Recently my wife and I watched the movie “A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood” a dramatization of the career of Fred Rogers who as Mr. Rogers had a powerful impact on children and parents of the last half of the 20th century.

The movie got me to thinking about the children’s shows that were available when I was a lot younger. Back in the 1950s children’s television was still in its infancy and there was a lot of experimentation, producing good and bad results.

One of the first shows I remember from those days was the Howdy Doody Show on NBC. It was hosted by Buffalo native Bob Smith a former disk jockey at WBEN radio in the early 1940s. Following the war, he became the early morning man at WNBC in New York. He began the Howdy Doody Show in 1947 at first airing on Saturdays, and later Monday through Friday.

The show made no pretense of educating but rather of entertaining viewers along with the kids in the studio “peanut gallery” with a group of live and puppet characters who played it for laughs. Howdy and Buffalo Bob were joined by puppets that included Howdy’s nemesis Mr. Bluster, the Flub A Dub a mythical animal that survived by eating meatballs, and Dilly Dally Howdy’s friend. Live characters included Chief Thunderthud Chief of the Ooragnak (kangaroo spelled backward) tribe who coined the word “Kowabonga.”

Then there was mute Clarabell the Clown, first played by the future Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan who chased Buffalo Bob and others honking the horns on his belt and firing blasts from his seltzer bottle.

Howdy remained on the air until 1960 with the last telecast at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24. Fifteen at the time I had outgrown Howdy Doody, but I was watching that final show when Clarabell spoke for the first time and said, “Goodbye kids.” It really became a milestone in my young life.

One show appealed to kids like me and also to many adults. That was “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie” starring singer and comedian Fran Allison, and puppets Kukla and “Oliver J. Dragon,” better known as “Ollie.” These puppets, and others were the creation of the show’s creator, puppeteer Burr Tillstrom. There were several other puppet characters but the one I remember the best was Buelah Witch who was sort of a cross between comedians Selma Diamond and Phyliss Diller.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie went on the air in the fall of 1947 as a local show in Chicago and a year later began being carried on the NBC network where it remained until August 30, 1957. I became a viewer in the latter half of its run, along with my parents. We all enjoyed the comic interplay between Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.

Long before there was Bill Nye “The Science Guy” there was “Watch Mr. Wizard” starring Don Herbert a weekly half hour show on NBC from 1951 to 1965 and 1970 to 1971. Don Herbert graduated from college with a degree in General Science and English. Following World War II services as a bomber pilot he went to work in Chicago radio where he developed the idea of Mr. Wizard as a science show for children.

On the show Herbert, along with either a young girl or boy performed science experiments using readily available materials.

Watch Mr. Wizard specialized in “hands on kitchen science” doing experiments that could be easily and safely duplicated even by viewers like me. I remember doing many of them myself. I’m proud to say that I never blew or burned anything up.

Another favorite of mine was Zoo Parade on NBC on Sunday afternoons hosted by Marlin Perkins, at the time Director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Previous to that position he had been Director of the Buffalo Zoo. Zoo Parade went on the air in 1950. The show involved animals from the Lincoln Park Zoo and often film of animals in the wild were included. After Zoo Parade was canceled in 1957 Perkins later moved on to Wild Kingdom in 1963 for which he is better known.

As someone who was interested in history from an early age a show that I watched regularly was “You Are There” hosted by Walter Cronkite. Starting as a radio show it moved to television in 1954. In this show reporters covered historical events in the same way as they covered a modern news story. With Cronkite as anchor they covered stories like the Execution of Joan of Arc, the Destruction of the Hindenburg, Sutter’s Discovery of Gold, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Fall of Corregidor. It was a great show.

Some of the most memorable children’s shows of the 1950s and ’60s were those hosted by Soupy Sales featuring his dog “White Fang.” That’s a story for another column.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com