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THE BILLY BARTY SHOW - Ogopogo I have been tring to find some info
on the Billy Barty show you mention on your blog. I was a contestant on
the show when I was 8 (with my brownie troop in my uniform and all...we
also went on the Jack-in-the-Box show). Billy Barty, the 3-foot-10 actor whose career included LA local kid show host, died Saturday Dec. 23, 2000 of heart failure. He was 76. Barty had been hospitalized in Glendale for heart problems and a lung infection. There are no known existing episodes of The Billy Barty Show. Thursday, August 18, 2010 - 8:40am
TOMMY SEVEN Seen weekday evenings beginning on Monday September 12, 1960 the series was set against the backdrop of an inner city neighborhood and featured the misadventures of a sad faced, talking tramp clown named "Tommy Seven" (played by entertainer Ed Bakey) who worked as a street vendor, selling his wares to the kids in the neighborhood. He was aided and abetted by his duck pal "Milton" (who was simply the sounds of a duck quacking which was accomplished by a stage hand using a duck call device off camera). "Milton" lived inside of Tommy's cart but he never came out and he always interrupted the clown when he was talking to the viewers. Tommy would engage his viewers in songs, comedy skits, stories, craftmaking, and informational segments all wrapped around reruns of the MGM Hugh Harmon/Rudy Issling and Tex Avery movie cartoons. The show was also the first NYC based children's program to feature reruns of The Courageous Cat & Minute Mouse and Q.T. Hush TV cartoons (the voices for the characters that appeared in these films were performed by character actor/mimic and my dear friend Mr. Dallas McKennon). These became the most popular cartoons in the NYC viewing area. The series would later move to a weekday morning timeslot where Tommy Seven would entertain and inform a studio audience of kids; he would also host a Saturday afternoon edition of the show which first aired on Ch. 7 beginning on April 29, 1961. For a time Mr. Bakey was unable to host the show and the series featured guest hosts Chubby Jackson MC'd the weekday evening edition of the show a character known as Dr. Fun (whose acting credits and name are still unknown to this day) would serve as a guest host/ performer of the weekday morning and Saturday afternoon versions of the program. The weekday morning edition of The Tommy Seven Show went off the air on Friday May 24, 1963; the Saturday edition was cancelled on July 15, 1961. Friday, August 6, 2010 - 9:30am
The
Billy Barty Show Billy Barty, the 3-foot-10 actor whose career included LA local kid show host, died Saturday Dec. 23, 2000 of heart failure. He was 76. Barty had been hospitalized in Glendale for heart problems and a lung infection. There are no known existing episodes of The Billy Barty Show. Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 11:58am
LAUREL & HARDY & CHUCK Although Laurel & Hardy films had been seen on WCBS 2's weekend kid's show Space Funnies / The Captain Jet Show (which starred Stan Sawyer and Joe Silver from 1953 to 1960) it was WPIX's weekday and Sunday afternoon program that made the cinematic antics of Stan & Ollie a hit with NYC's kids and adults. There has been some confusion as to how the show came about. Chuck McCann has stated that Channel 11 screened the L&H films during rainouts of the NYC Yankees baseball games and that they were poorly edited. Hence, they were never shown complete. Director Herb Holmes was contacted by Chuck's agent to set up an audition for his client; the agent spoke highly of McCann's talents as a comic/character actor/mimic and puppeteer, of his knowledge of L&H's work and his love for the boys. Mr. Holmes arranged for an audition and he and the other station execs were pleased with Chuck's talents and they decided to have him host reruns of the L&H films on a new daily program where he would manipulate Laurel & Hardy puppets in serialized comedy skits to introduce the films and wrap up the broadcasts. However, in my interview with Chuck's head puppeteer/puppet maker/comedy assistant and friend Paul Ashley (which was conducted at Paul's home in New Rochelle, New York in March of 1979) he recalled that WPIX TV's film director Fred Thrower tried to get Paul to audition for the hosting job of the L&H film TV series. Ashley, who was then working with a group of artists to help finish the rides and attractions for the Freedomland USA amusement park, turned down the offer. He suggested that Chuck would be the better choice to MC the program. "I called him (on the phone)," Ashley recalled, "And I said to him 'Chuck come down here, get the L&H puppets and go see Fred Thrower at WPIX and I'm sure that you'll get the job.' He came down here, got the puppets, and he went to the Channel 11 TV studios and he puppeteered the entire audition from the floor of the TV studio and he got the job". The show debuted on Wednesday afternoon, September 7, 1960 and became a hit with NYC's viewers both young and old. Chuck had promised Stan Laurel personally that the films on the show would never be edited to the point of losing their continuity. Since Paul Ashley was unavailable to work with his partner on the program Chuck worked alone. However, he did get help from Stan Laurel in the creation of the show's skits. Chuck would write up the scripts and then mail them to Stan who would go over the scripts and send them back with his suggestions written in the margins. After each show's broadcast Chuck would call Stan on the phone to tell him how the show went. Besides showing the films in their entirety, Chuck would also provide information about the lives and careers of the boys and do interviews with visiting guest performers and personalities. The series became so popular that McCann created and maintained for a time a "Laurel & Hardy & Chuck Fan Club" which had a lot of loyal members in the NYC/NJ/CT viewing area. By the fall of 1962 Chuck added a Sunday afternoon version of the series which aired briefly for three months on TV 11. Laurel & Hardy & Chuck continued until the show ended on Sunday afternoon December 31, 1962. The L&H film comedies would continue to be seen on WPIX TV on McCann's second TV series Let's Have Fun. Tuesday, August 3, 2010 - 11:01am
