When CBS decided they wanted to add a Saturday morning installment of Captain Kangaroo, Keeshan insisted he would do it as Mr. The partner said, "You wouldn't dare," and Keeshan decided to go ahead with his bluff. He tried to buy out the partner's interest but when the guy declined, Keeshan threatened to give up Captain Kangaroo and to create a new character…one in which the partner would not share. As he explained it, Keeshan was having trouble with this partner and finally decided he wanted to have total ownership and control of his character. I think (but am not sure) he said it was related to the fact that the Captain had evolved out of the Tinker character so someone who had a business interest in that show wound up with a percentage of Captain Kangaroo. ![]() It seems that when Captain Kangaroo was launched, Keeshan had an unwanted partner. When I finally met him, it was one of the first things I asked about and he told me the following story… (The set had a wonderful, elaborate toy train layout.) At the time, I wondered why Bob Keeshan was playing one guy Monday through Friday and a different but similar character on Saturday. Mayor looked and sounded exactly like Cap'n Kangaroo but he was a different guy in a different outfit and with a different set and supporting cast. Years ago on this blog, I wrote the following…ĭuring the 1964-1965 season, he turned up on CBS Saturday morning with a show called Mr. Keeshan." One of the first things I asked him about was Mr. There were a number of breaks for technical problems so there was plenty of time to talk to this man who I can't bring myself to refer to as "Bob," even though he politely asked all of us to stop with the "Mr. Having done five hours of television each week for thousands of years, he'd gotten to be pretty good at this. We'd roll tape and he'd do it from memory. Keeshan would read it aloud a few times, then step in front of the camera. The stated premise of the CBS Storybreak series was to encourage the reading of books.īefore each intro or outro, he'd read the script out loud and someone would time it and then say something like, "We need to lose fifteen seconds" and the producer and I would cut whatever lines needed to be cut. I think I always sound like I'm reading."Īnd then I said, "Well, we certainly don't want to inspire kids to read" and everyone laughed including Keeshan/Kangaroo. He said, "I have to use those from time to time but I don't think I ever sound genuine. Keeshan declined the use of a TelePrompter. It could probably have been done faster but Mr. It only took a few hours to record thirteen intros and thirteen outros that morn. This and other jobs he did for them were the network's way of keeping him "in the family," which usually means "off the competition." Captain Kangaroo had been recently cancelled after almost thirty years on CBS. ![]() Keeshan had flown out from New York to host them as himself, not the Good Captain. I was there on a Saturday morning (appropriately enough) in 1985 because we were taping the wraparound intros for a season's worth of a Saturday morn series I worked on called CBS Storybreak. I think Real Time with Bill Maher may still be in there on Fridays. ![]() Its main tenant for many decades now has been The Price is Right and at some point - probably because they didn't want to give its host a raise - it was renamed "The Bob Barker Stage."Īmazingly, other shows still tape in there when The Price is Right doesn't need it. That meeting took place on Stage 33 at CBS Television City where, years later, I went to see Red Skelton tape his TV show and Carol Burnett tape her TV show and I saw Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher there and many other shows. He later told me everybody he met claimed to have seen that first episode. He nodded as if ( a) he believed me and ( b) he was pleased. Many years later, I got to meet Bob Keeshan, who of course played that role, and I of course told him I'd seen his first episode. ![]() I remember watching Captain Kangaroo's first show. There were shows with real human beings in them. When I used to get up, scamper out to the living room and watch cartoons on CBS, ABC and NBC - with the volume set just low enough that it wouldn't awaken my parents in their bedroom.
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