 This is the SF Productions podcast network Six Wednesdays at 10 30 to 3 parents didn't understand the world of 60s and 70s television Welcome to vast wasteland Welcome home. Welcome to vast wasteland the video journal of popular culture. I'm Mark Smith Bauer along with Wilbert Neil and Marty Wiley Well tonight we're gonna talk about Local shows shows not only here in the Columbus area But shows in the Cleveland area and the Cincinnati area in the Dayton area basically covering Good deal of Ohio But first before we get into the big extravaganza fun They want to tell you that we're on Tuesdays at 6 Wednesdays at 10 and Thursdays at 3 p.m. Here on a CTV Cable 21 And also Also, if you want to write into vast wasteland you want to write into box 15 14 11 Columbus, Ohio 4 3 2 1 5 like this person right here Here's a letter Dan Donovan of Columbus writes just a note to say keep up the fine work I enjoy the show and try to watch whenever possible I'm really not that bored to actually be writing But I had a few extra minutes just kidding and then he has a little ps here Whatever happened to that fine comedic actor Joe E Ross of car 54. Are you? Thanks? Well, what happened to Joey Ross? Joey Ross he was born in 1905 or some sources give 1914 I guess that Joey Ross was on the Phil Silver show as mess sergeant Rupert Ritzick from 55 to 59 Then he was on car 54. Where are you as you mentioned as officer Gunther Tootie from 61 to 63 And then he was on that wonderful Science fiction epic. It's about time As a rock from 1966 to 1967, you know, it always seems like that show was on a lot longer than that Then well in August of 1982. He died. So he's not doing too much work I think he either did a lot of cartoon voices or his voice was imitated for a lot of carts I think both Yeah, and he also did lays potato chips commercials there for a while, but you can't eat just one Oh Thing that was that was his big trademark So there you go, Dan and thanks for writing in and for writing in you get absolutely nothing Get your letter written red right here on the show. So there you go Remember people if you're going to write one the shorter you write it the more of it will be able to read We had the channel changing effect first So anyways onto local TV shows Local TV shows have obviously been around since since the dawn because they're really cheap to do and Even when you've when you're a network affiliate You've got to fill up the time when the network isn't pumping anything out or or you just don't want to pay for their really Expensive shows with really cheap shows you do yourself And that's pretty much what most local shows now. We're not talking as much about the news shows We're talking about everything else anything else that was generated through through local stations and It was cheap to do you usually get crew people working like like weekends or something and you know So basically it didn't really cost you any money you usually get some guy at the station or some local You know like the janitor or something Right right because we were up early in the morning and we were home after school Right when you couldn't get anything fed to you through the network or whatever Well, those were the times they figured they had to fill in that's right Okay, fill me in since I'm not from Columbus Ever since I've come here. I've been told about this amazing wonderful show called Lucy's toy shop Well now let's let's let's start off by saying that um Lucy's toy shop was actually on in the mornings after the the wonderful network show Captain kangaroo Relate to the captain and so after that well For those who who cannot relate to the captain there is captain kangaroo There he is right there Bob kitchen captain kangaroo and here wait wait wait wait and he wrote a really good book about That old picture of it captain kangaroo the early years Captain kangaroo mr. Moose bunny rabbit mr. Green jeans grandfather clock grandfather clock had to wake this clock up Oh, yeah, right on channel to channel one yeah a whole Dennis Dennis the guy mr. Bainter the pain This was in the in the more progressive 70s when they right slim good body even got on there toward the 80s Kind of and then disappeared Well, the captain has gotten old. Well, yeah, but He could still do shows I think I think he still wants to do shows but but In heads of the networks won't put them on if you want to read a really interesting account of early television in his book What's it called? He's a librarian here. You're the person who was more about it He wrote it, so just like look for his name Bob kitchens Don't look for the captain kangaroo. You won't find him I don't think it's like a real interesting how he got started, but he got started when Television got started. He started like walked in. He was the janitor You know that Bob kitchens was actually claire bill the clown off of the old how do you do you say? original yeah, so That's that's one of those great television secrets after the captain I think all three of us had a different show that was on after the captain okay, and here in the Columbus area That show was for many years Lucy's toy shop And let's see Lucy Gosh, what is Lucy's I can't remember what Lucy's last name is or was at that time But anyway, it was Lucy and she had basically a toy shop She's a little she wore a little pin-off or a dress thing and she'd come in and she had her friends I'm Stanley mouse and dragon dragon had a special thing He could grow if he got mad Which was just another way to get somebody else in there to put on the big dragon suit and come on here So there was a puppet normally and then when he got mad I would be guy in the suit I think with the Hulk I did He got mad he would grow But they didn't really