Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Bob Keeshan...Captain Kangaroo
As the Captain, Bob greeted us every morning from his "Treasure House" from 1955-1984, making us kids glad to get up on a school day and to teach us a few things and sing a few songs to us.
Then CBS decided to compete with the ratings garnered by NBC's Today Show and Captain Kangaroo was replaced by CBS News This Morning or Morning News or whatever. A noble thing to do, were it not for the fact that, 1984 was also about the same time that network television was abandoning the idea of a broadcasting the news, and all the morning shows quickly devolved into happy, sappy info-tainment crap! The vapid nonsense that fills the airwaves as news on the network shows is as empty and pointless as the regis and whoever and mike and maddy's that compete with them in syndication or follow them. A parade of capped teeth, orange spray-on tans and fake tits talking about what filled the airwaves like septic gas the night before on "Dancing with the Survivors of the American Idols". Pure creative vacuum.
I miss the Captain. I miss all his Treasure House pals too. Mr. Greenjeans...
Dancing Bear and Grandfather Clock...
Bunny Rabbit and his eternal quest, not for carrots, but rather new ways to bilk the Captain out of HIS carrots...
Mr. Moose and his ping-pong ball dropping jokes. I miss Tom Terrific, Magic Drawing board and all the rest. They made for some enjoyable morning times and I still remember how to make a toy grandfather clock out of a shoe box and a tom-tom drum out of an oatmeal can to this day.
My favorite Bob Keeshan memory, post-Captain? Seeing him on C-SPAN fighting for legislation for quality children's television that wouldn't be inspired by a breakfast cereal/candy or toy/video game. Seeing him speak before the house and get downright angry, coming just this side of Nikita Kruschev's shoe pounding speech.
And he was doing it for us...the kids he spoke to on television for 30 years, just because we needed someone to.
The Captain Kangaroo Show:
Here's a link to a long form interview with Mr. Keeshan which is bitchin'! If you've got about 3 hours to fill and a desire to listen to someone worth listening to, this is it!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgsDXspJm-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehEf_X-8M9c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsgaUazLAm0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJHFsazvpgU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp6lMjoEj-Y
I often think about the captain although Mr. Greenjeans was my favorite. And I loved the rabbit(?) and the ping pong balls too. ;)
ReplyDeleteVisits to The Treasure House were the start of every weekday morning for me growing up. They're ALL a huge part of my growing up and I miss it. It would be nice to be able to at least start my Monday mornings with the Captain and his crew nowadays, sometimes. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah (sigh),
ReplyDeleteI remember those wonderful days too. It was sometimes a real triple treat when mother would make one of her real bananna milk shakes for me to sip while I watched the show. I'd be very hard pressed though to pick a favorite since I loved them all. Wonder if Netflix has any of the shows... Think I'll check.