised that the maternal angle wasn't played more often, in fact, especially to younger-audience but perhaps the Cowboy, the Grizzled Ol' Miner, the Farmer, etc, were simply too well-established characters and easily assimilated by local audiences.
I understand the Austin actor was also a stalwart for that TV station's other on-camera duties - ad pitchman, weatherman, sports announcer, etc, all in that late '40s into '80s time frame.
Quote from: Mike Scott on February 22, 2016, 11:15:38 AM
She would start the show by ringing a large hand bell.
It was called "Ding Dong School" (no seriously) with Miss Frances.
(http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/1968/graphics/frances.jpg)
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 22, 2016, 07:53:49 AM
What size of town, and what years did this Mr Peppermint and Miss Carol's Clubhouse run? This will be the first woman I've discovered that was show-host, by the way.
Mr. Peppermint did skits and learning things like Captain Kangaroo and showed Felix The Cat cartoons. Miss Carols Clubhouse was a studio show where the guest kids sat on bleachers and she had games and prizes and some western themed shorts and clips of rodeos in the area. She showed Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons. This was in Sherman Texas. Not a big place as I remember.
Quote from: Universal Steve on February 24, 2016, 01:20:32 PM
...Sherman Texas...
This is due-north of Dallas, just on the Texas side of Lake Texoma, which I learned about, first hand. Sherman is about 40,000 now, but Hubby said it was 20-30k in the '50s and '60s. It was the largest town between Dallas and Oklahoma City but then I-35 was created west of Sherman and left it at roughly the same size. From Dallas, take 75 north to Plano to the McKinney, home and temporary refuge of Manson killer Charles 'Tex' Watson, then the next stop is Sherman, Denison and the OK border.
My trip to Lake Texoma was an early trust-experiment with Hubby, who forced me to buy $2 sneakers, crummy jeans (which he immediately turned into cut-offs and some ratty one-piece bathing suit. A day of playing in Lake Texoma, then he tossed away all of our garments - shoes, cut-offs, undies, everything. Because they were stained rust-iron red from the iron-rich mud at Lake Texoma. It's what it's famous for. Infamous.
But, back to the tale at hand... Sherman would have been competing against 'distant' Dallas TV stations and probably being the better signal for the locals. Yet the area may have only had 100,000 population within 50 miles, and here we have two local shows in that relatively small market. That's pretty cool. Temple, Texas - 130 miles south of Dallas had two TV stations and they also had local kids' show hosts for a 60,000 pop viewing market. Roswell, NM (about 40k in 1965 because of a big airbase but much smaller after it was closed in the late '60s) had a locally-hosted kids' programming, too.
These are about the smallest markets I've found, but those lasted for 15 or even 20 years, which I find remarkable that they could maintain revenues. Then the national networks took over and have gutted those services.
I'm delighted to hear that, at least in some local markets, a monster show-host is still a treasured commodity.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 24, 2016, 02:28:25 PM
This is due-north of Dallas, just on the Texas side of Lake Texoma, which I learned about, first hand. Sherman is about 40,000 now, but Hubby said it was 20-30k in the '50s and '60s. It was the largest town between Dallas and Oklahoma City but then I-35 was created west of Sherman and left it at roughly the same size. From Dallas, take 75 north to Plano to the McKinney, home and temporary refuge of Manson killer Charles 'Tex' Watson, then the next stop is Sherman, Denison and the OK border.
That would be about right. I was there in the 60's. My dad was in the Air Force and there was a base there, Perrin A.F.B. which was between Sherman and Dennison. The station had to be local because when kids in my class had a birthday party and got on Miss Carols Clubhouse, everyone in the party went to the station and were on the bleachers on the show. I was on the show twice and I was supposed to be on one other time but I was sick and Miss Carol was told about this and she mentioned my name and gave me a get well wish. That was a big deal for a kid my age at the time.