Robert Homme starred as the Friendly Giant, and like TV educator Paul Tripp, Homme wrote his own shows. The Giant liked to hang out with his friends Jerome the Giraffe and Rusty the Rooster (both hand puppets) - meant to mimic the behavior of children. Jerome was the rebellious, know-it-all kid and Rusty (who lived in a bookbag) was the inquisitive, younger child. Each episode started with the Giant (who lived in a castle on a farm with tiny doll house antique furniture) saying: "Once upon a time, not long ago and not far away...". There was a running plotline that was explored through conversation or by the Giant reading books to the kids at home. There was rarely a point of view put across - "What is important is for them (the children) to see is that we adults enjoy learning," Homme declared in 1969. He was serious in his attempts to reach children with new concepts, his was a go-slow, gentle approach, "Witness how they repeat and repeat things and play records over and over again. They like repetition. I think the whole world is preoccupied by the concept of change. But there are a lot of things that had better not change. And one of them is the concept of clarity and coherence." Ironically, it was change that did in 'The Friendly Giant' (in the US, anyway). He was removed from the Educational Television schedule for a bold, new children's show that attempted to use the techniques of modern advertising to teach - instead of pushing a product, they would insert educational messages. This wildly successful production from the brand new Children's Television Workshop debuted in November of 1969 and was called 'Sesame Street'. Beloved by generations of children, Robert Homme died May 2, 2000 of cancer at his home in Grafton. He was 81. The Friendly Giant ran on CBC TV for 28 years, from September, 1958 until March 1985, then continued in reruns. BM writes: You mentioned 'The Friendly Giant' and it reminded me of the show that preceded it or came after it. It was called The Storyteller - about a bookend elf that comes to life when 'Greensleeves' is playing and then proceeds to read a story of the day for us kids. Sunday, August 1, 2010 - 1:20pm
LOCAL TV STAR PASSINGS Read all about Ricky the Clown. Kevin Butler alerts us to an important passing that I didn't see noted in the national press. This is a shame, not just from the standpoint of television, but we lost one of the great Jazz vocalists of all time as well: Joya Sherrill, host/performer and educator of one of WPIX TV Channel 11's last original kid's TV shows Time For Joya / Joya's Fun School, succumbed to leukemia at her home in Great Neck, Long Island, New York on Monday, June 28, 2010. She was 85 years old. Read all about Joya and Joya's Fun School. Friday, July 30, 2010 - 11:24am
ARE YOU A DO - BEE? All of the hosts, many former kindergarten teachers, spent the half-hour reading from books to the seven or eight kids on the set, teaching the alphabet, manners and values in a gentle way. The kids would often go nuts on the show, some wouldn't communicate at all, others would take over the whole show and there was nothing the poor hostess could do but deal with it because they were on a cramped set together for thirty minutes live.
Don't write and ask if anyone has a copy of the Romper Room show you were on as a kid - all the shows were erased to tape the next day's episode! From Romper Room in Jacksonville, Florida:
"I’m Luke Vaughan and I was on Romper Room with Ms. Penny on WTLV Channel 12 (NBC) in Jacksonville, Florida – I believe it was 1969 "I’m the little blonde-haired boy with short hair on the left of the attached picture. This picture is the only memory I have since there are no movie tapes. I remember I had 5 stitches in my hand and Ms. Penny made a big deal about letting the TV audience see my stitches. I also remember getting to do the weather by going up to the board and dressing the figure in the clothing that was appropriate for the day’s weather." More on Romper Room including, hopefully, your city's Romper Room. Thursday, July 28, 2010 - 10:19am
CAPTAIN KANGAROO
See Also: Captain Kangaroo History / More on Captain Kangaroo / Wednesday, July 27, 2010 - 8:34am
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I
remember the Billy Barty Show but I don't remember the toons or
routines he offered, but he was really good with the kids in the audience.
If you are too young to remember him, he played "The Dwarf" in the movie
"Foul Play". He was, of course, a real dwarf. 
Kevin Butler writes about another TV milestone for New York City viewers: September marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of WABC TV Channel 7's last local kids show The Tommy Seven Show. 
Kevin Butler writes: September 7, 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of one of NYC TV's most popular and creative film comedy wraparound shows - Laurel & Hardy & Chuck.
THE FRIENDLY GIANT
Each
show ended with the hostess gazing into the 'Magic Mirror' (just
an empty mirror frame) and saying (changing the names each day): "I see Mary
and Hank and William and Virginia and Hannah and all of you boys and
girls out there!" 
