Farewell, Captain............

[poltr1]

I heard the news at lunch today. Bob Keeshan, whom many of us knew as "Captain Kangaroo", passed away earlier today after a long illness. He was 76.

Here's a link to his obituary on the CBSNews.com web site. (The page has links to pictures and related stories.)

Many of you reading this used to watch the Captain, either on CBS or PBS. (And those of you who are older than I probably remember him as Clarabell on the Howdy Doody Show.) He got the "Kangaroo" moniker from the oversized pockets on his jacket. Who can forget his encounters with Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Moose, and Bunny Rabbit? I remember the Tom Terrific cartoons that used to air during his program. And of course, the hair, the mustache, and the red jacket with the white piping. He was like the kindly old grandfather I never had (both of mine died before I was born).

He was also a strong advocate for children's television and the importance of parenting. In this day and age of violent kid's programs, he was one of the few lone voices of sanity in the wilderness.

He will be missed.

Oh, Captain Kangaroo,
They broke the Creepy Crawler Mold after they made you
And Mr. Moose ran out of ping-pong balls....."

Comments

[poltr1]

"The Friendly Giant". Someone else who remembers Canadian childrens' programming! Since you grew up in Michigan, you probably got the CTV and CBC signals from Windsor, Sarnia, Owen Sound, or Sudbury, depending on where in Michigan you were.

I barely remember The Friendly Giant, Romper Room, and the Uncle Bobby Show (who had a robot on the show named Bimbo -- I am not making this up!) I think I tuned in to these when Rocketship 7 was pre-empted or concluded for the say. And before we got cable in 1984, I saw a fair amount of "snow" on the screen. :-)

Probably the best resource for this and other Canadian childrens' programming would be allisona, who's probably very familiar with what's on now.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

The only Canadian programming I really remember is Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup. Some of my Canadian friends speculate that the reason I "sound Canadian" (which I've been told I do by various people through the years) is that I grew up watching Candadian TV at a formative point in my linguistic development. :-) It's either that or all the trips to Canada for Dim Sum and wine in high school?

[poltr1]

"Mr. Dressup." I remember seeing that in the listings, but never watched it.

We were able to pick up three stations from Toronto (CTV, TVO, and CBC), and one from Hamilton (an independent).

I think I can do a decent Canadian accent, or to be more specific, a Toronto accent. I believe the "eh?" comes from the backwoods country, like the Muskoka region.

I was wrong in my earlier reply. Bimbo was a clown, not a robot.

Also ask jhayman about Canadian childrens' programming. I'd expect her to know a lot about it too.

Dim sum and wine? We made trips up to the Beer Store, to get "the good stuff". (That was in college.)