they never really looked at that as they but now if you look back on it That's pretty much what it was That was Pierre Pierre the dragon Pierre the French poodle who would Do the birthdays with her and magic birthday cake would appear and there was mr. True they'd wake up to tell stories and and then she would do a thing where she would get a little She'd open her hand. It'd be a little ball of clay in there and it they'd show gumby cartoons Let's see what else did they do on that show well chicken fat chicken fat exercises Preston Robert Preston did the chicken fat record and well Lucy just kind of made it an institution Like the first aerobic show in Columbus Robics for kids Doing that chicken fat But if you've got to go to the fair the back when the fair was something to go to You can be on if you got there early in the morning It could be on the Lucy's toy shop show and the kids all got these there were these turtle puppets Turtle pup tell her pit turtle pillows turtle pillows that the kids sat on and they got to take those home with them If you were on the show to you would get one with um well I was just never on there, so I just never was fortunate enough to get one of those bummer darn things, but scarred for life Lucy had a shop in In German village where you could buy a lot of the puppets and little things that they had on the show You could buy them right there at Lucy's little shop in the German village and he might be there In fact, she might even still be there selling the stuff. So there was that one and that one lasted G from Early middle 60s on up into the early 70s and then Lucy kind of Gave up the show idea and there was another character that kind of appeared on there because they would do it Christmas time They would do a Christmas thing where Santa Claus would make toys and he would send them out a conveyor And I think the same guy that it did the Santa possibly was on this Ron the mailman character who showed up Showing up in but they um get another show called friendly junction and it was Ron the mailman and then oh I can't remember her name. I know her real name is Leslie potkin and she would have had to do a hit single anyway, but There was a little show about this little it's like a little this little place and Friendly junction by golly, and well, I it's about the time that I really quit watching Or or maybe just a life One of those and also also also I cannot talk about local shows without mentioning Flip-o the clown Bob Marvin flip-o the clown who is still well He's actually come back to TV here just recently not to channel 10 as it was then Wbns, but um, he's on another station. Now anyway, flip-o was like Well, he was a clown and they had In the early 60s. He was they had a morning show and then late middle 60s early 70s he had um Show in the afternoon, which was called the early show because well, that's the Unhear on picture the early show Which is as opposed to the late shows which were on later Which were also pretty much local shows he would show movies in the afternoon and it could be any kind of movie He would just show it and he had a thing of commenting on them to after a while Which kind of was another thing that late night people did Right there we have flip-o and he had he showed one of this one cartoon that it took me years and years and years To finally find a name of space angel. It was done like um, that uh, was that clutch cargo, clutch cargo Yeah, okay moving mouth things except it was a it was a space show. So um Space angel Flip-o used to he used to appear in this costume. It was a bright blue costume with Blue and red and had white plums on there He had this car that would open from the front and he'd climb out and it was it was pretty neat It was the whole flip-o thing was just Just amazing. Yeah And then well, let's I'll let you go ahead and talk about stuff that happened down in southern Ohio there Southwestern Ohio, excuse me southwestern Ohio. Well, it's like I grew up right between Cincinnati and Dayton So actually I got from both big cities with with each of them had three stations So we were right in the middle of that after captain kangaroo. I really remember There were two out of Cincinnati One was the skipper isle show, which I actually got to be on and you got to wear this funky little sailor hat because the the whole premise of that show was You're on a riverboat going down the Ohio river So there was skipper isle, of course it's a skipper like and then of course he had like his first mate there and a whole You kind of went from place to place I guess we were supposed to have the illusion that we were actually stopping getting off and visiting things I didn't forget when the group I was with was on the show They had a tiger puppet and the tiger was angry. He was fussing He was going to come out there and eat someone and this one guy I never let him forget this because we went clear through high school together Well, Eric's out there. He actually said to the tiger. Well, you can just eat me This was an early 60s No, no way Another one of those angry puppets The show always ended though that we went to this cave and this scared me to death I wouldn't I got the two things when I showed scared me to death or They had a giant jack-in-the-box I was terrified of jack-in-boxes. Anyway, much less a giant one. I was the kid running up The other thing was the end of the show you went to a cave And someone had to run in and get the treasure chest before the ghost got them and there was a ghost in the cave They had come out So I was the kid at the very end of the lie I was not volunteering to go in and get any I didn't care how many sugar babies sugar daddy Whatever they put in there. I was not going after that So that