Programming Note

[calliaume]

For those of you who desperately need a Gong Show fix, Joey D'Auria's Dr. Flame-o clip will appear this afternoon on WGN's "Bozo, Gar, and Ray" tribute show to children's broadcasting.  Show starts at 2 PM Central on WGN (don't know if it's on the national cable, but I don't see why it wouldn't be).  D'Auria became Bozo after the Chicago original, Bob Bell, retired.

The clip is also on D'Auria's site as well.

[rugrats1]

[quote name=\'calliaume\' date=\'Dec 25 2005, 01:25 PM\']Joey D'Auria's Dr. Flame-o clip will appear this afternoon on WGN's "Bozo, Gar, and Ray" tribute show to children's broadcasting.  Show starts at 2 PM Central on WGN (don't know if it's on the national cable, but I don't see why it wouldn't be).
[/quote]

Should be, as the original telecast last night (12/24) was on the Superstation.

Definitely worth the look, not just for the Gong Show clips, but for all the vintage clips from WGN's kiddie shows, "Bozo", "Ray Rayner" and "Garfield Goose".

WGN is one station that does have a sense of history, wisely keeping an archive of their own programming over the years.

[calliaume]

[quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Dec 25 2005, 01:49 PM\']Definitely worth the look, not just for the Gong Show clips, but for all the vintage clips from WGN's kiddie shows, "Bozo", "Ray Rayner" and "Garfield Goose".

WGN is one station that does have a sense of history, wisely keeping an archive of their own programming over the years.

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[/quote]
Not all of the clips -- most of the '60s stuff is gone.  (Same thing as with game shows; the videotapes were considered more valuable at the time than the performances.)  The stuff they have is still pretty good.

For Simpsons fans:  Dan Castallenata credits original Bozo Bob Bell as the vocal inspiration for Krusty the Clown.

[Chelsea Thrasher]

It's great see all these old clips.   By the time I came around, Bob Bell had already retired, so it's interesting to see him as Bozo.   By the way, is anyone getting/got this on tape?

ObGameShows: One of the various regional Bozos was on the Bruner version of What's My Line in the late 60s (I don't remember which one - I don't think it was Bob Bell, but I wouldn't swear to it)

[GS Warehouse]

TGS isn't the real reason for watching this special.  It just isn't a holiday season in Chicago without Hardrock, Coco, and Joe.

I hope WGN shows this special again next year.  Presents took priority here. :-(

[digiblader]

Did anyone see that clip where this little girl was playing the Grand Prize Game on the Bozo show and instead of throwing the balls into the bucket from where she's supposed to throw it, she walked up there and dropped the balls into the bucket, forcing Bozo to keep trying to explain the rules to her.

[Steve Gavazzi]

God, this was awesome...it aired twice, and I watched it twice. :-)

I grew up on Joey D'Auria's Bozo, Cooky, and Wizzo, so it was great to be able to see some of this stuff again...not to mention all the clips of Sandy, Oliver, and Bob Bell's Bozo, whom I've read about but have never seen much of.  

One of the best parts was a clip from 1979 of a performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Bozo as Papa Bear, Wizzo as Mama Bear, Cooky as Baby Bear...and Golly Gorilla as Goldilocks.  They ended up knocking down or destroying pretty much the entire set. :-)  Seeing the Grand Prize Game again didn't hurt, either.

And for what it's worth, I remember seeing that WML episode with Bozo, and it definitely wasn't Bob Bell.  I want to say it was New York's Bozo...whoever it was, he appeared as a contestant a second time -- out of costume -- later in the episode.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Steve Gavazzi\' date=\'Dec 26 2005, 08:10 PM\']And for what it's worth, I remember seeing that WML episode with Bozo, and it definitely wasn't Bob Bell.  I want to say it was New York's Bozo...whoever it was, he appeared as a contestant a second time -- out of costume -- later in the episode.

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[/quote]
I recall that ep as well.  I do believe you're right (can't confirm it was NY's version, but he definitely did two spots on that ep).  Sorry I didn't see the WGN special (although I have this feeling it may be in the Chicago Museum of Broadcast Communications archives when it eventually reopens this spring).

