Monday, October 30, 2006
1950s TV Part 1
Over the next several weeks I'm going to take a journey
down a special memory lane. In 1953 my father purchased
our family's first television set. That changed our home life
as nothing else before or aftter—for good or ill. The children
growing up in the 1950s were the first TV generation. As I
look back on it I realized how absorbed I was as a child into
the make believe world on television. I spent time reading
and playing outdoors with friends but television took up a
tremendous amount of my free time as a kid. In later years
many comics historians blame the near demise of the comic
book industry on the public reaction again the horror and
crime comics of the early 1950s (citing the role of such
public figures as Dr Frederic Wertham as instrumental in
the near collaspe of this segment of the publishing industry).
While no doubt there is truth in this I believe an equal or
even more importance factor was the rise of television.
This caused many readers of books and magazines
(including comics) to abandon the flat and lifeless world
of paper fiction for the glittering universe of the catode
ray tube pulsaling with life in their living room. As a kid
growing up in the fifties reading comic books and other
children's literature played a very poor second to television
viewing. Comics were an occasional fun diversion,
but television was a constant daily companion. I will be
taking a period period at a time.
1953-1956
I watched very early on were after school kids programs
like the accordion playing Stan Bornson, Sheriff Tex,
Captain Puget. These were all from local Seattle. Washington
stations and featured skits, songs, stories and cartoons and
were wholesome fare for youngsters. Captain Puget was
probably the first local program to show the Three Stooges
theatrical shorts from the 1930s and 1940s. As a 11 year old
kid I thought the Stooges were fantastically funny. When an
enterprising bubblegum company came out with a series of
Three Stooge cards I collected the entire set, over 100 cards
(the bubble gum tasted like cardboArd). These programs
competed with each other and were usually on after the
highly popular Mickey Mouse Club.
Some nationally televised kid programs that I watched
faithfully were the Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin (1954), the
unlikely expliots of a young boy, Rusty, growing up in
Fort Apache, AZ in the 1800s with his German Shepherd
wonder dog.The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1955),
the Adventures of Robin Hood (1955), the Adventures
of Jim Bowie (1956), Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
(1955) were all early adventure programs that I enjoyed.
Another kid’s program that I followed faithfully every Saturday
morning was Fury (1955), the story of a young boy and his
amazing black stallion, Fury. Some other Saturday morning
shows I faithfully viewed were Paul Winchell and Jerry
Mahoney (1950), Howdy Dowdy (1947, I remember
sadly watching the last episode in Sept. 1960. I realized
a TV institution was passing away) and much later
ridiculous, but very funny Soupy Sales(1959).
Perhaps the most prominent TV program that I
watched during the 1950s was Disneyland
(Walt Disney program) that started in 1954 as I
was just beginning school. The Disney show was a
wholesome variety program for the whole family.
Walt Disney was like a trusted uncle that you could
invite into your home once a week knowing that
he would tell stories that were morally upliftfing.
Disneyland had a dazzling array of different topics.
There were nature programs like the “Living Desert’
and others on birds, cats, dogs and other animals.
There were segments on the Disney cartoon
characters like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy
and Pluto (and Ludwig Von Drake). There were
science documentaries on space flight and possible
life on other planets. There were true life adventures
such as the Davy Crockett series(with Fess Parker).
Davy Crockett and the River Boat Pirates (with
Jeff York as river boat legend Mike Fink) was a
special favorite. I was very taken with Davy Crockett
were were millions of other kids and, yes, I did have
my own coon skinned cap.
Other adventure heroes like Zorro (with Guy Madison),
and saddle and six gun characters like Texas John
Slaughter and Elfigo Baca competed with the tidal
wave of TV western heroes of the time. There were
programs on how Disney did their animated cartoons
and feature films. Really something for everyone.
In our area it was on Wednesday nights on I believe
ABC and then years later it switched to NBC. The
Disney program had its early spinoffs. Most prominent
was the Mickey Mouse Club (1955) which aired on
weekday afternoons after school. I remembered
having mixed feeling about this show because of all
the silly dancing by both the cartoon characters and
the real Mouseteers. I thought it was a waste of time!
Time better spent watching a cartoon or a live action
adventure like “Spin and Marty.” Spin (a normal likeable
country boy) and Marty (the spoiled rich kid) were
two young teenagers (perhaps preteens) who met
at summer camp and were first rivals and later
became good friends. The Mickey Mouse Club started
in the fifties and had a fairly long run, but I remember
growing out of it and becoming disinterested in it
# posted by Dino Don @ 7:41 PM 