started my television career, I guess Wow Right about the same time. Oh, the one thing about skip a row was they taped the show So you've got to see yourself on the show So like they you know, you'll get to see yourself the next two days or so The other show that came out of channel nine That ran about the same hour was the uncle owl show which actually went national for a year And then bombs miserably. Gee if you grew up with him, you'd just wonder why This was owl lewis And when allen suested his character uncle owl the kiddies pal on laughing This was the man he had to write and get permission to use that because uncle owl lasted for He might still be going on. I don't know the last I heard he was just doing like a saturday show But he and his wife wanda who was captain wendy who was beautiful She could fly too. Oh, they had their show was live and You basically think it started out on a farm and then you went to the city and then you wound up at the circus And there was just a whole crew of characters some puppets some people in costumes The wringo wrango of a cowboy pow the dog Um, gee, let's see lucky the clowns. He had a clown too Kind of like big-time pee we And then there was always um the neat thing about Uncle owl something you never see really on tv a whole lot anymore was he had to do the commercials During the show and his sponsors were barks root beer and mama's cookies Two things that taste absolutely great together And he was real especially if you dip them. Yeah, he was real known for Getting mommies out of the audience to help do the commercials and uncle owl is also known for having kind of like wandering mommy The mommy wouldn't take me to that show Because she has just heard all these uncle owl rumors In the afternoon, you might live in a while, but his hands are definitely rolling Well in the afternoon I don't remember any of the Cincinnati stations have anything but the Dayton channel had Like an institution the uncle ory show I don't know what uncle ory's real name was but I later did find out that he lived down in hillsborough when he retired He was kind of like the world's oldest boy scout He had like a jug head hat on or a vest that had all these merit badges and stuff on it and Kids, you know by the bus load came sat in the bleachers no puppets He did have a sidekick named furty or something for it's no furty fritz was on skipper owl ship and They did a little flap stick And they play some games with the kids uh showed Roger ram dick cartoons and others. He's our heat. Yeah You were of our nation And it was just like and then he'd like offer like cut scout tips a boy scout, you know, it was just like a real kid kind of person And then he retired and They did the weirdest thing and if he could just start the slide down They took furty and put him through a machine and turned him into Ken And got him a sidekick named dawn and then they and they were like two vaudevillian guys and really awful clothes Doing the Ken and Don show which I got to be on because Uncle Laurie quit about two weeks before I got my ticket So the Ken and Don show was more slapstick More cartoons more pies more seltzer messier games kind of a prelude to the double their stuff and uh That kind of became after that both of those guys kind of disappeared And the show just became kind of a strictly saturday afternoon saturday Mid-morning afternoon kind of thing with a guy named charlie good time who was actually Crazy, he was just nuts. He did a lot of uh Of uh chroma key himself in front of some background and lip sync a spike lee song Jones Later on he got somebody in a yogi bear costume to co-host the show with him and they showed yogi bear cartoon And that's and then I don't know what happened to it On saturday's channel 9 and Cincinnati showed something that all it was was cartoons But the main cartoon they showed that nobody else showed was a funny company But the title was just precious because it was so 60s. It was called cartoons a go-go And yeah We had a lot more though because looks like grew up well when UHF with Maddie and Dayton both got their UHF about the same time They added afternoon shows Channel 19 got larry smith who was like kind of like a well-known puppeteer guy And this was my postcard from howdy the witch. He had a strictly puppet show No people And it was really neat because it was like always howdy the witch had some scheme and Her dog snarfy or her cat mock would Somehow find a way to mess her up. There was a wizard. She lived in a castle on the Ohio river Amazingly so opposite that from Dayton out of 22 out of channel 22 was clubhouse 22 with a man named Malcolm McLeod And a great big dog named duffy and a puppet named stand the man And it was this kind of a show where a lot of silly stuff people wrote letters They called you and asked you to pick a door pick a door was their big game pick a door pick a door pick a door to win a prize and You know just kind of that kind of uh, let's get the audience involved show they never Or they rarely had a studio audience That was in the late that was in the early to middle 70s They just don't really have those shows much anymore. I got that Susie chick, but she's What did you having well, well, let's see as far as daytime the big thing was really like The only really big daytime was Barnaby out of 43 And now Barnaby for you as you haven't seen this is a guy with a like a straw hat in it and he wears a blue A blue jacket very very natty kind of person, you know, and he's And he's really soft-spoken and he's and he's really tired. Well, let's go to the cartoon It's like and it's not very interesting really but kids little kids loved Barnaby Once you got past say six or seven Barnaby really tended to lose its