For your viewing pleasure, a classic Windy City Christmas Cartoon: Coco, Hardrock and Joe
Posted by Mike Chary at December 25, 2006 8:38 AM
Thanks for posting that Mike. As someone who moved to Chicago as an adult, I never saw Hardrock, Coco, and Joe, but I hear people speak fondly of it every Christmas. It is a neat little cartoon.
I grew up in the DC area, and I don't remember any similar local phenomenon -- although I'm young enough that locally produced TV was rare by the time I was watching TV. I do remember we had a guy named Captain Twenty (who appeared on channel 20, of course), but if he did anything specific for Christmas, I never saw it.
WGN-Channel 9 recently broadcast a Christmas special that gave a history of the Ray Rayner show; The Bozo Show and Frazier Thomas's Garfield Goose and Friends.
The classics Hardrock, Coco and Joe, along with a primitive Frosty the Snowman Cartoon (not the CBS one you know) and a 3rd classic Christmas cartoon---the name is lost in my head now---were all shown.
The program was very good but I missed the Ray Rayner Show segment.
I hope WGN is selling a DVD of this program.
The DC area never had anyone like the Chicago area did.
WGN had 3 (4 if you count the 'Andy Starr' 3 Stooges show) classic shows east lasting over 25 years.
For me...as a kid from age 6 (1966) to my teens I had Ray Rayner in the morning. [He was better than Captain K.]
Bozo was at noon
Garfield Goose was at 5 or 5:30pm
[Note: Dr. Who was on PBS at 6:30 around 1972 or 73.
The great Pertwee episodes!]
Later on Garfield Goose was incorporated in Bozo
Then Bozo went from Live @ Noon to mornings on tape.
Ray Rayner retired and I believe is passed on now.
An Era is over.
The Chicago area also had BJ (Bill Jackson) and Dirty Dragon on Channel 32 in the afternoons. Channel 32 [or 44] was also the station that first broadcast Speed Racer in our area.
Later on channel 44 had The Adventures of Superman in the afternoon (early 70s). Channel 9 had shown Superman in the 60s.
Channel 32 and Channel 44 broadcast a great deal of Japanese product. Goldarr and Ultraman; etc. etc.
I should mention that I believe I saw 8th Man on Channel 9 along with Gigantor.
WGN Channel 9 also broadcast classic Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan films at noon for a time in the late 60s.
Earlier on Sunday mornings Channel 9 had Lone Ranger or Cisco Kid episodes.
They ran "Family Classics" [edited feature films] most Sunday afternoons.
Channel 9 for years broacast reruns of Perry Mason weeknights at 9PM. Some nights they beat the other 3 networks locally.
Channel 9 had Creature Features on Saturday night.
They did not have a horror host but they played the theme from the Glenn Ford thriller "Experiment in Terror" over one of the best horror film montages I've EVER SEEN.
Channel 32 in Chicago had Sven Ghouli as a horror host in the 70s.
Channel 9 had the Cubs. Day Games. Always Day Games. I loved it. You see Wrigley field did not have 'lights until the late 80s.
That being said I hated Jack Brickhouse announcing for the Cubs. I usually watched the video and listened to the radio guys doing the play by play.
My childhood memories folks.
Alan Bryan
alan.bryan1@us.army.mil
jettblackberryx@yahoo.com
Alan --
Nice rundown. As a relative newcomer to Chicago, I've heard most of the names you mentioned but never got to experience them first-hand.
I'd bet the third Christmas cartoon they showed was Suzie Snowflake.
Bozo, Gar and Ray will apparently be an annual viewing tradition. It first aired last year. The two things I remember most about Ray were the two sides baselball cap (Sox and Cubs) and the Shel Silverstein animal music. ("You see green aligators and long necked geese, humpy back camels and chimpanees. Cats and rats and elephants, but sure as your born, you don't just don't see no unicorns."
The Chicago raido radio thing I remember was Larry Lujack's Animal Stories, with Uncle Lar and Little Snotnosed Tommy. "Did the cow live, Uncle Lar?" "No, little Tommy, the cow bit the farm." And of course, Aaron Freeman's Council Wars.
I also remember Phillipsville.
