A Quick visit to Captain Kangaroo

Bob Keeshan played Clarabell on the Howdy Doody Show. In 1955 CBS offered Keeshan his own children’s show, which became Captain Kangaroo. Captain Kangaroo ran from 1955 to 1984. The show spanned many generations of kids during that time.

Keeshan was Captain Kangaroo and every morning I would look forward to seeing The Captain, Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, Dancing Bear, and Mr. Moose. I knew that Mr. Moose was setting the Captain up for the ritual ping-pong drop on the Captain’s head that never got old.

Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum) would have different animals at times to show. He also portrayed the Professor, Greeno the Clown, the New Old Folk Singer, and Mr. Bainter on the show.

The Painter was played by Gus “Cosmo” Allegretti who also handled the puppets and Dancing Bear.

Untitled.jpgRelated image

One one of my favorite sections was the cartoon “Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings” that would appear on some shows. Simon had a magic blackboard and anything he drew became real.

Image result for Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings

Mr. Moose could be a slight smart aleck so I did like him. He also hung out with Bunny Rabbit and the Dancing Bear.

Related image

Captain Kangaroo’s place with his cast of characters was a nice place to visit as a kid.

Advertisement

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

25 thoughts on “A Quick visit to Captain Kangaroo”

  1. There is a long-standing urban legend that Keeshan served alongside actor Lee Marvin in the United States Marine Corps, and that Marvin was wounded (“shot in the ass”), on Iwo Jima. If I have my facts straight, Marvin did receive such a wound, on Saipan, not Iwo. Keeshan entered the Marine corps after his 18th birthday in 1945, and left the Corps after a tour of one year. I’m not aware that he ever saw combat service.

    PS – Great post, about a fun subject. Thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks that is cool info…yea I probably should have gone deeper but I kept it as a refresh of the memory of the show…
      Mr. Rogers has some rumors about him also I think.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. Keeshan was still in recruit training when the Japanese surrendered. He was discharged soon afterward as the military downsized to peacetime levels.

      Like

      Reply

  3. I remember Captain Kangaroo, and looking at the photo with all of them in there, yes I remember them visually, but anything else is fuzzy except for the Captain himself. I can’t believe the show ran until 1984! My kids were born in 83 and 85. They grew up on Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sesame Street had more of a cool factor than the others but I remember watching Captain Kangaroo at my grandmothers house a lot. I remember Dolly Parton was on there one time.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. Wasn’t their an urban legend that Mr. Greenjeans was Frank Zappa’s father? I always liked it when the ping pong balls fell from the ceiling.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      4. Some of those are great- like Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo…. Stan Laurel being Clint Eastwood’s father…. i think my favorite is Eddie Haskell growing up to be Alice Cooper or Paul Pfieffer being Marilyn Manson…so many..

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Mr. Rogers as a marine sniper I believe. I never heard the Stan Laurel…that is great. The Eddie Haskell and Paul Pfieffer had wheels…
        Also that Billy Idol was Jim Morrison.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: