IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME!

We had the great fortune to know and work with Buffalo Bob Smith producing a 50th Anniversary retrospective of "The Howdy Doody Show".

On December 27, 1947, the booming voice of Buffalo Bob Smith and the screaming cheers of youngsters, soon to become known the world over as "The Peanut Gallery", broke the silence of day-long test patterns on every television set in the USA. Long before MTV, The Simpsons, Sesame Street, the Muppets and Nickelodeon, the magical bond between kids and TV was shaped by Buffalo Bob and the Howdy Doody marionettes in the crude but creative beginnings of television programming. The mix of common sense values and fun that it offered have touched every generation that followed and are still with us today.

Now bonafide Pop Culture Icons, Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob were responsible for many "firsts" in broadcast history ­ to mention just a few: they pioneered the art of TV product merchandising; they had the first live "split-screen" broadcast in 1949; they were the first regularly broadcast show in color; and the first to reach 1000 and 2000 broadcasts. They were not promoted as an educational show, but they taught kids basic lessons and concepts through simple songs telling them to brush their teeth, save their pennies, and follow the Golden Rule. Howdy even ran for President in 1948 and 1952 with a campaign platform that appealed to children and was overwhelmingly elected "President of All Kids in the United States."

Cowabunga, Bob. We'll miss you.

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