I landed in Southern California in 1961, it was San Bernardino to be specific, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. LA is where most of our TV came from and we had a plethora of local channels, aside from the three networks. I'll try to recount to the best my memory can muster the Kiddie Show hosts and horror movie shows I can remember. Here we go--
In the after school time slots we had Chuck Jones, The Magic Man on channel 13, he showed Felix the Cat and did magic, there was Sailor Tom Hatton who did sketches and ran Popeye cartoons (he was also an afternoon movie host) on channel 5, we had Engineer Bill on channel 9 who had a great model train set up and played "Red Light, Green Light", encouraging us kids to drink our milk, around lunch time there was Sheriff John who had a list of Birthdays every day and sang, "Put Another Candle on Your Birthday Cake" to all the birthday kids, in the early evening we had Beachcomber Bill who ran Hanna Barbara produced Wally Gator and Touche Turtle cartoons and we had Winchell Mahoney Time featuring ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his array of puppets. I didn't mention Hobo Kelly yet, because she originated from KCHU in San Bernardino, not LA. Those are all the kid show people that come to mind immediately, I didn't mention Shrimipenstein (my favorite) because someone already did.
Then there were the Monster Movie shows. When I arrived our only horror host was Jeepers Creepers on channel 13, Friay nights. We also had monster movies on other channels; Chiller on channel 11 Saturday afternoons and Strange Tales of Science Fiction on Channel 9. I'm sure there were others scattered about, but they don't come to mind, yet. The best was Jeepers Creepers who showed all the old Universal Monsters as well as some Monograms and other assorted black & white monstrosities. Eventually Jeepers left and was replaced by Jeepers Keeper who lasted for a few years and was also replaced by Ghoulita. It was hard keeping up with those guys. By the early 70s we were blessed with the Sinister Seymour who hosted movies from the vicinity of his "Slimy Wall" and referred to his fans as "Fringies" (as in lunatic fringe). Seymour was popular and made frequent public appearances, even coming to San Bernardino. Unfortunately, Larry Vincent who played Seymore passed away and that was the end of Horror Hosts in LA for a while. However, a few years later another movie host, or hostess, I should say, popped on to the scene. Channel 9 was the home of Elvira Mistress of the Dark before she became the national phenomenon she is today.
That's everything my poor old brain can churn out at the moment, but if anything else comes to mind or if anyone who grew up in the LA area has anything to add, I'm sure we'll be seeing it here.
("landed in..." I just KNEW JimB was an alien!!) (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
It fascinates me that, at a time when so many local stations were in their infancy - and at some of their most expensive times - they were able to put together locally-hosted shows - kids' shows in mornings and after-school, Saturdays and the monster-movie slots of Friday and Saturday late-night. The kids' show programming has apparently been destroyed since the '80s or even sooner.
The monster-show hosts have lasted and still have some appearances in largest markets but when I see our local film festivals and the decades-long continuum known as ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with full-costume, full-song, full-dialog attendees, I know the entertainment value of these 'hosted programs' remain.
I found that Midland-Odessa had two hosted shows for their 2 stations of the early '60s. (This was a fairly large market because of the oil-boom - at least 100k, maybe 150k, although the expanse of the Permian Basin probably made all shows similar to scariest monster events - scratchy video, fade-out audio. It made every jump-out-of-the-dark scene all the more frightening as those audiences were so finely tuned to every creaking sound.)
Carlsbad, New Mexico did. Lubbock. Amarillo. Colorado Springs, Denver of course. I'm trying to head southwest thru New Mexico into AZ (did Yuma? Flagstaff?), then probably central Calif from Bakersfield northward. I'll assume San Diego had their own.
The Disney Channel is built on this mentality but I find their radioactive-constant-product-placement to be unfit for wallets, much less kids' consumption.
Something else I discovered. There were several British programs brought over - produced by ITC, not so much BBC. Shows like WILLIAM TELL, ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (with Richard Greene), THE BUCCANEERS (with Robert Shaw), THE INVISIBLE MAN (1958), SIR LANCELOT (or perhaps called KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE). These seem to be dropped into the afternoon time-slots, alternating with LONE RANGER, SKY KING, HOPALONG CASSIDY, SUPERMAN and any variety of other titles. It appears the Brit programming was only a few seasons, but they'd play for 10-15 years in a market, on daily rotation for a while, then disappear for months, then back again.
This lucrative state of TV fueled the growth of more TV stations in every market - so they had to be lucrative. Then those stations started trimming back as one audience grew older and children/family programming was dismissed to the point of today - virtually nonexistent.