In the 1970's WGN Sunday mornings had Tarzan and Star Trek. We also had The Magic Door on channel 2. And Gigglesnort Hotel on 7 if I recall. Saturday nights both 2 and 7 would have the late movie. Channel 7's late movie had a predictable rotation. I saw M*A*S*H, Where Eagles Dare, Kelly's Heroes, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and many other classics for the first time there. I still remember the theme music. Whenever they showed M*A*S*H they'd say "The one that started it all."
Channel 7 also had a weekday afternoon movie that was heavily editted. That was where I first saw Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman movie, and "They Might be Giants" with George C. Scott.
I remember watching the Whjite Sox on channel 44 with Harry Caray, but the Cubs had Jack Brickhouse, and it still annoys me that Harry get's all the love when Jack was a better announcer.
The heyday of Dr. Who was marked by the classic Marty Robinson pledge drive, wherein Marty Robinson would extort pledges by threatening not to show the episode. We had Monty Python's Flying Circus and Dave Allen at Large for a long time. We also The Goodies, Fawlty Towers, Dad's Army, The Two Ronnies, and a Canadian show called Seeing Things. I have always wanted to see Seeing Things agains. ("I'm seeing things, believe me, that I've never seen before.") Here's another Marty Robinson sample.
John Coleman was the local meteorologist for channel 7.
Son of Svenghoulie was, I thought, 1980's. "What's a snake cult?" "The Vrdolyak 29"
Here's Suzy Snowflake and Frosty the Snowman.
We also had Sneak Previews back when Siskel and Ebert were just two Chicago reporters nobody had heard of.
But you know the true way to tell if someone is from Chicago? Ask them the phone number to Empire Carpets.
Empire's gone national, my friend. Everyone knows the number now. I suppose you can tell whether someone's from Chicago by seeing if they throw an "800" at the start of the number.
Suzy Snowflake is correct and when I saw on the retrospecitive program on Christmas it just seemed kinda lame. Hardrock, Coco and Joe were better.
Sadly, there are no DVDs of any WGN programming---yet.
But IF anyone recalls Ray Rayner showing Diver Dan episodes there is hope.
I got a 15 episode Diver Dan DVD from Amazon 2 weeks ago. The show is on black and white with each ep around 6 minutes. Diver Dan originated out of Philly.
While watching it I realized 2 things as a adult:
How does Diver Dan talk under water or hear.
That blonde mermaid was a lazy lazy woman. Slacker.
I also recall WGN showing Tarzan and Star Trek on Sunday mornings. Thanks for reminding me.
Later on I think in the mid-70s Star Trek replaced Perry Mason @ 9pm.
Not on WGN but WLS channel 7 had the morning movie with Ione. She was a JoAnn Worley type who hosted the movie.
She was funny. She did phone in contests some times.
She had one of those French style phones.
Creature Feature started in 1970.
Channel 32 was so lame in the 60s. I remember that they once broadcast Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster 5 nights in a row--Mon thru Fri--during prime time.
Channel 44 was so odd when it started around the early 70s.
They once had a women read the news on a heart-shaped bed.
Brickhouse was the better announcer. I dislike Harry Carey even more than Jack. Carey did the White Sox on 2nd rate channel 44 in the 70s.
I preferred Lou Boudreu on the radio for the Cubs games...Anyone! Who was Lou's radio partner?
Ray Rayner went to Slippery Rock College (PA). He also gave the scores of Slippery Rock games. What I liked most about Ray is that he did the weather and sports on a kids show.
He showed Cubs highlights and gave most or all of the MLB scores. This was valuable knowledge since we did not have CNN or early newscasts back then.
The only morning news (Okay, there was the lame Today show) in Chicago was Orion Samuelson's Farm Report at 6:30am.
WGN also showed the Flash Gordon serial at noon on Sundays (well they couldn't always run Holmes or Chan films).
Weeknights channel 9 had great movies at 10:30pm.
The first topless woman I EVER saw on TV was on Chicago's PBS showings of Monty Python's Flying Circus!!! That show was a revelation for me. Such different humor.
Groundbreaking.
