Captain Kangaroo

views updated

Captain Kangaroo

For those who were either children or parents from 1955 through 1991, the perky theme music of Captain Kangaroo, accompanied by the jingling of the Captain's keys as he unlocked the door to the Treasure House, arouses immediate feelings of nostalgia. The longest running children's television show in history, Captain Kangaroo dominated the early morning airwaves for over 30 years, offering a simple and gently educational format for very young children.

The central focus of the show was always the Captain himself, a plump, teddy bear-like figure with Buster Brown bangs and a mustache to match. Much like another children's television icon, Mister Rogers, the Captain welcomed children to the show with a soft-voiced sweetness that was never condescending, and guided viewers from segment to segment chatting with the other inhabitants of the Treasure House. Bob Keeshan created the comforting role of Captain Kangaroo, so named because of his voluminous pockets. His friends on the show included a lanky farmer, Mr. Greenjeans, played by Hugh Brannum, and Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose, animated by puppeteer Gus Allegretti. Zoologist Ruth Mannecke was also a regular, bringing unusual animals to show the young audience.

Captain Kangaroo also had regular animated features such as "Tom Terrific and His Mighty Dog Manfred." One of the most popular segments was "Story Time," where the Captain read a book out loud while the camera simply showed the book's illustrations. It is "Story Time" that perhaps best illustrates Bob Keeshan's unassuming approach to children's entertainment, operating on the theory that children need kind and patient attention from adults more than attention-grabbing special effects.

Keeshan got his start in the world of television early, working as a page at NBC when he was a teenager in Queens, New York. He left New York to perform his military service in the Marines, then returned to NBC where he got a job with the newly-popular Howdy Doody Show. He created and played the role of Clarabell the Clown on that show and was so successful that in 1955 CBS offered to give him his own show. Keeshan created Captain Kangaroo, and the show ran for 30 years on CBS. In 1984, it moved to PBS (Public Broadcasting System), where it continued to run for another six years.

A father of three, and later a grandfather, Keeshan had always been a supporter of positive, educational entertainment for children. Even after leaving the role of the Captain, he continued to be an advocate for children: as an activist, fighting for quality children's programming; as a performer, planning a cable television show about grandparenting; and as a writer, producing gently moralistic child-ren's books as well as lists for parents of worthwhile books to read to children.

The soft-spoken Keeshan was so identified with the role of Captain Kangaroo that he was horrified when, in 1997, Saban Entertainment—producers of such violence-and special effects-laden shows as Power Rangers and X-Men —began to search for a new, hip Captain to take the helm of The All-New Captain Kangaroo. Saban had offered the role to Keeshan, but withdrew the offer when he insisted on too much creative control over the show. Keeshan did not want modern special effects and merchandising to interfere with the Captain's gentle message. "I really think they believe that kids are different today than they were in the 1960s or 1970s," he said. "That's nonsense. They're still the same, still asking the same questions, 'Who am I? Am I loved? What does the future hold for me?"' In the end, however, Saban chose to stay with the proven formula by choosing John McDonough to play the new Captain. Neither hip nor slick, McDonough is a middle-aged, soft-spoken lover of children, not so different from Keeshan's Captain.

In an ironic twist, in 1995, the Motion Picture Association of America, trying to forestall legislation against violence in children's programming, insisted that violence in programming does not lead to violent activity. In fact, they suggested that the opposite might be true and that perhaps Captain Kangaroo and other mild programming of the 1950s led directly to the unrest of the 1960s and 1970s. Though Keeshan scoffed at the implication, the tactic seems to have worked and the legislation was defeated.

The media now abounds with choices of children's programming. With dozens of cable channels, children's shows can be found somewhere on television almost 24 hours a day. If that fails, parents can buy videos to pop in whenever some juvenile distraction is needed. In 1955, when the Captain debuted, and for many years afterwards, there were only three television channels that broadcast from around six a.m. until midnight. For children seeking entertainment, for parents seeking amusement for their children, even for adults seeking something to wile away the early morning hours, there was only Captain Kangaroo. For these people, the Captain was like an old friend, quietly accepting and unchanged over 30 years on the air.

In the 1960s, country music performers The Statler Brothers had a hit song, "Countin' Flowers on the Wall," where a young man describes his bleak and sleepless nights after being left by his girl. Perhaps no one born after the video-and-cable era will be able to completely grasp the desolate joke in the lines, "Playin' solitaire 'til dawn /With a deck of fifty-one /Smokin' cigarettes and watchin' /Captain Kangaroo /Now, don't tell me /I've nothing to do."

—Tina Gianoulis