As far as horror shows go, when I was in Alamogordo,NM our local stations came from El Paso, Texas. We had lights Out on Saturday nights which showed Universal monster movies and during the week after the CBS Late Night Movie there was Night Owl Theatre which ran all different kinds of movies but included more horror and suspense movies mostly. The ABC affiliate from El Paso ran Charlie Chan Theatre every Saturday night. They showed every movie and had trivia between the movie.
Alamogordo was fed by El Paso stations? Hmmm. I suppose it's a straight shot rather than to Las Cruces, and certainly there are mountains to Roswell station (KBIM? I can't remember). We visit a place up on a mountain tippy-top in Cloudcroft, and pass thru AlamoG if we're going to Las C and Silver City, which is one of my favorite towns. Farmington, way up north is another fave. NM is great because geography changes so dramatically every couple of hours, rather than here in Texas - drive 10 hours, and it's only changed once!
Were Mexican TV stations strong in AlamoG? Do they have the same rep as Mexican radio?
Quote from: kordindustries on February 21, 2016, 12:44:07 PM
Not really a boomer, but I grew up in Maryland and had 2 (both did double duty)
From Baltimore we had George Lewis, aka "Captain Chesapeake", a sea captain kids show host that ran old cartoons and shows (Speed Racer, Scooby Doo, the Monkees, etc) and had a sea monster named Mondy. He ran from 1971-1990 on local UHF 45. On the weekends he was "Ghost Host" (mostly seen in shadows, kind of made up to look like Lugosi's Ygor in a turtleneck) and ran the old black&white horror films. Ghost Host, if memory serves, played it straight as a horror host.
From DC we got Dick Dyszel, by day he was Bozo and later kids show host Captain 20 (a Spock-like pointy eared alien). By night, he was (and still is...on the internet) Count Gore DeVol hosting the horror films with a comedic slant.
Saturday afternoons were wrestling and kung-fu flicks (can't remember which station ran which though), and for a while Sunday mornings were old comedies (Blondie, Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, etc...)
Ex-Marylander here too!
OMG, I loved Captain Chesapeake. It was standard protocol to watch him after you got home from school, all the way up to dinner time...Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, The Munsters, Speed Racer, Dennis the Menace...can't remember the other shows now. Remember Bruce the Bird? But yeah, I remember the Capt. was also the Ghost Host. What I do remember is that Ghost Host showed alot of horror movies that were so boring. I remember all the movies were mainly old B/W films. As a kid we always tried to stay up late to watch, but inevitably fell asleep before the movie was over.
Sometime around the late 1960's - early 1970's there was a Saturday afternoon horror host on Channel 9 coming out of Washington DC. The show was called Weird Tales, and the horror host was a vampire that told lots of dumb jokes, and there was a point in the show where they showcased monster drawings that kids had sent in to the station. I have no idea what the host' name was????
I have forgotten to include those Kung-Fu movies as part of the Sat Afternoon Movie line-up. I suppose those replaced the Westerns on American TV.
IF that occurred, was that in the '70s or '80s?
I guess my next question might be, "When did the dedicated Sat noon-afternoon time-slot movies disappear? The '70s or '80s? I assume earlier when Cable TV expansion was prevalent in cities over 100k, which it appears to be "1970s". This seems to be the beginning of the end of the local TV-Host, too - but it also gave way to the national host - the Elvira's, the Bob's on AMC, and I understand Turner Channel out of Atlanta had a single host - Bill Tush - for many shows - movies, TV wrestling as well as advertising.
I consider MST3K's Joel Hodgson to be a natural spin-off of the Local Host phenomenon. And Svengoolie on MeTV, the TCM hosts, etc. I hope networks and cable channels will continue this because I like the intro-outro concept for films, although I know these eat up a whole 2-3 minutes of ad time. cough cough. Gee - we can't see Flo of Progressive or Geico commercials 18 times but only 17. What a massive loss for humanity!
I'd say based on my experience that the dedicated Saturday afternoon line-ups faded out in the mid to late 80's, as did most of the local programming in my area. The Saturday wrestling and kung-fu flicks were replaced with infomercials instead.
