''Adventure Time'' was a local children's television show on
WTAE-TV
WTAE-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by Hearst Television since the station's inception, making this one of two stations that have been built and signed on ...
4 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, from 1958 to 1979. It was hosted by
Paul Shannon
Paul Vincent Shannon (November 11, 1909 – July 25, 1990) was a Pittsburgh radio and television announcer best known for hosting the local children's television show, ''Adventure Time'', and for his part in bringing about the early sixties res ...
, with guitarist
Joe Negri
Joseph Harold Negri (born June 10, 1926) is an American jazz guitarist and educator. He appeared as himself and as "Handyman Negri" in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe segments on ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. He appeared on the 1959 children' ...
and puppeteer Jim Martin. Martin later became a puppeteer for ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
''.
Series background
Paul Shannon introduced cartoon segments by lowering a "magic sword" and reciting the phrase, "Down goes the curtain, and back up again for . . ." whatever was the feature. Old
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
shorts were shown, as well as the cartoons
Kimba the White Lion
''Kimba the White Lion'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese '' shōnen'' manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka which was serialized in the ''Manga Shōnen'' magazine from November 1950 to April 1954. An anime based on ...
, "Dodo- The Kid From Outer Space",
KoKo The Clown
Koko the Clown is an animated character created by Max Fleischer. He first appeared as the main protagonist in ''Out of the Inkwell'' (1918-1929), a major animated series of the silent era. Throughout the series, he goes on many adventures with hi ...
Space Angel
''Space Angel'' is an animated science fiction television series produced in the United States from early 1962 through 1964. It used the same Synchro-Vox lip technique as ''Clutch Cargo'', the first cartoon produced by the same studio, Cambria ...
,
Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
,
Krazy Kat
''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-American, New Yor ...
,
Snuffy Smith
''Barney Google and Snuffy Smith'', originally ''Take Barney Google, F'rinstance'', is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Billy DeBeck. Since its debut on June 17, 1919, the strip has gained a large international readership, appearin ...
,
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Beetle Bailey (the aforementioned four shows produced by
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
, whose parent company is also WTAE's current owner) and
Rocky and Bullwinkle
''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...
. Often the Three Stooges episodes were introduced by Shannon spinning "The Stooge-O-Scope"...a mounted wheel with pictures of the six comic actors who played the Three Stooges attached to it. After Paul would spin the wheel, the camera would zoom into it, with the fade back out going into that day's episode of the Stooges.
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...
credited Shannon and the show with playing a major role in the Stooges' national revival in the 1960s.
The show also featured Paul Shannon's alter ego, Nosmo King, a mysteriously silent, bearded man in dark sunglasses, who stalked about the studio in a slouch hat and tan raincoat. Nosmo was also featured "driving his car" around Pittsburgh, or playing a one-man-band type instrument to the likes of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There". The studio audience was composed of children's groups such as Boy and
Cub Scout
Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...
packs, Brownie,
Girl Scout
Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
, and Camp Fire Girl troops. Paul regularly featured a "Picture Gallery" on his show. He would pretend to "play" a player piano and scroll photos of his young listeners that had been sent in to the station. Other times, songs such as The Toys' "A Lover's Concerto" would play during the showing of the viewer's photos. Occasionally, viewer contests were held, most notably, one in 1966 to meet the Three Stooges at the local Kennywood Park, and one in 1969 to name a new roller coaster at said park. One viewer chose, "The Thunderbolt". The attraction still remains active at the park today.
A high point of the show came each Christmas season, when Paul Shannon loaded children's letters to
Santa Claus
Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...
into a rocket, and launched it to the North Pole. Santa later opened the letters and read them on the air.
Martin's main character in the series was Baby Jeffy. The
puppet
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...
was lost at one point in production, and Negri claims Martin reacted "like Jeffy was kidnapped."
In his book,
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...
of the Three Stooges credited Paul Shannon with sparking renewed interest in the Stooges. Shannon appeared in one of the Stooges' full-length features, ''
The Outlaws Is Coming
''The Outlaws Is Coming'' (stylized as ''The Outlaws IS Coming!'') is the sixth and final theatrical comedy starring The Three Stooges after their 1959 resurgence in popularity. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Jo ...
'', as
Wild Bill Hickok
James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837August 2, 1876), better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement ...
.
Shannon's alter-ego Nosmo King reportedly got his name from a "No Smoking" sign. Other popular characters in the series included Happy Howard (The Friendly Spider), Randy Rocket and The Great Mysto the Magician.
Joe Negri took over the show after Shannon retired in 1975. Negri, the music director for ABC affiliate WTAE from 1960 to 1982, hosted other Pittsburgh-based children's shows for the station. He portrayed Mr. Music on "Rickie and Copper", and hosted "Popeye with Joe and Sandy" as well as "High School Talent Scene" at the same time he was playing Handyman Negri on
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debut ...
.
See also
*
List of local children's television series
The following is a list of local children's television shows in the United States. These were locally produced commercial television programs intended for the child audience with unique hosts and themes. This type of programming began in the late ...