Great website! It really brings back memories.

I'm originally from Phila., but my family and I moved to Beltsville in the early '60s.

I'm 47, and one of my favorite shows was Countdown Carnival, which my brother and I would watch every day after school. I don't really remember much about it except that it showed Superman. 

And also, does anyone remember the Lloyd Thaxton Show? Or Wing Ding, with (I think) Jack Alix? 

Thanks for the memories!
Jackie Gentilini

Wow - I almost fell out when I stumbled across your web page. 

I thought my brother and I were the only people alive who remember Hoppity Skippity.  My brother, who's 51 now, and I (I'll turn 50 in July '02) actually got to be on the show when I was really young.  I (barely) remember sitting on a log and talking to the rabbit.  My brother innocently asked him why he had a zipper down his back.  I thought the big rabbit was so neat, but my brother was convinced, and tried to convince me, that he wasn't real after that.  I didn't believe him.

 Robin Cunningham

Hi, just wanted to drop a line and tell you how your web site brought a smile to my face this morning.

I am about to work on a project for Larry Harmon's Bozo the Clown and in the search I came across this web site.

How incredibly interesting to read about a personality I began to become familiar with later in life.

What a perfect character match to personality... I would have never known Willard Scott was putting a smile on East Coast kid's faces while I was growing up with Howdy Doody.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane and the education that came along with it.

Glenn Gutridge

When my brother was in first grade, I was in half-day kindergarten at Wood Acres Elementary School in Bethesda, (just a few miles from Channel 20). My mom chaperoned his class trip to Bozo's Circus (starring Tony Alexi) and I got to go along as mom could not pick me up from kindergarten on time. My friend, Katy, was in the same situation, so we both got to go. 

When we got there, they said that Katy and I could be on the show with the "biiiig" first graders.  We felt quite important being with these older kids (and if first graders seemed old, you can imagine my impression of Bozo himself!). Katy and I were put front and center since we were smaller. I got to play this relay where you had to pass a clothespin from your knees to someone else's.

...There was a pause for commercial or something.  I was EXTREMMMMMELY shy at this stage in life.  And I remember this moment as vividly as if it were the actual moment it happened.... During the break, Bozo said, "When we return, I'm going to talk to YOU!" and he pointed his big, puffy, white finger at me. My heart was racing a million miles an hour. 

Sure enough, we started to tape again and he said something that to me sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking. Then he motioned for me to stand up and I did.  He knelt down next to me and I remember this zinc oxide stuff on his head and I could see sweat beaded up on top of it.  He then asked me, "If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?"  I can still feel the anxiety that this question caused me. I was panic stricken. See, I was terrified that I would get the answer "wrong" and I had NO IDEA what "a million" meant.  So I just stood there.  It was like Cindy Brady on the Brady Bunch episode where she gets stage fright and freezes up.  That was me.  I stared...frozen.  He asked again.  I continued to stare.  Then, thru the lights, I focused on my mother who was desperately trying to sign SOMETHING to me to say.  She was moving her hands as if they were on a steering wheel.  I figured that the "right" answer must be a car.  So I said, "I'd buy a car." He asked what I'd do with it, and I answered in a total monotone, "I'd give it to my mom."

I think Bozo all but yawned at my autistic-like response. So he sorta gently got me the heck back to my seat and then asked my friend Katy to stand up.  SHE was NOTTTTTT shy and still to this day I joke with her about how she showed me up.  She was asked the same question and she started chirping out this adorable response about how she "would buy all the dolls in the world, and all the dresses in the world, and all the tea sets in the world, and all the dogs in the world, and all the cats in the world....."  Then they replayed that episode until I was in about 3rd grade.  I was horrified each time I would see that shot of the camera zooming in on my zombie like face. 

My mom turned 70 a couple weeks ago.  My brothers and sister and I made a memory book for her and wrote a bunch of memories. The BOZO show came up along with many other favorite family stories.  It would be total hoot to ever get to talk to the "real" Bozo after all the years we have had him with us in our memory of that show!!! :) 

Ann Werth Sander
Houston, TX
 

Thanks to all who've sent memories of the 50's/60's kid's shows.

Cap'n Tugg was the most important person on TV... when I was 6-7-8!

