It’s morning in America, and you turn on the TV. Today, the mornings are populated with a plethora of news and talk shows. But just imagine a time when, at 8:00 every weekday morning, there was an hour-long children’s show. With a genial host. And cute puppets. And entertaining and informative short segments.
Welcome to the world of Captain Kangaroo.
The good captain, who was nicknamed “Kangaroo” because of the large pockets on his coat, would take kids through a gentle hour of comedy and entertainment. He would do this alongside his good friend Mr. Green Jeans (a farmer-like character), a talking grandfather clock, a dancing bear, and sidekick puppets Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit.
This show was extremely popular. Think about this. Cable television wasn’t as prevalent in the 1960’s or 1970’s as it is today, so this was considered true children’s entertainment at the time. Right on a broadcast network.
Now, as a kid, there were usually two things I expected from a Captain Kangaroo episode. I would expect Bunny Rabbit to filch the Captain’s stash of carrots, which was almost inevitable. And then I also expected Mr. Moose to drop about 500 ping pong balls on the Captain’s head. Never fails.
Heck, by the late 1970’s, the Captain Kangaroo show even had an intro that featured various people – including stars from various TV shows – wishing the Captain a good morning.
The show lasted into the early 1980’s, and here’s a complete episode from that time.
However, eventually the show was rescheduled for earlier and earlier time periods, to make room for CBS to add a full-length morning news program. At one point in time, the show was trimmed down to a half an hour, and scheduled so early in the morning that nobody could find it. Ugh.
Eventually the show was repurposed for a syndicated audience, with a new actor playing the good Captain, and this reboot was … well … painful.
No. Just, no.
See, it’s TV shows like this that I miss today. I wish there was an opportunity to have good quality children’s television on a major network, instead of it being shuffled off to some pay cable channel or the like.
But, at least, for the time period that we have, I’m glad we still had several decades of the good Captain and Mr. Green Jeans and Dancing Bear and Grandfather Clock and Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit and all the rest.
Okay, now I’m REALLY feeling old. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
I never forgot about Captain Kangaroo. But I’m older than you are. The kids used to call me Mr. Green Jeans.
LikeLike
I grew up with all the Philadelphia based children’s programs: Captain Kangaroo, Sally Starr, Pixanne, Gene London, Chief Halftown and Happy the Clown. So many choices back then.
LikeLike
Fred on Channel One, and the Really Great Adventures of Me; Tome Terrific!
Forget the Captain? Never.
But I’m glad I’ve never seen what they did to the show in later years.
My favourite thing was watching the intro to see if he’s open any of the small doors in the Treasure House door first. He didn’t always.
LikeLike
And do you remember Skipper Sam? That was a sort of kid-oriented variety show. I think it was local to Rochester.
LikeLike
I’ll see your Captain Kangaroo and raise you 1 Howdy Doody & 1 kocla, Fran & ollie.
You thought you were old.
LikeLike
Miss Frances and Ding Dong School, from my early days in Albany.
LikeLike
Yeah, lots of good stuff. Tom Terrific. Slim Goodbody in the 70’s & 80’s. PicturePages with some fella named Cosby. Dancing Bear. Back in those days, you could flip over to channel 13 at one point for Romper Room if you couldn’t go to school or were on vaycay after the Captain signed off.
I wrote about the 1999 remake, produced by Saban. One of their better known flops, at Saturday Morning Archives. Just punch up Captain Kangaroo in the search box, and you’ll find it.
LikeLike