''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'' was a television program for children and was generally broadcast around the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

area. The series aired from 1967 to 1994. It was filmed and produced at the

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...

, Channel 6 (then called WFIL when the program began) studios in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'', was created by W. Carter Merbreier, an ordained

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

minister and former Philadelphia police chaplain, and produced by the Philadelphia Council of Churches. The show initially aired as a religious program beginning in 1967 before switching to a children's program in 1970. The show starred Merbreier as Captain Noah and his real life wife, Patricia Merbreier, as Mrs. Noah. At its height, ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'' was syndicated to 22

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

s in

markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: * Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand * Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, a ...

throughout the United States. During the early 1970s, ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'' attracted a larger local audience in the Philadelphia region than ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Captain Kangaroo ''Captain Kangaroo'' is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program ...

'' combined.

Background

Started as a religious-oriented program, ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'' became a daily children's program in 1970. The show aired from 7:00 a.m. to 9 a.m. on weekdays and for 30 minutes on Sunday morning leading out of ABC Sunday-morning cartoons and into the ''

Al Alberts Al Alberts (born Al Albertini, August 10, 1922 – November 27, 2009) was an American popular singer and composer. Biography Born Al Albertini in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, he went to South Philadelphia High School. As a teenager, h ...

Show''. The show also featured four cartoon shorts per day during the week. These included

Gumby ''Gumby'' is an American clay animation Media franchise, franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length ''Gumby: The Movie'', and oth ...

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...

(pre-1940 and post-1947 episodes), and

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

(post-1948 episodes). In 1975, when ABC began their morning show ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', WPVI-TV opted to preempt that in favor of ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark.'' Starting in September 1976, WPVI began running the 7:00 a.m. hour of ''Good Morning America'' and scaled ''Captain Noah'' back to the 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. slot. The format remained the same. While Captain Noah, a former Lutheran minister, was the main "host" of the show, Mrs. Noah was the

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

and a trained singer. Famous Philadelphian entertainer

Larry Ferrari Larry Ferrari (March 4, 1932 – November 20, 1997), born Lazarus Louis Ferrari, was an American organist who hosted ''The Larry Ferrari Show'' from 1954 to 1997 on WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, a weekly Sunday morning half-hour program of organ m ...

provided the music. Favorite

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 ...

s included Maurice the Mouse, Mumwup the Monster, and Wally the Walrus. In 1978, when the Popeye cartoons moved to WTAF-29 (now

WTXF WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market ...

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

-29) and the Warner Brothers cartoons moved to Channel 17

WPHL-TV WPHL-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group and has studios in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia; it maintains a ...

(later to 48

WKBS WKBS-TV (channel 47) is a religious television station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States, owned and operated by Cornerstone Television. The station's transmitter is located in Logan Township. WKBS-TV operates as a full-time satellite of ...

and then back to WPHL), WPVI dropped the weekday edition of ''Captain Noah'' and began running ''Good Morning America'' in its entirety. ''Captain Noah'' continued as a weekend program. It would run an hour on Saturday mornings and on that showing often contained the 8 AM cartoon (when it was a half-hour offering) offered by ABC within the show. On Sunday mornings, it now ran for 30 minutes before ''

Kids Are People Too ''Kids Are People Too'' is an American television series that ran on Sunday mornings from 1978 to 1982 on ABC. The series was a variety/news magazine show oriented towards kids with the intention of recognizing them as people. During its four-ye ...

''. For a while a 15-minute edition was inserted into the showing of ''Kids Are People Too''. In 1983, ''Captain Noah'' was scaled back to 30 minutes on Saturday mornings and ran this way until 1994 with no cartoons inserted. The staples of the show were the puppets, cartoons and songs. The theme song was, "I Can Sing a Rainbow" sung by

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

. Another notable song that was played every episode was "Send Your Pictures to Dear Old Captain Noah". Celebrity guests on the show included

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

Charles Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on TNT. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the Natio ...

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

and

Frank Perdue Franklin Parsons Perdue (May 9, 1920 – March 31, 2005), born in Salisbury, Maryland, was for many years the president and CEO of Perdue Farms, now one of the largest chicken-producing companies in the United States. Background Frank was t ...

. The

Phillie Phanatic The Phillie Phanatic is the official mascot for the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team. He is a large, furry, green flightless bird with an extendable tongue. He performs various routines to entertain fans during baseball games at C ...

, mascot of the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, debuted to the public on the show in 1978. Carter and Pat Merbreier jointly decided to retire and end the show in 1994. Captain and Mrs. Noah were both inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2001. They were also honored that year by the same organization as their Persons of the Year. A 35th anniversary show was aired in 2005 on WPVI from the

Please Touch Museum The Please Touch Museum is a children's museum located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special events, mostly aimed at children seven years o ...

. The set of the show has been preserved at the

's new home at

Memorial Hall A memorial hall is a hall built to commemorate an individual or group; most commonly those who have died in war. Most are intended for public use and are sometimes described as ''utilitarian memorials''. History of the Memorial Hall In the aft ...

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

, which opened on October 18, 2008. The show is now repeated every Saturday at 8:30 am on one of Channel 6's (WPVI) digital feeds. The reruns generally consist of the last few seasons the show aired (1993 or 1994). Captain Noah was grand marshal of the "Night In Venice" boat parade in Ocean City, NJ, on Saturday July 24, 2010. Patricia Merbreier died at age 86 on June 23, 2011 in Philadelphia. W. Carter Merbrier died at age 90 on August 9, 2016, following a short illness. He was living in Audubon, PA at the time of his death."PHILADELPHIA TV PIONEER CAPTAIN NOAH DIES AT AGE 90"
/ref>

Personal

Carter Merbreier, a.k.a. Captain Noah, and Patricia Merbreier had one daughter, Pamela. In October 2014, Carter Merbreier published the book ''Captain Noah and His Magical Ark'', detailing his experiences as a children's television show host on WPVI-ABCTV for over 30 years.

References

External links

Captain Noah Anniversary Special
wpvi.cpm Retrieved on March 18, 2007

Retrieved on March 18, 2007

Retrieved on March 18, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Noah And His Magical Ark 1967 American television series debuts 1994 American television series endings 1960s American children's television series 1970s American children's television series 1980s American children's television series 1990s American children's television series Local children's television programming in the United States Christian children's television series Television in Philadelphia Noah's Ark in television American television shows featuring puppetry