WGN of course had the great Mike Douglas show. I first saw the rock band KISS on that show. The segment on which they appeared is on their new DVD set; but back then it was such a shock to see Gene Simmons walk out and get spotted as being Jewish by comedian Totie Fields!
[Gene came to the U.S. from Israel at age 7]
She either knew in advance or just could spot them a mile away. Mike Douglas was cool.
I don't know why I disliked Jack Brickhouse so much.
I do know he drank in the booth. And for a long time when I was young I thought he was saying---No Runs, No Hits, No Evers--and I'd ask myself: "What is an ever?"
Later on I learned he was slurring the word "errors".
From Left to Right: Williams, Hickman and Callison.
Third to First: Santo, Kessinger, Beckert and Banks.
Pitching: Milt Pappas and Catching: Randy Hundley.
I watched Pappas and Holtzman pitch no-hitters.
Randy Hundley hitting homers and fans in the bleachers holding up a Rebel Flag for him. (how would that go over today?????)
At least once a year Don Kessinger would have one home run.
An inside the park one at that.
Shut me off now.
Thanks for bringing back memories.
Alan Bryan
jettblackberryx@yahoo.com
But you know the true way to tell if someone is from Chicago? Ask them the phone number to Empire Carpets.
It went national (or at least regional) in the late 70s/early 80s when WGN was being carried on cable systems. WGN was the *only* reason we got cable in 1980. Mom was a Cubs fan and radio reception WGN was teh suck - the Cubs radio network was a few years away.
We knew the Empire carpets number, and we lived in the middle of Iowa. Sure, we were tuned in, since we had family in Oak Park, and would spend a fair amount of time there. I have fond memories of Gigglesnort, Ray Rayner, and the horror that was Channel 44.
Chicago natives have told me the better question is Lincoln Carpeting's number.
There were also the local commercials for
Tomczak! Tomczak! Tomczak Dodge
Former Bears quarterback Mike Tomczak's family owned a Dodge dealership in the Chicago area and the commercial featured many of the Tomczak kids yelling:
Tomczak! Tomczak! Tomczak Dodge and then the address of the dealership which amazingly I can't recall now...
Any since we are talking the Chicago area...anyone ever see The great Rev. IKE (pie in the sky!) on the strange Channel 6?
Channel 6: A local channel with a lot of very LOCAL programming often in black and white.
The Kathryn Kuhlman show was on Channel 6.
No one I know watched channel 6; you just lingered on it for a moment between ABC7 and NBC5. After all you were walking the the TV set and changing the channels BY HAND.
I just remember the show 'Playboy After Dark' on WGN in 1970.
It was a bizarre piece of Television that's now on DVD! A weekly party at the Chicago Playboy Club/Penthouse (Playboy clubs used to be in every major city). The draw for this show was the celebrity guests and the rock bands. I think the Grateful Dead even played on this show.
Alan
jettblackberryx@yahoo.com
I'm waaay Old School. I remember Diver Dan like it was yesterday, which is kinda scary. Anybody out there remember that it used to begin with the visual of the little diver in the fishtank? I got up EVERY morning, just to see Miss Minerva. My brother and I were so hooked we would get up and get dressed for school 3 hours early and sit in front of the television, waiting for the station to come back on (anybody remember the Indian-head sign-off signal? Anybody remember when TV wasn't a 24-hr event?)
The DVD cover of Diver Dan was very off-putting, glad to know they're the originals. Maybe I'll check it out.
I miss the Goose and his fabulous crown and castle!
Does any on remember the show Kidding Around (or was it Just Kidding Around)? Also The Magic door, it was some kind of Jewish kids show. Growing up catholic in Highland Park use to watch that show all the time. A room zoom zoom A room zoom zoom gilly gilly gilly gilly gilly ah saw saw.
does anyone know if svenghoulie and son of sven are father and son or related?
#11: You'd expect a ghoul and his son would be related, but oddly, Svengooli and Son of Sven (who's dropped the "Son of" and is going by the original moniker himself now) are not. Still, this provides a good excuse to link to Todd Allen's recent post about Alex Ross's moonlighting gig. Surely there's got to be a screen shot out there somewhere.
Tomczak! Tomczak! Tomczak Dodge! 4747 South Pulaski!