Bob Keeshan & Bunny Rabbit
Seventy years ago today, on Monday, October 3, 1955, the television series, Captain Kangaroo premiered on the American television network CBS.
The show was conceived by Bob Keeshan,
who also played the title character "Captain Kangaroo", and who based
the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children".
Keeshan had portrayed the original Clarabell the Clown on the NBC The Howdy Doody Show (link below) during the network's early years.
I was familiar with the show because I had to baby sit my brothers who liked to watch all the kid shows in the early fifties; Howdy Doody, The Mickey Mouse Club, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, etc.
I hated them with the exception of two kid's shows, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and Captain Video and His Video Rangers (no surprise there) but it was the only way to keep them quiet, so, I got to learn all the different characters in each of them.
His name "kangaroo" came from the big pockets in his famous blue coat (at the time I didn't know the color because it was black & white TV). Keeshan was only 27 years old when he created the kangaroo persona; he would perform storytelling,
meet guests, and engage in silly stunts with regular characters, both
humans and puppets. He performed as the Captain more than 9,000
times over the nearly 30-year span of the show.
Captain Kangaroo was the longest running American children's television show until 1997 when it was surpassed by Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which itself was surpassed by Sesame Street in 2003.
Captain Kangaroo is still the longest running children's TV series by episode count with 6,090. When one counts the 65 edited versions (severely altered re-runs) that
aired on PBS the episode count goes up to 6,155. Second-place holder Sesame Street has aired 4,731 episodes till now.
w/Nipsey Russell - 1971
press photo
Keeshan once offered a stern rebuke to parents at the time. “I am so often asked: ‘How do I get my children to read?’ Well, your children are coming home and watching you watch television,” he observed. “You are the role model for your children. If you want them to read, try picking up a book once in a while.”
Captain Kangaroo was referenced in one of my favorite songs, Flowers On the Wall by The Statler Brothers in 1965.
with Bruce Jenner in 1978
CBS press photo
Keeshan teamed up with former Texas governor Lamar Alexander to launch Corporate Family Solutions in 1987. The company operated workplace childcare centers for companies including Sears, Toyota, and Turner Broadcasting, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1997.
Keeshan moved to Vermont in 1990 and made a home for himself in the town of Norwich. And later that decade came the publication of children’s books Keeshan wrote, including 1996’s Hurry, Murray, Hurry! and Alligator in the Basement, and 1997’s Itty Bitty Kitty and Itty Bitty Kitty Makes a Big Splash.
Keeshan died on January 23, 2004, at age 76, with his family saying in a statement the cause of death was a “long illness,
Viewfinder links:
TV Insider ~ What Happened to Bob Keeshan After the Show Ended?
YouTube links:
Captain Video and His Video Rangers (show intro)
The History Guy ~ Good Morning, Captain
Puffin' Billy (Captain Kangaroo theme) The Statler Brothers ~ Flowers On the Wall
The Statler Brothers ~ Flowers On the Wall (live)
