HOWDY DOODY

'''Howdy Doody''' was a children's television program (with a decidedly frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that aired on NBC from 1947 through 1960. It was a pioneer in children's programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. It was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.

Contents

Characters

Popularity and airtime

Live audience participation

Smith's absence

Show changes in later years

Pop references

References

Characters

Howdy Doody himself was a freckle-faced boy marionette, and was originally voiced by Bob Smith^[1]. The marionette on the original show was operated with 11 strings: two head, one mouth, one eyes, two shoulders, one back, two hands and two knees. Three strings were added when the show returned—two elbows and one nose. Other puppet characters included Heidi Doody (Howdy's sister), Mayor Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and the curious Flub-a-Dub (a combination of eight animals—a duck's bill, a cat's whiskers, a spaniel's ears, a giraffe's neck, a dachshund's body, a seal's flippers, a pig's tail, and an elephant's memory).
The show's host was Bob Smith (Born November 27, 1917 and died July 30, 1998), who was dubbed "Buffalo Bob" early in the show's run. Smith wore cowboy garb, and the name of the puppet "star" was derived from the western U.S. expression "howdy do," a familiar form of the greeting "How Do You Do?" (The straightforward use of that expression was also in the theme song's lyrics.) The name was the source of some childish crude humor, as "doody" was also a familiar child's euphemism for defecation. Kids of that era would also make up lyrics like, "It's Howdy Doody time, it's hardly worth a dime..." and such.
There also were several human characters, most notably the mute Clarabell the Clown, who communicated by honking horns on his belt and squirting seltzer, and Chief Thunderthud, head of the Ooragnak tribe of Native Americans, who originated the cry "Kowabonga!". Princess Summerfall Winterspring, originally a puppet, was later played by the actress Judy Tyler. The characters inhabited the fictional town of "Doodyville".
Clarabell was first played by Bob Keeshan, who continued in that role until 1952. Keeshan later became Captain Kangaroo. At the end of the final episode, aired September 24, 1960, Clarabell (then played by Lew Anderson) broke his series-long silence to say the final words of the final broadcast: "Goodbye, kids". Lew Anderson followed Bobby Nicholson, who also played Doodyville's J. Cornelius Cobb.

Popularity and airtime

The show was extremely popular and is a fond memory for many baby boomers. Originally an hour on Saturdays, the show moved to Monday through Friday, 5:30-6:00 pm EST in 1948. In 1956, it returned to Saturday, in a morning timeslot.
Beginning in 1954, the NBC test pattern featured a picture of Howdy.

Live audience participation

A distinctive feature was the peanut gallery, on-stage bleachers seating about 40 kids. Each show began with buffalo Bob asking, "Say kids, what time is it?" and the kids yelling in unison, "It's Howdy Doody Time!". Then the kids all sang the show's theme song (set to the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"). It was thus one of the first television shows to make audience participation a major part.

Smith's absence

In 1954, Bob Smith suffered a heart attack and was ordered to recover at home. NBC managed to keep the show going with guest hosts, including Gabby Hayes and Ted Brown as "Bison Bill," explaining that Smith was vacationing at "Pioneer Village." [1] While kids were generally satisfied with the explanation, show sponsors insisted that they wanted Smith himself to hawk their products. In response, NBC set up a special studio at Smith's home so that he could appear live "from Pioneer Village" in order to do commercials. During Smith's absence from the show, Howdy was voiced by the well known NY voice actor Allen Swift, the "Man Of A Thousand Voices". Swift continued to voice the character for a short time even after Bob Smith's return to the show. For a few years following Bob Smith's death in 1998, Howdy did some final promotional appearances and television interviews, with his voice provided by actor Alan Semok.

Show changes in later years

In 1954, Canadian and Cuban spin-off shows were licensed using local casts and duplicate puppets.
A then unknown Canadian actor named William Shatner (who would later play Captain Kirk in ''Star Trek'') appeared occasionally as a fill-in host on the Canadian show as "Ranger Bill." Coincidentally, another future ''Star Trek'' actor would join the Canadian Howdy Doody show's cast. The Canadian show starred James Doohan and later Peter Mews as forest ranger Timber Tom who corresponded to Buffalo Bob in the U.S. version. That Robert Goulet played this part is an error which sometimes appears (it is listed among his credits on the official Robert Goulet website in his TV-Ography- #31-1957, and was also mentioned by Buffalo Bob Smith at one of his concerts). However, Goulet may have also been an occasional fill-in host. The Canadian show appeared much more low-budget than the U.S. counterpart and seemed watered-down, with less raucous plots and less villainous villains. Yet some of the stories were evocative nonetheless, almost stepping into high fantasy, often with Dilly Dally as an everyman hero who muddled through and did the right thing.
The American program was prerecorded on color videotape in the final years, one of the earliest programs to use that technology.

