I have posted some new and updated material over on the Minnesota KidVid website: Daryl Laub – Skipper Darl, J.P. Patches and T.N.Tatters Captain Daryl on Cartoon Island Captain Daryl and T.N.Tatters clips Axel and His Dog premiere August 5, 1954 Axel and his Dog – The Early Years Axel and his Dog – Behind […]
Pete the Penguin, Dave Lee, and Omar the Alligator Dave Lee, local Twin Cities television personality passed away on Monday, November 28. To Minnesota children in the 1950’s and 60’s, Dave Lee was a popular puppeteer bringing to life such characters as Pete the Penguin, Fragrant the Skunk, and Omar the Alligator. After Dave left […]
I relaunched our partner site, Minnesota KidVid this past week. The Minnesota KidVid website was the idea of Julian West, building upon his original Axel’s Treehouse website and expanding to include other Minnesota TV programs from the era of live programming. Julian did the initial leg work several years ago for the new site, but […]
I had the pleasure of visiting Seattle recently and spent an afternoon with Chris Wedes, the legendary J.P. Patches. Chris was known to viewers in Minneapolis as Joe the Cook on the Casey Jones show. He also portrayed Captain 11 and J.P. Patches on channel 11, before moving to Seattle in 1958. The J.P. Patches […]
Here’s a look at the Minneapolis TV schedule from April 1957. You can see that Casey Jones was a half hour show at noon on channel 11. A couple other things to note… Tel-A-Story was a childrens show at 9am on WTCN. This was directed by Roger Awsumb, as well as Romper Room at 11 […]
“Uncle Henry” Novotny Phil Johnson on The Happy Hour and The New Casey Jones Show: I worked with Roger at channel 11 and also at channel 9. At channel 11 I was doing “The Happy Hour with Fred & Friends” while he was doing his lunchtime show. Warren (Stellmacher) Martin, was our announcer. I was […]
Ken Wagner brought the Captain Ken show to KMSP in 1960. The show started in Davenport Iowa in the early 50’s. The show changed formats in 1967 becoming Grandpa Ken and continued until the early 70’s. You can read more about Ken Wagner on the Captain Ernie’s Showboat website. Interview with Ken Wagner Jack Kennelly […]
