Saturday Morning with the Captain

Ah, yes…Saturday morning. When I used to get up, scamper out to the living room and watch cartoons on CBS, ABC and NBC — with the volume set just low enough that it wouldn't awaken my parents in their bedroom. Actually, it wasn't all cartoons. There were shows with real human beings in them. I remember watching Captain Kangaroo's first show. Many years later, I got to meet Bob Keeshan, who of course played that role, and I of course told him I'd seen his first episode. He nodded as if (a) he believed me and (b) he was pleased. He later told me everybody he met claimed to have seen that first episode.

That meeting took place on Stage 33 at CBS Television City where, years later, I went to see Red Skelton tape his TV show and Carol Burnett tape her TV show and I saw Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher there and many other shows. Its main tenant for many decades now has been The Price is Right and at some point — probably because they didn't want to give its host a raise — it was renamed "The Bob Barker Stage."

Amazingly, other shows still tape in there when The Price is Right doesn't need it. I think Real Time with Bill Maher may still be in there on Fridays. I was there on a Saturday morning (appropriately enough) in 1985 because we were taping the wraparound intros for a season's worth of a Saturday morn series I worked on called CBS Storybreak. Mr. Keeshan had flown out from New York to host them as himself, not the Good Captain. Captain Kangaroo had been recently cancelled after almost thirty years on CBS. This and other jobs he did for them were the network's way of keeping him "in the family," which usually means "off the competition."

It only took a few hours to record thirteen intros and thirteen outros that morn. It could probably have been done faster but Mr. Keeshan declined the use of a TelePrompter. He said, "I have to use those from time to time but I don't think I ever sound genuine. I think I always sound like I'm reading."

And then I said, "Well, we certainly don't want to inspire kids to read" and everyone laughed including Keeshan/Kangaroo. The stated premise of the CBS Storybreak series was to encourage the reading of books.

Before each intro or outro, he'd read the script out loud and someone would time it and then say something like, "We need to lose fifteen seconds" and the producer and I would cut whatever lines needed to be cut. Once we had the script down to time, Mr. Keeshan would read it aloud a few times, then step in front of the camera. We'd roll tape and he'd do it from memory. Having done five hours of television each week for thousands of years, he'd gotten to be pretty good at this.

There were a number of breaks for technical problems so there was plenty of time to talk to this man who I can't bring myself to refer to as "Bob," even though he politely asked all of us to stop with the "Mr. Keeshan." One of the first things I asked him about was Mr. Mayor. Years ago on this blog, I wrote the following…

During the 1964-1965 season, he turned up on CBS Saturday morning with a show called Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor looked and sounded exactly like Cap'n Kangaroo but he was a different guy in a different outfit and with a different set and supporting cast. (The set had a wonderful, elaborate toy train layout.) At the time, I wondered why Bob Keeshan was playing one guy Monday through Friday and a different but similar character on Saturday. When I finally met him, it was one of the first things I asked about and he told me the following story…

It seems that when Captain Kangaroo was launched, Keeshan had an unwanted partner. I think (but am not sure) he said it was related to the fact that the Captain had evolved out of the Tinker character [which he had done for another station] so someone who had a business interest in that show wound up with a percentage of Captain Kangaroo. As he explained it, Keeshan was having trouble with this partner and finally decided he wanted to have total ownership and control of his character. He tried to buy out the partner's interest but when the guy declined, Keeshan threatened to give up Captain Kangaroo and to create a new character…one in which the partner would not share. The partner said, "You wouldn't dare," and Keeshan decided to go ahead with his bluff. When CBS decided they wanted to add a Saturday morning installment of Captain Kangaroo, Keeshan insisted he would do it as Mr. Mayor.

And he did. It was essentially a way to convince the partner that he was serious about abandoning Captain Kangaroo. "I was prepared to do that and continue as Mr. Mayor," he told me. "But what I really hoped was that it would convince him to sell out his interest in Kangaroo." That was how things played out. The partner sold out his share and the following season, the Saturday morning hour of Mr. Mayor was replaced by an hour of Captain Kangaroo. I always thought this was a fascinating story…how close Captain Kangaroo came to disappearing due to a business dispute.

All the CBS Storybreak intros were done by about 1 PM, which was just in time to avoid the producers having to break for lunch or pay a meal penalty. Mr. Keeshan, who'd flown in the night before and was flying home the next morning, had an appointment to be interviewed by someone for something after we were done. Our producer asked him what he had planned for that evening. He said, "Oh, I'll probably just get room service at my hotel, read a book and then turn in early." I suddenly found myself asking him if he'd like to go to dinner.

To my delight/surprise, he said yes. At 6 PM, I met him in the lobby of his hotel and we walked two blocks to RJ's, then one my favorite restaurants…now, a nearly-forgotten memory of Beverly Hills. I was curious if anyone would recognize Captain Kangaroo in his street clothes and no one did…visually. But our server and the party in the next booth recognized him by his voice. He said that he was rarely recognized in public but when he was, it was by his voice.

He quizzed me as much about what I did as I quizzed him about his career, including the years he spent playing the non-speaking role of Clarabelle the Clown on the original Howdy Doody show. What amazed me was him telling me that during the years he did that show, he assumed it was the end of his show business career and when that gig ended, he'd be going into the insurance business…or somewhere. "There's not much room on television for someone who can't talk on camera," he said. "And back then, I couldn't and didn't think I could learn."

Somehow though, he did. I said, "For a guy who couldn't talk, you seem to have done pretty well." He sighed and mentioned "Buffalo" Bob Smith, his boss on Howdy Doody and its star. "And you know, he still refuses to admit that Captain Kangaroo was any sort of success."

We talked a lot about the current state of programming for children. It did not please him and his views on what children should be watching did not coincide with mine. I kept saying things like, "I watched tons of shows that feature what you call hostility or violence and I think I turned out all right. It's been almost a month since I knocked over a liquor store and shot the manager."

That's what you do when you find yourself in a debate with someone you really like. You try to make them laugh. At least, that's what I do.

But it was a respectful and friendly debate…and he really liked the restaurant, which in addition to great food had a happy, festive mood. The only real fight we had was over the check — a battle he won by pointing out that CBS was paying all his expenses for the weekend. Then I walked him back to his hotel and that was the end of my relationship with Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan.

It was a very nice evening and I got to thinking about it when I woke up. I thought it might be a good story to post here on a Saturday morning…which I would have done if I'd finished it before Noon.