As I mentioned before Captain Chesapeake was one of our local kids show hosts, and left the air in 1990. He was on a local UHF channel that became a Fox affiliate. After Captain C was gone, they tried briefly doing another show "Fox Kids Club" and the content was all supplied by the Fox network to my knowledge, so gone were the old reruns, instead it was new cartoons like X-Men, Tiny Toons, and Power Rangers.
Yes, in Detroit we had Sir Graves Saturday afternoon and then at 11:30pm the Ghoul, sort of a hippie mad scientist.
Kord, your comment about Captain C "ended in 1990" is one of the latest dates for this type of show I've heard. Thanks for that info.
Pat, do you have any sense of a time-period or the years that Sir Graves operated out of Detroit? That area had to have a lot of local TV stations (I assume they would) and I wonder what alternative kids-show hosts were around - if any, I mean.
Quote from: kordindustries on February 28, 2016, 01:58:06 PMI'd say based on my experience that the dedicated Saturday afternoon line-ups faded out in the mid to late 80's.....As I mentioned before Captain Chesapeake was one of our local kids show hosts, and left the air in 1990. He was on a local UHF channel that became a Fox affiliate.
I truly miss the local UHF channels and their programming. Can't stand cable TV anymore (or Dish or any of them). It was cool when it first became big, but there is so much garbage being programmed anymore on cable channels. Can't stand reality TV or any of the American Idol/Ninja shows as well. TV entertainment has become so dumbed down anymore. I'll take the old sitcoms of the 1960's, 1970's or 1980's any day over anything offered nowadays.
I live 100 miles from Pittsburgh so we also watched Chiller Theatre with Chilly Billy Cardille on TV when I was young...
That's where I learned all about Monster Movies... I live in a small town without a TV Station or movie theater...
http://chillertheatermemories.com/ (http://chillertheatermemories.com/)
Quote from: Rockshasa on February 29, 2016, 10:41:03 AM
I truly miss the local UHF channels and their programming. Can't stand cable TV anymore (or Dish or any of them). It was cool when it first became big, but there is so much garbage being programmed anymore on cable channels. Can't stand reality TV or any of the American Idol/Ninja shows as well. TV entertainment has become so dumbed down anymore. I'll take the old sitcoms of the 1960's, 1970's or 1980's any day over anything offered nowadays.
Infomercials and padded-to-hell news killed local programming. Except for a few syndicated hosts, if you want hosted monster movies now you watch Kreepy Kastle Television and The Vortexx on the internet. I don't even subscribe to TV anymore. Except for a handful of shows, it's a thousand channels of pablum. Even when they rerun good shows from the past they get butchered to squeeze in more commercials. Cable already charges out the wazoo, then we get inundated with countless annoying commercials. No, thanks.
Don't know the exact dates but I watched from mid 70s to early 80s. I'd guess 69 - 84, 85. I don'don't remember any other kids host. There were two other movie host- a gal named Rita Bell hosted the morning movie and a guy named Bill Kennedy did the afternoon movie.
Thanks, Pat.
I found out that Prince George, BC had a local station with a kids' host for 2 decades from the later '50s into the late '70s. PG was about 30k at the time, and is a crossroads "highway town/rail hub" between Canada into Alaska, down to Vancouver and the USA.
This local show-host did it all, and had two sidekicks over the years that lasted 7 or 10 years each. These switched costumes and roles for monster-movie hosts on weekend evenings, and may have hosted Saturday afternoon movies as well. Then they were fill-in on-camera personalities as needed.
Our neighbors there, natives to the area, say the reception was better in those days with rabbit ears than current 'digital over the air' stuff, but that entire road is optic-fibre'd since the mid 1990s so they don't waste much time experimenting with antennnas. They're just under 3 meters of snow this year - not enough - but that still makes standing on a roof, holding clothes-hangers at various wishful angles, pretty difficult. And no, that's not too dangerous - most folks can hop out of their 3rd floor balconies and ski down that slope to the rest of the yard.
In the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA area we had "Hatchy Milatchy" with Miss Judy in the morning (Google her to see a clip with the second hostess) that was for young children. While we had afternoon shows with Stooges, cartoon and the like, I don't remember the host.
For horror host, our local was Uncle Ted with "Uncle Ted's Ghoul School" on WNEP (same channel as Hatchy Milatchy), which then became Uncle Ted's Monstermania on our local PBS station, WVIA.