Doug

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'digiblader\' date=\'Dec 26 2005, 08:07 PM\']Did anyone see that clip...
[/quote]
Now I know its just kids, and it would be rather...mean....to take the prizes away from them but wouldn't S&P be having a fit about this...considering 95% of the other kids that played this played fairly?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Modor\' date=\'Dec 27 2005, 03:23 AM\'][quote name=\'digiblader\' date=\'Dec 26 2005, 08:07 PM\']Did anyone see that clip...
[/quote]
Now I know its just kids, and it would be rather...mean....to take the prizes away from them but wouldn't S&P be having a fit about this...considering 95% of the other kids that played this played fairly?

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[/quote]

S&P at WGN was Allen Hall, the producer.  He obviously didn't do anything because the entertainment value was high and it was a very young girl.  If a snarky 10-year-old boy tried to pull that, Joey D'Auria might've been a little sterner on the air--and Hall would've probably given the kid and his parents a lecture off camera.

And I appreciated seeing the Magic Arrows and an example of them hitting a mother in the audience.  Some days, they seemed to either hit nothing but adults (Ned Locke on at least one situation:  "Is this Mother's Day?") or very little kids who were scared to death of the possibility of going onstage.  Inevitably, their parents would be trying to force the kid to go on while Locke, who knew when a kid didn't want to play, was gently trying to get the parents to back down on live television.  Sometimes, Locke won, other times, the parents won and the very little one was barely able to get the first bucket (although if they missed it, Locke usually said something like "my hand touched the ball" and they had the kid do it again, so they'd be guaranteed to go home with something).

Unfortunately but understandably, when the show went to tape and moved to the mornings, they streamlined the Grand Prize Game selection by going by the numbers on the tickets and displaying the lucky numbers on the "Bozoputer" (actually just a Solari board initially, although the display got more high-tech over the years).  Allegedly, that once didn't work--a 19-year-old listener to Jonathan Brandmeier's old WLUP program once claimed that he got picked to play the GPG because he had the Bozoputer number (something they wouldn't have allowed with the Magic Arrows)--need I say that they came to the studio drunk and had already heckled Bozo at least once and screamed "JOHNNY B!" when Cooky mentioned WGN morning man Bob Collins (this was back in the pre-WB days when Brandmeier and Steve Dahl made WGN Radio and TV their number one targets for unhipness).  Supposedly, the guy wrapped it all up by screaming at Bozo's kiss-off (in the TV sense, not literal) one of Brandmeier's catch phrases--"EAT ME, BOZO!"  (The "Eat Me" part was the catch phrase.)  Whether this actually happened, I don't know, but...

[ChuckNet]

Did the special have a clip of that kid who swore, and when told said word was a "Bozo no-no", responded w/"Cram it, clown?". My cousin's GF's sister's hairdresser's mailman said it happened, so it must be true! :-D

Chuck Donegan (The Urban-Legend-Referencing "Chuckie Baby")

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 27 2005, 02:53 PM\']Did the special have a clip of that kid who swore, and when told said word was a "Bozo no-no", responded w/"Cram it, clown?". My cousin's GF's sister's hairdresser's mailman said it happened, so it must be true! :-D

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[/quote]
In that vein, I present:

http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/87/5081.html

(If four-letter words offend you, don't go there.)

[davemackey]

As far as I can remember, New York never had a Bozo of its own. We always got the Bozo show that was done in Boston (WHDH) with Frank Avruch as Bozo; the cast also included plate-spinning Carl Carlsson and Ed Spinney, who is better known as Carroll Spinney of "Sesame Street" fame.

Whatever happened to Frank Avruch, anyway? He's still very active on the Boston scene. Check out his website.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'ChuckNet\' date=\'Dec 27 2005, 04:53 PM\']Did the special have a clip of that kid who swore, and when told said word was a "Bozo no-no", responded w/"Cram it, clown?". My cousin's GF's sister's hairdresser's mailman said it happened, so it must be true! :-D

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[/quote]

Other versions of that story have the kid saying something similar to Chris' story.

And even though I heard the guy tell Brandmeier on the phone about the "EAT ME, BOZO!" incident, I don't think that if it happened, it would've ever gotten on the air, since the show had gone to tape by then.  Even if a mistake had happened and the guy had gone up there for the GPG, they would've stopped tape, kicked the guy and his friends out and pulled another number before they would've put that on the air.  In fact, from hearing the guy's story, I'm surprised that they didn't get kicked out of the studio sooner.