The final episode aired on September 24, 1960, entitled ''"Clarabell's Big Surprise"''. The episode was mostly a fond look back at all the highlights of the show's past. Meanwhile, in the midst of it all, Clarabell has what he calls "a big surprise". The rest of the cast attempt to find out the surprise throughout the entire show, with only Mayor Phineas T. Bluster succeeding, and promising to keep it a secret. ("But," he says upon leaving, "it won't be very easy to keep something like ''this'' a secret for long!!") Finally, in the closing moments, the surprise was disclosed through pantomime to Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody. "You mean...you can ''talk??''" said Bob. "Why, ''golly''...I don't believe it!" Howdy Doody exclaimed. "You can talk?!" Bob asked again. Clarabell nodded. "Well, Clarabell", Bob continued, gently shaking the clown's shoulders, ''"this is your last chance!'' If you really can talk, ''prove'' it...let's hear you say something!" A drumroll began as Clarabell faced the camera as it came in for an extreme closeup. His lips quivered as the drumroll continued. When it stopped, Clarabell simply said softly "Goodbye, kids", and the picture faded to black. Lew Anderson's (Clarabell's) genuine tears upon delivering the only line Clarabell ever spoke in 13 years, made this one of the most poignant moments in television history. The recently discovered and restored color videotape of the final broadcast is now available commercially.
The '''New Howdy Doody Show''', an attempt by Buffalo Bob and most of the old cast to recreate their past fame, aired from August 1976 to January 1977 in syndication. For this incarnation of the series, which lasted for 130 episodes, the Howdy Doody marionette had actual hair in a contemporary 1970s style. Cast members included Bill LeCornec as fictional producer Nicholson Muir (named for the production team of Bob Nicholson and Roger Muir); Nicholson himself as Corny Cobb (now working as a "prop man" rather than a shopkeeper), bandleader Jackie Davis, and Marilyn Patch as Happy Harmony (filling in for the Princess Summerfall Winterspring role). Lew Anderson returned as Clarabell.
A decade later, the show celebrated its fortieth anniversary with a two-hour syndicated TV special, ''It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration'', featuring Smith, Anderson and LeCornec, who reprised his former role of Chief Thunderthud for the special.

Pop references

The Andy Kaufman television special "Andy's Funhouse", which was taped in 1977 but did not air until August 1979, on ABC, featured a special appearance by Howdy Doody in the "Has-been Corner" segment.
During the second season of ''Happy Days''. episode 33, Buffalo Bob and Clarabell have to persuade Richie to destroy a photo of Clarabell without his makeup on. ^[2]
In an episode of the Television show ''The Nanny'', entitled "Lamb chops on the menu" Fran makes the joke "If Lamb Chop had Married Howdy Doody her name would be Lamb Doody"
Cheech Marin (of Cheech and Chong) once raised the question, "Does Howdy Doody have wooden balls?"
Woody from ''Toy Story'' is to some extent based on Howdy Doody.
In the first season of ''South Park'', in the "Pink Eye" episode. When Stan comes dressed as Raggedy Andy, Cartman asks: "Who are you supposed to be? Howdy Doody?"
The TV show ''Howdy Doody'' wakes up Doc in ''Back to the Future Part III''.
On the early '80s late-night comedy series ''Fridays'', there was a running gag in which Howdy Doody was so famous that he could cut in line in front of absolutely anyone, no matter how famous they also were. Former ''Fridays'' cast member Michael Richards once used the catchphrase for these sketches—"Right this way, Mr. Doody"—on The Glasses episode of ''Seinfeld''. This said in response to Jerry's description of the moment when him, his girlfriend and her suspected lover, cousin Jeffery, meet: "And then when Jeffrey opens the door, it's Howdy Doody time!"
In one episode of ''The Simpsons'', Abe Simpson tries to implicate several of his friends as being members of a Communist party, one of which is Howdy Doody, at the Joe McCarthy communist witch-hunt of the 1950s. Of course, this is a mixed reference referring to the Hollywood investigation which involved the House of Representatives, of which Senator McCarthy had no part.
In the film ''King of New York'', Laurence Fishburne's character Jimmy Jump says, "Why don't you bring Howdy Doody and the Chocolate Wonder?", a sarcastic reference to Dennis Gilley's (David Caruso) bright red hair.
In an episode of ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' Will Smith makes a remark about Uncle Phil's assiant saying "Hey look a black Howdy Doody".
Mentioned in the song "Somewhere That's Green" from the musical version of ''Little Shop of Horrors''.
In the 1983 film ''WarGames'', Barry Corbin's character General Beringer says "We've had men in these silos since before any of you were watching Howdy Doody!".
Ernie Kovacs had a clever spoof of ''Howdy Doody'', called ''Howdy Deedy'', with Kovacs himself as Buffalo Bob, or, in this case, Buffalo Miklaos, and the Howdy Doody puppet had thick glasses and a mustache added to its face!
Stephen King's novel It, Georgie Denbrough compared the clown monster as a cross between character's Bozo and Clarabell. Many others throughout the novel have made this comparison.

References

1. The Howdy Doody Show
2. http://www.sitcomsonline.com/season2.html