Local Children's Programming PA/MD (1 Viewer)

I get surious from time to time what the procedure (if any) there was for archieving all those regional children's shows.

We all know well this type of programming. A live action host, usually dressed as a particular charcter, introducing cartoons and other shows directed at children. Little skits often accompanied. There seemed to be one of these in almost every major market back in the 60's - 80's. Of course, this is mostly a archaic outdated concept today.

I would fortunate as a child in that since my area was smack in between the Phila and Baltimore markets so I got to see two of these guys daily. One coming from Phila and one from Baltimore. Additionally, I spent a lot of time with my G-Parents in Northern Pa, so for a lot of the year, I got to see an additional one as well

Here are the three I remember, I will include the channels they aired on if I can remember

1) Captain Chesapeake - WBFF Channel 45 - Baltimore

2) Captain Noah - Channel 3 (I believe) - Philadelphia

3) Hatchy Milachi - Channel 16 - Scranton/Wilkes Barre

Anyone remember these? I often wonder if any tapes of these (and similar regional chidren's shows) were saved or destroyed, as a matther of procedure.

Frank Soyke said:

We all know well this type of programming. A live action host, usually dressed as a particular charcter, introducing cartoons and other shows directed at children. Little skits often accompanied. There seemed to be one of these in almost every major market back in the 60's - 80's. Of course, this is mostly a archaic outdated concept today.

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I grew up 100 miles from NYC, but still able to get WNEW-5 on the regional upstate cable on Sunday mornings, and in the mid-late 70's, for a touring celebrity stopping through NY to get on "Wonderama" was like a gig on Ed Sullivan.
How many other local children's shows would get the Chieftains, Mummenschanz, Monty Python on their first US tage tour, Wolfman Jack, the original Wiz cast....I can't even remember who used to show up between '75-'77.

Nowadays, one of the things we notice from the slow entropy and absorption of local-affiliate TV is that there's no local programming of ANY kind any more, except for the local-news division. Instead of early morning shows or afternoon home/talk shows, local bowling, local high-school quiz-bowl, or local-interest magazine shows, local stations simply air...MORE local news. Even the drudgery of the midnight late-late movies have been taken away by all-night national network news.
Every time I watch the Mary Tyler Moore Show dealing with the troubles of a local station producing the Happy Homemaker or Chuckles the Clown, I get pangs of nostalgia.

There is a funny parody of these local kid shows on a great episode of The Office where Steve Carrell shows the guys an old tape of him as a kid on one of the these type of programs in the Scranton area.

Sometimes, I feel sorry for today's children, they don't know what they aew missing. However, the granddaddy of all children's shows The Howdy Doody Show, has a few episodes available on DVD. Look it up on The Big River.

Frank Soyke said:

I get surious from time to time what the procedure (if any) there was for archieving all those regional children's shows.

I grew up 100 miles from NYC, but still able to get WNEW-5 on the regional upstate cable on Sunday mornings, and in the mid-late 70's, for a touring celebrity stopping through NY to get on "Wonderama" was like a gig on Ed Sullivan.
How many other local children's shows would get the Chieftains, Mummenschanz, Monty Python on their first US tage tour, Wolfman Jack, the original Wiz cast....I can't even remember who used to show up between '75-'77.

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I don't know what the deal was with Wonderama. We used to get it in Los Angeles; not sure if it was syndicated nationally, but it played in a lot of markets. Everybody appeared on that show. Sometimes it was like a kids' version of American Bandstand. Wikipedia lists just a few; I also remember Jim Backus on there--doing a blindfold test of common foods, as Mr. Magoo. He was asked to feel certain foods and identify them. On encountering a bowl of peanuts, he declared, "I believe this is an example of the goober persuasion." Classic.

I remember the kids from Good Times singing a parody of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better." I remember Stephanie Mills singing "Be A Lion" from the Wiz. Great stuff--

We had Dick Holly here in the mid-South on Sunday mornings. I personally thought his gig was silly and don't remember much about it now. He was a daytime anchor during the week for WMC (Channel 5 in Memphis) and did that on Sundays.