Countdown Carnival was everyday, after school. How I admired (envied) the renderings of the Mayflower "moving" trucks, shown as good entries in this sponsor's contest. Having no such talent, I just entered a couple of the random postcard-type drawings. One day my card was picked! The Countdown Carnival guy said my name & address ON TV!!!! I won the game LOVE (like Twister, with hearts instead of big dots). My favorite character was the old guy "from Springfield" who whistled his S's.

Does anyone have info of Barry Richards? Most likely aired on Channel 13, late 60's to early 70's.  Possibly had bands play in the studio. A regular sponser was Bragher Gutman's Jr Bowl.

Deb Tamburo

Kaptain's Log Note: "Hairy" Barry was one of many hosts of "WING DING" on Channel-20 in the late '60s. Watch for more about Barry and Teen Dance Shows!

I stumbled across your Pick Temple page and really enjoyed the trip back through time.  I was on that show, although I can't remember much about it. I must have been very young, not even in school.  I was born in '54, so maybe around'58 or '59. 

I remember looking through one door and seeing the Milt Grant Show being taped.  My recollections are that I rode the pony, and was very shy when interviewed.  Family history tells me that when asked what my father did, I said "He plumbs."  (He was a plumbing contractor)  When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a busdriver. I think we had ridden a DC Transit bus to get wherever the taping was done and I was fascinated.  I have recollections of also trying to wiggle the stamp off my nose.  Is it possible I would have been selected to do both things? Possibly, I would just stand in front of my TV and "play at home" when those contests were held, but my faulty memory makes me think I did it on the show.

Do these shows exist on video anywhere?  I'd love to get the episode I was on, but don't know how to go about finding the date, etc.

Thanks again for the great memories!  I also loved Captain Tugg and Ranger Hal and never missed Captain Kangaroo.  I was on TV again for having participated in a carnival for MD, and I was interviewed by Bill Gormly, who at the time was my hero for being the host of the Three Stooges local showing.

Jennifer DeBernardis

Your site gets better and better each time I visit! 

This first item, while not exactly about DC Kids Shows, is relevant because as a result of holding Carnivals Against Muscular Dystrophy, we received tickets for trips to Marshall Hall aboard the Wilson Line.

I've surfed the Web for something - anything - about Marshall Hall Amusement Park or Glen Echo Amusement Park, but there really not much about either place online.  This is really too bad because anybody who was a kid in the DC area in the 50s/60s certainly has fond memories about both parks and the cruise boat! 

Departing from Southwest DC's Maine Ave Pier.  The Wilson Line would sail lazily down the Potomac and they'd lift the drawbridge of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge so we could cruise under.  Then it was on to Mount Vernon, where a few folks would get off or on.  Then, onward across to the Maryland side of the Potomac to Marshall Hall.  I remember the pier would take you right past the building where the slot machines were (fun for the adults), but the kids would keep going, making a beeline for the rides and arcade attractions.

I'm wondering what success others have had in finding online sites about either Marshall Hall or Glen Echo?

Some more TV memories...  The first time I met Willard Scott was in 1968 at WRC-TV to see two tapings of "Commander Retro".  The story/plotline about  Dr Strangedog was that he'd originally been a human German spy who stowed away one the rocket ship.  He had eaten too many hotdogs - exploded - and somehow turned into a dog!  It was really Willard's basset hound, called Lester.  That day I also got to meet Mary, Willard's wife.  I grew up about five blocks from Willard's boyhood home and when we'd pass by, Willard's mom and dad would usually invite us in for cookies and to show us the latest entry in their scrapbook of Willard's career.  I think Willard got his sense of humor from his mom because she had a print of the poker-playing dogs on the wall of her kitchen! 

About the "Commander Retro" set...  I'm not sure if you can see it clearly in the pictures on your site, but part of the control panel of Commander Retro's rocket ship included mini-cube icetrays with blinking Christmas lights behind it!  Not much to look at in person, but really nifty for the home viewers.  The NBC series "Star Trek" was on the air in first-run at the time and my guess is that it was a local kidshow tie-in with that show.  It makes sense, since WRC was an NBC owned and operated TV station.

Keep up the good work!

Scott Marinoff
(grew up in Alexandria VA - now in San Diego area)