But, back in the '60s we were the first location in the U.S. to have cable, so we got to watch Dr. Shock on Channel 17 out of Philadelphia
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMFor kids growing up in the '40s, '50s and into the '60s - did your local TV station have a kids' show host?
The CBC affiliate CFPL-TV in London, Ontario with a population of about 155,000 had a show for pre-schoolers called
Romper Room hosted by Miss Dorothy.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMAn after-school program that had a mix of cartoons, maybe a studio set of puppets, farmer-characters in bib overalls, or cowboys?
The CTV affiliate CKCO-TV in Kitchener with a population of about 120,000 about sixty miles east of London had a cowboy type calling himself Big Al as a kids' show host.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Big%20Al_zpsh1betivv.jpg)
Now I knew a fellow named Alan who as a kid absolutely idolized Big Al who ostensibly loved all kids. So Big Al was at a Kitchener area fall fair. I guess it was a long, hot thirsty day and Big Al was resorting to a series of cold ones to make it through the ordeal. So inevitably he had to retreat to the washroom to take a leak. Now Alan had seized upon the chance to meet his idol at the fair that day and followed Big Al to the washroom. So Alan sidled up to Big Al at the next urinal over and said "Hi Big Al! They call me Little Al." But by this time Big Al was pretty tanked up. Three sheets to the wind you might say. He accordingly looked over at this annoying little twerp beside him and said "Ahhhhhhh, f.... off kid."
Well Little Alan was just shattered! Here he'd gotten the proverbial back of the hand from his idol!
So years later Alan became a city cop in London. One day he pulled a woman over for some picayune traffic offence. It turned out to be Miss Dorothy, the hostess of CFPL-TV's
Romper Room. What, one of those good-for-nothing kids' TV hosts?! Well Alan threw the book at her. Got her for everything he could think of and more. That'll teach those kid hating hypocrites from those TV shows!
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMDid that station also have a Saturday lunch movie-time showing Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, westerns, etc?
No.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMThen, a Friday and/or Saturday night monster-movie, probably after evening news?
No. But whoever had a really good quality rooftop antenna or cable television service in London could tune into
Shock Theater with horror host Ghoulardi at WJW from across Lake Erie in Cleveland.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Ghoulardi_zpsxwmscbj3.jpg)
We didn't start subscribing to TV cable until 1966 by which time I was fourteen and substantially less impressionable.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMThey might have had nationally syndicated shows like CAPTAIN KANGAROO and COWBOY BOB, maybe BOZO, too.
At 5:30 PM on weekdays between 2 October 1961 and 1 July 1966 a CBC network half hour kids' show called
Razzle Dazzle was shown on CFPL.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/Razze%20Dazzle_zpsbzsysjy2.jpg)
One of the co-hosts of
Razzle Dazzle was Alan Hamel who went on to wed Suzanne Somers in 1977.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%203/General%20Album%203001/alan_hamel_2011_07_24_zpsr5pylgma.jpg)
8)
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMFor kids growing up in the '40s, '50s and into the '60s - did your local TV station have a kids' show host?
Should this thread not be in the Television forum though?
???
Quote from: Rockshasa on February 27, 2016, 11:43:03 PM
Ex-Marylander here too!
OMG, I loved Captain Chesapeake. It was standard protocol to watch him after you got home from school, all the way up to dinner time...Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, The Munsters, Speed Racer, Dennis the Menace...can't remember the other shows now. Remember Bruce the Bird? But yeah, I remember the Capt. was also the Ghost Host. What I do remember is that Ghost Host showed alot of horror movies that were so boring. I remember all the movies were mainly old B/W films. As a kid we always tried to stay up late to watch, but inevitably fell asleep before the movie was over.
Sometime around the late 1960's - early 1970's there was a Saturday afternoon horror host on Channel 9 coming out of Washington DC. The show was called Weird Tales, and the horror host was a vampire that told lots of dumb jokes, and there was a point in the show where they showcased monster drawings that kids had sent in to the station. I have no idea what the host' name was????
