LB: Happy New Year!!!

1944 New YearYes, it’s true. This is a greeting from the year in which I was born. But I only came in at the end of the year, I swear. 4 years later, in 1948, we got our first TV set and I discovered my favorite show:

howdy-doody-show-1That’s HOWDY DOODY, of course. With Buffalo Bob Smith on the left, Clarabell the Clown, AKA Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo, later) on the right, and marionette Howdy in the middle.

That show meant everything to me. I remember watching it one day when I was 4 years old and praying that I’d never get any older…because I knew that when I did get older I wouldn’t love it anymore.

In a way, I did stay pretty much a 4-year-old. At least in terms of some eating habits Howdy helped create. Especially these two lifelong faves:

howdy doody rice krispies 220

howdy doody wonder bread 220

Yep, HOWDY DOODY is proof positive that television advertising works. Although, just between us, the Wonder Bread fixation has pretty much worn off. Rice Krispies, on the other hand…ah, the best bedtime snack, even today.

Oh, and here’s something else my love of all things Howdy led to – my discovery of MAD, back when it was a comic book:

Mad Howdy Doody b and wAnd this sequence of panels, which I still believe to be the absolute best of all time:

Mad 018 Bill Elder 003

Have a wonderful, TV-influenced, product-filled 2013, y’all!

LYMI,

LB

Author: LB

A legendary figure in the television writing and production world with a career going back to the late ’60s, Larry Brody has written and produced hundreds of hours of American and worldwide television and is a consultant to production companies and networks in the U.S. and abroad . Shows written or produced by Brody have won several awards including - yes, it's true - Emmys, Writers Guild Awards, and the Humanitas Award.

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