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Captain Kangaroo was a children's program which aired weekday mornings on the United States television network CBS from 1955 until 1984, then moved to the American Program Service (now American Public Television, Boston) to air syndicated reruns of past episodes in 1992. The show was produced and the title character played by the late Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Bob Keeshan was the original Clarabelle the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show.

It had a very loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" where the Captain (whose name came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. The show was live for its first four years, and was in black-and-white until 1966. In 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour.

In the TV season of 1997-98, an All New Captain Kangaroo was attempted, starring John McDonough. Keeshan was invited to appear as "The Admiral", but after seeing sample episodes declined to appear or have any association with it.

Cast

Hugh 'Lumpy' Brannum

Hugh Brannum played the Captain's main sidekick Mr. Green Jeans and other less-frequently seen characters, such as the New Old Folk Singer, who played a double bass (or "bass fiddle") as if it were a guitar, and Mr. Bainter, the Painter.

Cosmo 'Gus' Allegretti

Cosmo Allegretti created and performed several of the show's best-known puppet characters, including Bunny Rabbit, who always tricked the Captain into giving him carrots, and Mr. Moose, whose riddles and knock-knock jokes invariably ended with hundreds of ping-pong balls cascading from above and hitting the Captain on the head. Allegretti was also the actor portraying the Dennis the Apprentice, Miss Frog, Mr. Whispers, Dancing Bear and Grandfather Clock characters.

Sam Levine

Levine played an unusual, mute character known as The Banana Man, who produced huge bunches of bananas from within his coat. [1]

John Burstein

John Burstein joined the show in 1980 as Slim Goodbody, a man wearing a bodystocking which showed the internal organs of the human body painted on it in their appropriate locations.

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby was a regular on the show in the 1980s; he did a "Picture Pages" segment.

Debbie Weems

From 1973 until 1977 Debbie Weems was a regular on Captain Kangaroo. She played many roles. She was Debbie the newspaper reporter. She played Pheobe Beebee. Debbie also played many parts on the various skits for the show. She also was an active puppeteer and did the voice for Baby Duck. Debbie also sang on many episodes and had a very nice voice.

Cartoons

A cartoon starring a funnel-capped shape-shifting boy named Tom Terrific was part of the show in the 1950s and 1960s. Tom had a sidekick named Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and a nemesis, Crabby Appleton. Other cartoons included Lariat Sam.

The Canadian-British cartoon "Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings," appeared in the early 1980s, featuring a child with magic chalk who could create all sorts of short-lived creations in short adventures.

The UK produced cartoon "Ludwig" cartoon about a magical egg-shaped robot named Ludwig was also included. The character's name came from Ludwig von Beethoven, whose music played in the background of each episode. This series consisted of 5-minute episodes about Ludwig who lived in a forest. In every episode, something would happen to the animals of the forest and Ludwig would come to the rescue. His "body" facets would open up and out would pop arms, legs, gadgets or even a helicopter rotor blade when he needed to get somewhere fast. He was constantly watched by a human birdwatcher Jon Glover in a deerstalker & large binoculars. This character was both our POV and narrator as no other character talked. At the end of every episode Ludwig played a Mozart horn concerto through the credits. It was a strange & surreal cartoon, but children enjoyed it.

Special guests

Among the special guests who made periodic appearances were ventriloquist Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, her sheep puppet. Mister Rogers (Fred Rogers) appeared in a mid-1970s episode, where he and the Captain try to restore an old gramophone. Comediennes Imogene Coca and Minnie Pearl made guest appearances, as did opera star Roberta Peters, talk show host Phil Donahue, his wife actress Marlo Thomas, game show host Bill Cullen, and singer Pearl Bailey.

Regular features

Other regular features included The Magic Drawing Board and the Captain's "Reading Stories" sessions, which introduced kids to stories such as Curious George and Make Way for Ducklings. The Sweet Pickles books were featured.

Keeshan also had a recurring role as "The Town Clown," a pantomime piece that took place in and around the exposed wagon home of a tramp-like circus clown. Like the character of Clarabelle that he played on Howdy Doody, the Town Clown never spoke.

Theme song

The original theme song to Captain Kangaroo (titled Puffin' Billy) was used from 1955–1974. It was an instrumental, written by Edward G. White. The track was from a British stock music production library known as the Chappell Recorded Music Library which was sold through a New York agency called Emil Ascher. The tune's original title referred to a British steam locomotive. In 1957, lyricist Mary Rogers penned lyrics to the tune, creating a newly titled Captain Kangaroo song.

In 1974, a new theme song was composed for Captain Kangaroo, written by composer Robert L. Brush. As the new theme used similar melodic elements from the original theme, Edward G. White's name was added to the song credits.

The lyrics to the second Captain Kangaroo theme song were simple, consisting of two sets of rhymed couplets:

Schedule history

For the first three months, "Captain Kangaroo" was seen every weekday morning. Thereafter, the successful Captain was also seen on Saturday mornings. Except for pre-emptions for news coverage, notably the three-day continuous coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and a few shows that were 45 minutes, the show aired a full 60 minutes on weekday mornings and Saturday until 1981. One exception was the 1964 to 1965 season, which saw the broadcast replaced on Saturdays by a Keeshan vehicle called "Mr. Mayor."

In the fall season of 1981, to make room for "CBS Morning News", the show was moved to an early time slot and cut to 30 minutes sporting a new title "Wake Up with the Captain." A few months later, the successful "CBS Morning News" was made a two hour show and "Wake Up with the Captain" was moved to a very early time slot where ratings were hard to find. Finally, in the fall of 1982, the show lost its weekday presence and was shown on the weekends in a one hour version. New episodes were shown on Saturdays and a rerun aired on Sundays. In the fall of 1984, it was trimmed again to 30 minutes. By the end of the year, it was cancelled.

The show had a 29-year run, making it one of the longest running network children's program series. By contrast, Sesame Street, insulated from the Nielsen Ratings wars on commercial network television, has had a run of 37 years, as of 2006.

External links

Past PBS Kids Shows (as of September 2006)

List does not include shows from networks airing PBS Kids shows but not funded directly from PBS such as KLCS shows.

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