What Time is It?

“Say kids, what time is it?” For my entire generation there was only one answer to that question and that was, “It’s Howdy Doody time!” For those of you who are lucky enough to have grown up during those halcyon days after World War II, The Howdy Doody Show was the high point of the day.

Starting in December of 1947 and continuing for thirteen wonderful years Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob Smith, Clarabell the Clown and all their zany friends entertained and subtly educated us as well as kept us on the edge of our seats with their many adventures.

For those less fortunate let me explain. Howdy Doody was a puppet dressed as a young boy in cowboy clothes, Buffalo Bob was a pioneer and Clarabell the Clown communicated by honking a horn and occasionally squirting everyone in sight with a bottle of seltzer water. The Peanut Gallery was a set of bleachers filled with young boys and girls who often got to participate in the ongoing shenanigans. It was every boy and girls wish to someday to find themselves sitting in the Peanut Gallery.

By now you younger readers are scratching your heads and wondering what was so memorable about a TV show based on such a corny format. Many of you have already clicked on the next article by now. That’s okay since I’m certain that unless you were a loyal follower of the show there is no way I can convey the magic that once emanated from those old, small, black and white screens in our living rooms each evening at five o’clock.

Back in the day (my favorite new saying) when a 30-year-old Buffalo Bob (from Buffalo, New York) first brought his idea for a puppet show to NBC TV, there were only about 20,000 American homes with televisions. It was my great fortune to be living in one of them.

There were many “firsts” credited to The Howdy Doody Show. It was the first network show to be broadcast five days a week and for several years it was the first network show to be broadcast each day and was preceded only by the daily test pattern. In addition it was the first TV show to be broadcast in color and the first to air over 1,000 continuous episodes. Come to think about it, that was quite a feat for a puppet show.

The show grew and evolved over the years. The original set was a striped circus tent with doors that hid many strange and wonderful devices. Later the “tent” became polka-dotted and finally, when the show switched from it’s regular time-slot, of five o’clock weekdays, to Saturday mornings Howdy and all his friends moved to Doodyville, an entire pioneer town complete with Corny Cob’s General Store and a waterfront where a salty old sea captain (darned if I can remember his name) kept his tugboat.

Of course like all towns, Doodyville needed a mayor. Phineas T. Bluster, an old rapscallion who was always causing problems, ran against Howdy for the position. Everyone knew that Howdy would win by a landslide since nobody liked Mr. Bluster. However on the day of the big election, one by one the citizens of Doodyville began to feel sorry for old Mr. Bluster. Everyone, including Howdy, thought that if just they voted for old Phineas he would have at least one vote to count. Needless to say Phineas T. Bluster became the new mayor of Doodyville.

Doodyville was populated with a rich array of characters the likes of which you are unlikely to find in any other town. Among others there was Dilly Dally, a rather shy looking little boy, The Flub-A-Dub who was strange creature made up of eight different animals and who never stopped talking and The Inspector, who started out dressed in some rather spiffy street clothes but later changed to a classic Deerstalker hat and cape à la Sherlock Holmes. There were many others such as Howdy’s sister, Heidi Doody, who would make occasional appearances as well.

Not all the citizens of Doodyville were puppets. Some were real people like Chief Thunderthud and his beautiful young daughter (whom I had quite a crush on) Princess Summerfall Winterspring. There was Cornelius (Corny) Cob, the proprietor of the general store, and occasionally Buffalo Emma, Buffalo Bob’s mother, would visit from nearby Pioneer Village. Peppi Mint, with her spiffy striped hat, was also a regular for a while.

The adventures never ended and often would take several episodes to resolve. The one thing that you could be certain of though was that no how bad things looked, Howdy and his friends would always triumph in the end. This was true in real life as well as on the set. In 1954 Buffalo Bob suffered a heart attack and was ordered to rest at home. The producers of the show kept it going by explaining that he had gone home to Pioneer Village for a visit. They had guest hosts such as cowboy star Gabby Hayes and a local disk jockey named Ted Brown, as Bison Bill, appear on the show but eventually, under pressure from the sponsors, they built a set at Bob’s home so he could appear from time to time from Pioneer Village.

As with all good things, eventually The Howdy Doody Show had to come to an end. After coming into our homes 2,543 times, one Saturday morning in 1960 we had to say goodbye. At the very end of the last show the camera panned in on Clarabell, who never spoke in all those years, and with a real tear in his eye he whispered, “Goodbye boys and girls.” And then the screen faded to black.

A number of years later the show was brought back on another network but creative control was taken away from Bob Smith and the scripts were dead and lifeless. That show was mercifully canceled after a few episodes and Howdy was put to rest, on TV at least, for the last time. For many years thereafter Buffalo Bob took Howdy and his friends on the road, playing on many college campuses for a whole new generation of eager fans.

As a postscript, Bob Keeshan, who played Clarabell until 1952, went on to become Captain Kangaroo on CBS and continued to entertain children for many years. Bob Smith passed away on July 30th, 1998 and the original Howdy Doody today resides at the Detroit Institute of Arts. But in a very real sense Howdy, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell and all their friends will live on in the hearts of all of us who grew up knowing and loving them, for as long as we still draw breath.