I grew up (and still live) about 20 miles north of Baltimore. I remember "Sir Graves Ghastly" being on 11:30 on Friday nights on Channel 9 in DC, then a SECOND show on Saturday afternoon. I do not recall if it was a DIFFERENT film than was shown the night before or not. I just assumed he was actually IN DC; I remember going to see him at a shopping center opening or some such down in Annapolis , MD which is maybe 15 or so miles from DC. Maybe the show was shot in Detroit and syndicated, maybe he did a couple years in Detroit and relocated, I think maybe there was a brief biography /vintage interview a few years back in "Scary Monsters". I don't remember the details. As for the "Ghost Host" , he was not really much of a host at all; you NEVER saw much of his face, so it seemed to me they shot ONE episode of him standing on a VERY poorly lit set, and all he did was state the title of the movie with some over the top "evil" laughter. MAYBE he would mention the actor's names, but I know there was NEVER any discussion or sketch type material. LOTS of sound effects, thunder and lightning and that "BWAAAH HA HA HA!" laughter. And like Chris, I remember when we got cable around '75 or '76 and catching Dr Shock on Channel 17. And I think Seymour out of LA might have been syndicated on Channel 29 out of Philly for maybe a year or so. I seem to remember him hosting "The Incredible Two Headed Transplant" and interacting with HIMSELF in the movie, but it is possible I caught that in a compilation video after the fact. Gore DeVol was fun, but when we got cable we lost channel 20 so I did not really catch him again until I went to the University of Maryland and it became a local channel. But at that point, 11:30 on a Saturday night was NOT when I was watching TV, LOL. ;)
GREAT thread!
Tom
Tom
In the Columbus, Ohio area we had of course Captain Kangaroo followed by the local show Lucy's Toyshop (later replaced by Friendly Junction). What I really remember and would love to find was the ones at Christmas where had Santa in his toyshop and he would read local letters.
At night we would have Fritz The Night Owl with Saturday being Double Chiller Theater with Fritz The Night Owl. On Saturdays in the 70's it was Mona's Place (for a short while I think that was the New Fox Channel) and the Local NBC was Jerry Beck late Saturday Nights.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on February 21, 2016, 08:50:06 AMI keep hearing "yes yes yes" but that's only from maybe a dozen cities. I'm wondering if this was a nation-wide activity? They used local talent in local studios. They might have had nationally syndicated shows like CAPTAIN KANGAROO and COWBOY BOB, maybe BOZO, too.
So far, I'm finding "yes" if the town was 100,000 or more and had a local TV station, or two or more within a broadcast radius of, say, 50 miles. I'm not sure about radius-distance, nor certain about population. East Coast will be far different than west-of-Mississippi, I've discovered.
So what do your survey results tentatively indicate at this point?
???
Our local kids' show was The Captain Jinks Show, with Salty Sam (out of Peoria, IL). Here's my page on it: http://www.houseofjitters.com/jinks.htm (http://www.houseofjitters.com/jinks.htm)
A good overview on the subject is this book, though not without some factual errors:
http://www.amazon.com/There-Girls-Americas-Childrens-Programs/dp/1578063957/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= (http://www.amazon.com/There-Girls-Americas-Childrens-Programs/dp/1578063957/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=)
Good times, good memories!
What then are some of the factual errors?
???
I'm 62 years old, and I can still remember living in Glendora, California and watching "Jeepers Creepers Theater" in 1962 with Horror Host Bob Guy as Jeeper. If I remember correctly, in 1963, the show changed its title to "Theater 13" and had a Horror Hostess named Ghoulita; played by Lietta Harvey (1963 to 1964), the show, broadcast on Saturday nights at 10:00 p.m. on KCOP Channel 13 Los Angeles, California until 1965.
I also remember watching Monster movies on Friday nights as well, as it became "a two night event" every week, but I don't remember if they were part of the same show or not.
I remember there were Universal Monsters (and Monsters in general), everywhere. I also remember Shrimpenstein, Captain Kangaroo, Sherriff John, Engineer Bill and Soupy Sales. Most of all, for me, it was all about Monsters! Even now, all those years later - it's still Monsters!
I lifted parts of this post from an Introduction I penned for a book I have written of all eight Frankenstein Films. The book is a scene by scene analysis of all eight films, including all spoken dialogue. However, after completion; the book did not seem like a marketable product, except as a possible study guide. So while it sits on the shelf -- it did serve a purpose in giving an old Monster fan something to do in retirement.
