The Howdy Doody Show - Scuttlebutt & Other Episodes

Rating:
Summary: Say Kids, What Time is It?
Review: Do you remember the spinning cuckoo clock and the question, "Say, kids, what time is it?!" Answer: (shouted in unison from the Peanut Gallery) "It's Howdy Doody time!" If so, then this DVD will be an interesting nostalgia trip for you. The Howdy Doody Show ran from Dec 1947 to Sept 1960. The first episode on this CD is the 2221st broadcast of the show. This was the first show to hit the 2000 episode mark. For those who don't know, the show takes place in Doodyville, a circus town with both puppet and human inhabitants.

There are four 1958 episodes on this DVD, which is one of a series of Howdy Doody releases:

1. Yodstick King Part I - Howdy Doody, Clarabell, and Buffalo Bob are tricked onto an airplane, and then flown against their will to Tibet at the behest of the mysterious King Yodstick.

2. Yodstick King Part II - Continued from the previous week, Howdy, Clarabell, and Buffalo Bob help the elderly King Yodstick solve the mystery of who has been stealing the crown jewels. This one has a surprising air of violence with its murderous plots and traps.

3. Scuttlebutt - In which we learn the origin of Capt. Scuttlebutt and how he came to Doodyville with his Tugboat.

4. Val Carney - A carnival comes to town, and the owner Val Carney lures Clarabell away to join the carnival.

There is also a gallery of still photos presented as bonus material.

Many of your favorite characters appear in at least one of the four episodes on this DVD...

Humans: Buffalo Bob Smith (with Bob Smith as himself), the horn-honking, seltzer squirting, and mute Clarabell Hornblow (originally Bob Keeshan, then Bobby Nicholson, then Lewis Anderson), Mr. Cornelius ("Corny") Cobb the General Store owner, Chief Thunderthud (Bill Lecornec)

Puppets: Howdy Doody (with 48 freckles... one for each state in the union), Dilly Dally, Phineas T. Bluster (mayor of Doodyville), Inspector John J. Fadoozle (the world's number one... Boing-g-g-g... private eye), Flubadub (made of 8 different animals... can you name them?)

Animals: Kokomo, Jr. the chimp

Of course there are other Doodyville residents who do not make a showing in these particular episodes. We do not see Howdy Doody's sister Heidi Doody or Howdy's twin brother Double Doody. Nor do we see Princess SummerFallWinterSpring of the Tinka Tonka tribe (first a puppet, then a human played by Judy Tyler, who was killed in a car crash in 1957 after completing the film Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley, then by Linda Marsh), Sandy McTavish (Allen Swift), Oil Well Willie (Bill Lecornec), or Gumby (who later spun off into his own show)

The Howdy Doody Show was no doubt considered to be fast-paced, even frenetic in its day, but its pace seems positively glacial by today's standards for rock 'em, sock 'em action MTV-style rapid cuts, and endless, shouted commercials. For example, the entire first episode on the DVD contains two jokes (both bad puns) that are repeated every two or three minutes throughout the show, and even carry over into next week's show. There is one song and dance number. There are three commercials, one each for Hostess Sno-Balls, a magnetic Fisherman's Luck game, and Wonder Bread ("Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways). There is are: one pratfall, two canned exterior shots, and one guest character appearance. That's about the sum total of the show. Even a dedicated nostalgia fan will be hard pressed to keep fingers away from the fast forward button. I doubt your kids will be able to tolerate this, so I suggest you forget about making them watch it to see what TV was like in the dinosaur age. You probably will not watch this over and over, so you may want to buy it used or just rent it.

For those adults too young to remember the show, these episodes are an example of the imperfection and eternally being on the brink of disaster that characterized live television... so different from the near perfection of TV shows today. Kokomo Jr., the chimp, keeps eating the Fisherman's Luck game during the commercial as Buffalo Bob gamely tries to keep to the script. In another episode, Clarabell whacks himself in the head with a big paper sign that is supposed to tear so the frame ends around his neck, but it doesn't... Clarabell handles the misfire with aplomb, whacking himself again harder, while Buffalo Bob shakes his head and steps out of character briefly to confide, "I told 'em it wasn't going to work, but they wouldn't listen." In a scene with Clarabell, Buffalo Bob and a character Val Carney (owner of the Carnival) who is trying to lure Clarabell from the show, Buffalo Bob mistakenly rips up a prop contract, then cracks up laughing and can't stop. Thinking fast he bows his head and pretends he is sobbing at the thought of losing Clarabell while Val Carney keeps up a straight-faced, rapid fire of ad libbed chatter that makes Buffalo Bob (and the crew off camera) laugh even harder. All this goes right over the heads of the kids in the studio audience, the "Peanut Gallery"; they are clueless... due to the layout of the studio, they spend the show staring at the backs of the human characters.

An interesting historical note: The original Clarabell was Bob Keeshan. He was abruptly dismissed from the show in 1952. After working for ABC as Corny the Clown and Tinker the Toymaker in Tinker's Workshop, he became Captain Kangaroo at CBS in 1955; this show lasted on the air until 1985.

Rating:
Summary: Classic television history!
Review: I was amazed to read they were putting out the "Val Carney" episode on DVD because it is notorious for the hilarious on-camera break-ups. (And it wasen't even shown live by then!) One classic moment is when Buffalo Bob grabs Clarabell's contract and tears it in two by mistake-he breaks down laughing and only gets through it all by pretending to cry. At times you can hear the crew in hysterics off camera. Grab this one by all means!

Rating:
Summary: Classic television history!
Review: I was amazed to read they were putting out the "Val Carney" episode on DVD because it is notorious for the hilarious on-camera break-ups. (And it wasen't even shown live by then!) One classic moment is when Buffalo Bob grabs Clarabell's contract and tears it in two by mistake-he breaks down laughing and only gets through it all by pretending to cry. At times you can hear the crew in hysterics off camera. Grab this one by all means!