attraction I've seen Barnaby. Yeah, I remember the empty bird cage that talks, right Yeah, it's really strange And and really his only big competition was on the the very same station Superhost So yeah, so superhost was uh, Ironically these guys were both announcers at the station In fact, you every once in a while You'd see the guy who played and I can't remember his real name Who played superhost? He was a guy in a fake superman type cosmonauts at sh and he had a big red nose And then and then later in the evening. He might be subbing in to do a news break And it was like we need to have this really low voice and talking really sternly He's like that's superhost. What's supposed to do in the news more so and superhost would do the Would show like bad bad science fiction movies On saturdays and now he showed like three suges and stuff and he did a little skits and stuff and And then on uh, let's see the only to see on channel 61 the old channel 61 now channel 61 is like Home shopping channel 24 hours a day or something Uh, what would we do? I know in the 70s was the ghoul Now now there was the the original character Who started there was like lots of ghouls all over northern, ohio In various stations and but the original was this guy ghoul arty who was actually his name I believe was jim anderson or something like that who became an announcer at abc And was the announcer you always heard when they said tune in next week for the He was ghoul arty in the 60s in In cleveland and then this other guy took over the job called and he called himself the ghoul And he wore like a fright wig and and like, uh, uh sunglasses with one, uh, with one lens out and and He he did lots of rather rude things on the air You know, but he was usually on like like saturday evenings Actually, it was a choice between watching that and like the old saturday a lot pretty much and They uh, he would he would talk during the movie and you know, put in little effects every time There was a chase you never this dippy chase music, but the he liked dubbing, you know And um, he did this one thing that got him basically kicked off the air was that uh at the time This is like the turning the time of mayor ralph perk in uh cleveland Was they were doing this ad campaign saying the best things in life are in cleveland And they showed all the wonderful things in cleveland Well, the ghoul took the music and went out and shot they got got a whole video of slums It showed it and and supposedly during the show the mayor's office called and said you will not show that again Or you're off the air and he went okay So he went out and shot new footage Of the slums and showed it again the next week and then he was gone That man we need him here. That's right the ghoul. So we had a similar situation at channel 19 in Cincinnati A man named dick von hain was a news announcer Right, they did very little news on the station, but he was an announcer But he was better known as the cool ghoul. Yeah the fright wigs were kind of like like a like a golf hat, you know and um Just white face big red mouth was real famous for going That was how he entered He did a creature feature. Yeah now then to counter him Dayton in 22 got this guy Who I swear it must have been his real life was dr creep Big mutton chops dressed like an undertaker drove a hearse right they each had basketball teams and went out against each other Quite often speaking about it. I certainly can't not talk when i'm talking about cleveland's team I can't talk miss uh hulan and big chuck now. This was done friday nights Before I think it's still it's now big chuck and little john because hulan was also an announcer at the station And I think is running a christian radio station in florida or something But at at the time that was like the the big show and they'd and they'd show bad science fiction movies And they did sketches and because they're such a big, uh, polish Um population cleveland they would do the certain ethnic Blah blah fill in the blank and that would be a lot of their sketches And they did pizza eating contests and I remember I remember once I was actually at one of the pizza eating contests I wasn't a participant. I was a viewer. They did it at a mall or something and This is this is the kind of links people would go to to win these really dopey prizes was this guy had a Pizza in front of him. He had a guy go and run and get him a thing of water He threw water over it to cool it off so he could eat it faster And he's like But anyway, so So you had so you had the hulan big chuck and also Uh the canton market um station wj an which in 17 and can which no longer It's now Uh a christian station Actually, it was it was one of the flagship stations of the ptl club At one point, but Before it was that there was the most uh mild-mannered post you could ever have Milton the milk man And And he would just show cartoons and stuff, but anyways, it looks like we've been given the uh, well, let me let me just quickly Like right, he's right right here. We had chiller theater which went on to be hosted by um by fritz the night All later on it just went uh, oh jeez. We couldn't get out without talking about fritz the theater thing and then um Channel four the NBC thing here. Um back there. It was w Well, it still is They had a guy out there tonight gerry back He would do all night theater which was like an idea that came up from the sensitive area because my sister used to talk about it And it was hosted by Jerry back I Looks like we're we're being taken out because here come the graphics Next time on bass waysland. It's the second part of our big history of dc comments Done with marty with wilbur and i so and it looks like we're out of here because here come the graphics