Quote from: Mord on February 21, 2016, 12:31:50 PM
In L.A., we had this little puppet host named "Shrimpenstein". He has patterned after the "Son of Frankenstein" monster (animal fur & all). I don't remember that much about the shows' content, but I'm pretty sure he introduced short, cheesy cartoons (like those early Marvel Comics ones).
They also had bat puppets singing sped up songs called "The Tiajuana Bats". Gene Moss as Dr. Von Schtick would often have no problem ridiculing the shows sponsor. Once looking at a package of "Moo Juice" he commented the the bovine on the package looked like a cow with it's brains kicked in.
(http://www.houseofjitters.com/images/largecreature.jpg)
Not a kids' show, but my local creature feature from back in the day, couldn't resist the opportunity to share!
(http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20110926-0926mrpeppermint_hp.jpg.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/0926mrpeppermint_hp.JPG)
Mr. Peppermint from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, mid 1960's, a nearly forgotten blast from my past. He was a friend of a friend of my father's, & I got to meet him once at their home. I remember he was a very kind person.
I grew up in the tiny town of Addison, MI. In the 60s/70s I too, remember the awesome Sir Graves Ghastley!! He would have his sdekicks like the Glob, and show the best movies in the world! Sitting on the floor, drinking chocolate milk, and watching The Wolfman, The Mummy, Frankenstein & my favorite- Creature from the Black Lagoon! Without Sir Graves- I don't know how I would have made it through the monotony of living in a township of 300 people. Hahahaha! I remember out station came from Lansing/Jackon and Flint. But I don't remember the actual network.
Should have been done a long time ago, but this topic really belongs in TELEVISION.
Have local kids' show hosts disappeared from television these days or are they still common?
???
Quote from: Hepcat on November 18, 2016, 11:11:00 AM
Have local kids' show hosts disappeared from television these days or are they still common?
I can't think of any. Or even national hosts, similar to Capt. Kangaroo, or Bozo. Even the horror movie hosts are meant to appeal to people like us, instead of kids.
We didn't have our own in Toronto in the 60's/70's but we didn't need one either because we picked up that "Great cosmopolitan City" :D : Buffalo!!! and their amazing Morning show:Rocketship 7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketship_7
.After school and on weekends we had their equally good Commander Tom show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Tom_Show
Little tidbit: Dave Thomas the host of Rocketship 7 is the Father of David Boreanaz, Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more recently of "Bones".
Quote from: Dr.Cyclops on November 18, 2016, 11:15:37 PMWe didn't have our own in Toronto in the 60's/70's but we didn't need one either because we picked up that "Great cosmopolitan City" :D : Buffalo!!!
Yes, in those days Buffalo being a big American city represented vibrant modern sophistication to the burghers to the burghers of sleepy Toronto-the-good where nothing much ever happened.
;)
Thanks for noting and moving this to the Television section. Obviously, I poorly considered the Sat-Afternoon Film Content originally but that quickly modified into the Local Host concept - which is only a TV feature.
Hep, the question back in April about what I'd learned. I'm still compiling. I am rather surprised that the Local Show Host concept lasted into 1990. I suspect the creation of so many "cartoon channels" was the effective stake-in-the-heart because that might have removed local stations from bidding on syndicated shows.
I'm not sure how that worked in the '50s, '60s and into the '70s. From what I've read so far, the 1970s was the beginning of the end. Most cities closed off these Local Host shows in the early '80s, or by the mid-70s.
I suspect there's a much larger force - new ownership groups that would sweep up local channels into conglomeration. Local channels were nothing more than a branch-facility - not "local" at all. NYC, LA, maybe Chicago, maybe Philly or Boston were able to be HQs or home-stations for their conglomeration - maybe these virtually syndicated those local hosts.
Atlanta's WTBS - owned by Ted Turner - had a syndicated local host Bill Tush that did voice-overs, intro's to movies, ever as a talking-head newscaster. He retired in 2003 but his WTBS era was over before 1990, it appears.
It appears that the Conglomerate Ownership and the Syndication Package Movement ("you must show 400 of our shows, not 3") were the causes of death for these truly local stations.
Quote from: ChristineBCW on December 24, 2016, 03:36:51 PMI suspect there's a much larger force - new ownership groups that would sweep up local channels into conglomeration. Local channels were nothing more than a branch-facility - not "local" at all. NYC, LA, maybe Chicago, maybe Philly or Boston were able to be HQs or home-stations for their conglomeration - maybe these virtually syndicated those local hosts.
It appears that the Conglomerate Ownership and the Syndication Package Movement ("you must show 400 of our shows, not 3") were the causes of death for these truly local stations.
Once upon a time local shows could act as a stepping stone for national syndication. Shari Lewis and her puppet friends got their start on WRCA of New York in 1953.
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%202/Shari27.jpg)
(http://flowtv.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/shari.png)
:)
This "springboard to go national" was probably a natural process since Radio did that. Many of these after-school hours were basically a host introducing syndicated programs (LONE RANGER) and cartoons. They might have sidekicks and puppets. It seems the amount of on-air varied - but after-school programming ran from 3 to 5, maybe 6.
Now, American TV offers Divorce Judges and Dr. Feels, Springers, etc.
Hardly a fair trade-off.
Quote from: classicscreams on March 19, 2016, 08:04:07 PMIn the Columbus, Ohio area we had of course Captain Kangaroo followed by the local show Lucy's Toyshop (later replaced by Friendly Junction). What I really remember and would love to find was the ones at Christmas where had Santa in his toyshop and he would read local letters.
At night we would have Fritz The Night Owl with Saturday being Double Chiller Theater with Fritz The Night Owl. On Saturdays in the 70's it was Mona's Place (for a short while I think that was the New Fox Channel) and the Local NBC was Jerry Beck late Saturday Nights.
I'm from Lancaster, Ohio and we saw all the Columbus shows. On LUCI'S TOYSHOP, just after Thanksgiving, they would introduce Santa Claus and his huge machine with a CONVEYER BELT that would pump out all the toys you could conveniently buy at the local LAZARUS department stores!
You can now get MANY dvds of FRITZ THE NIGHTOWL original shows after he inherited them from the WBNS-TV studios.
And lets not forget FLIPPO THE CLOWN... host of a much beloved 4pm daily movie, THE EARLY SHOW. With co-host/ straight man, Dan Imel. This is where I first saw ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN!!!
Jerry Beck hosted SCHOENLING ALL NIGHT THEATER. The first place I ever saw KING KONG, CITIZEN KANE and my beloved THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN. And MR. CHICKEN was always the 3rd movie shown from 4am to 6am. This was back in the day when if a movie was on at 4am- you had to stay up from 4am to 6am to view it. Then had bragging rights on Monday morning at school. I also recorded the theme and organ music from the tv speaker. Remember doing that!?
I never saw it, but there was a much talked about ALL NIGHT THEATER showing of THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, where Jerry heckled it all the way during commercial breaks as the worst movie he'd ever had to show. in retrospect, this must have been a pretty historical, early showing of CHERBOURG on local TV in the early to mid 1970s.
Can't remember MONAS PLACE at all- but if it was FOX TV- that must have been in the mid to late 80s.
DrMark, what time frame were these experiences? Before 1965? You mentioned "the 80s" for one programme and I'm not finding 'local' shows after that. Every media group accepted national homogenization as their goal although every programme remains 'local'. Somewhere. They just ignore those locals.
Quote from: drmark7 on September 12, 2017, 02:03:22 AM
I also recorded the theme and organ music from the tv speaker.
In pre home video days, I had a whole collection of audio tapes of movies recorded from TV. :)
As a corrective addendum, when I said "shows ignored locals", I meant that shows ARE all produced locally - somewhere - but those shows don't invite local kids in for viewing, say, on their birthdays.
This seems to be a fairly common gimmick for the local shows of the '50s, '60s and into the '70s - invited youngsters in for their 5th or 8th birthday to be part of a bleacher crew or some small gathering - in the few dozen - compared to a "studio audience" in a theater-setting. Local studios apparently wheeled out bleacheres for these shows, every afternoon, five days a week for years, for decades. What a special birthday for those kids, I bet. Somewhere, studios and media execs decided catering to children wasn't sufficiently profitable - now, after-school programming has the Psycho Divorce Judges on Springer's TV-Cat Fights. What a difference. A sad sad difference.