''The Bozo Show'' is a children's television program that aired on
WGN-TV
WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...
in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and nationally on its
superstation feed (now
NewsNation
NewsNation is an American cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group. Known for most of its history as Superstation WGN before becoming WGN America in 2008, it relaunched on March 1, 2021, as a cable news network named after its flagship n ...
) from 1960 to 2001. It was based on a children's record-book series, ''
Bozo the Clown
Bozo the Clown, sometimes billed as "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown", is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to tel ...
'' by
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
. The series was a locally produced version of the internationally
franchised ''Bozo the Clown'' format and is the longest-running in the franchise. Recognized as the most popular and successful locally produced children's program in the history of television, it only aired under this title for 14 of its 40+ years: it also aired under the titles ''Bozo'' (1960–1961), ''Bozo's Circus'' (1961–1980), and ''The Bozo Super Sunday Show'' (1994–2001).
History
1960s
WGN-TV's first incarnation of the show was a live half-hour cartoon showcase titled ''Bozo'', hosted by character actor and staff announcer
Bob Bell in the title role performing comedy bits between cartoons, weekdays at noon for six-and-a-half months beginning on 20 June 1960.
After a short hiatus to facilitate WGN-TV's move from
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 Magnificent Mile, North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The early 1920s international design competition for the tower bec ...
in downtown Chicago to a purpose-built studio facility on the city's northwest side, the show was relaunched in an expanded one-hour format as ''Bozo's Circus'', which premiered at noon on 11 September 1961.
[ The live show featured Bell as Bozo (although he did not perform on the first telecast), host ]Ned Locke
Norbert Locke, better known as Ned Locke (December 25, 1919 – February 4, 1992), was an American television personality and radio announcer, best known for the role of "Ringmaster Ned" on WGN-TV, WGN-TV's ''The Bozo Show, Bozo's Circus'' from 1 ...
as "Ringmaster Ned," a 13-piece orchestra, comedy sketches, circus acts, cartoons, games and prizes before a 200+ member studio audience. In the early months of the series, a respected English acrobatic clown, "Wimpey" (played by Bertram William Hiles) worked on the show, providing some legitimate circus background and performing opposite Bell's Bozo in comedy sketches. Hiles continued to make periodic guest appearances on the show into the mid-1960s.
In October 1961, Don Sandburg joined the show as producer and principal sketch writer, and also appeared as the mute clown "Sandy the Tramp," a character partly inspired by Harpo Marx
Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian and harpist, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho and Chico, Harp ...
. By November 1961, another eventual Chicago television legend joined the show's cast, actor Ray Rayner
Ray Rayner (born Raymond M. Rahner; July 23, 1919 – January 21, 2004) was an American television presenter, actor and author. He was a staple of Chicago children's television in the 1960s and 1970s on WGN-TV.
Early life and education
Rayner (th ...
, as "Oliver O. Oliver," a country bumpkin from Puff Bluff, Kentucky. Rayner was hosting WGN-TV's ''Dick Tracy
''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick 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 was distributed by the Chicago T ...
Show'' (which also premiered the same day as ''Bozo's Circus'') and later replaced Dick Coughlan as host of ''Breakfast with Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a cartoon character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons (originally Leon Schlesinger, Leon Schlesinger Productions) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the ' ...
'', later retitled ''Ray Rayner and His Friends''. WGN musical director Bob Trendler
Robert Trendler (May 11, 1912 – July 18, 2011) was an American bandleader, songwriter, and musical director of the WGN Orchestra from 1956 till 1975. Trendler was known in Chicago as Mr. Bob the bandleader of Bozo's Big Top Band, on ''Bozo's Ci ...
led the WGN Orchestra, dubbed the "Big Top Band."[
Games on the show included the "Grand Prize Game" created by Sandburg, wherein a boy and girl were selected from the studio audience by the Magic Arrows,][ and later the Bozoputer (a ]random number generator
Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols is generated that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance. This means that the particular ou ...
),.[ The player attempted to toss ping-pong balls into six numbered buckets in sequence, each set farther away than the one before it, and won a prize of increasing value for each one hit. The game ended when the player either missed a bucket or hit all six of them; in the latter case, he/she won a cash bonus, a bicycle, and (in later years) a trip. Any player who missed the first bucket was allowed to keep trying until he/she hit it and won that prize. Before each game, a postcard was drawn at random from those sent in by home viewers, and the chosen viewer received a duplicate of every prize won by the player. For many years, the cash bonus for hitting the sixth bucket was a ]progressive jackpot
A progressive jackpot is a jackpot (a gambling grand prize or payout) which increases each time the game is played but the jackpot is ''not'' won. When the progressive jackpot is won, the jackpot for the next play is reset to a predetermined value ...
that grew by $1 each day until it was won."[ The Grand Prize Game became so popular that ]Larry Harmon
Lawrence Weiss (January 2, 1925 – July 3, 2008), better known by the stage name Larry Harmon and as his alter ego Bozo the Clown, was an American entertainer.Dennis McLellanLarry Harmon, 83; entrepreneur made Bozo the Clown a star ''Los A ...
, who purchased the rights to the Bozo character, later adapted it for other Bozo shows (as "Bozo Buckets" to some and "Bucket Bonanza" to others) and also licensed home and coin-operated versions.
By 1963, the show welcomed its 100,000th visitor and reached the 250,000 mark in 1966.[ The show was so popular locally, that seven hours after the ]Chicago Blizzard of 1967
The Chicago blizzard of 1967 struck northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana on January 26–27, 1967, with a record-setting snow fall in Chicago and its suburbs before the storm abated the next morning. , it remains the greatest snowfall in on ...
began, there were 193 people standing in line, waiting to use their Bozo show tickets; it was one of the few times the live show was canceled and the tape of an older show was run instead.[
In October 1968, Bell was hospitalized for a ]brain aneurysm
An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a cerebral aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder characterized by a localized dilation or ballooning of a blood vessel in the brain due to a weakness in the vessel wall. These aneurysms can occur in an ...
and was absent from the show for several months. Meanwhile, Sandburg resolved to leave the show for the West Coast but stayed longer while Bell recuperated.[ To pick up the slack, WGN-TV floor manager Richard Shiloh Lubbers appeared as "Monty Melvin," named after a schoolmate of Sandburg's, while WGN '']Garfield Goose and Friends
''Garfield Goose and Friends'' is a children's television show produced by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1955 to 1976. The show was known as ''Garfield Goose and Friend'' from 1952 to 1955 when it aired on WLS-TV, WBKB and WBB ...
'' and ''Ray Rayner and His Friends'' 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 the ...
Roy Brown created a new character, "Cooky the Cook." Sandburg left the show in January 1969 and Bell returned in March. Lubbers left as well with Brown staying on as a permanent cast member. Magician Marshall Brodien
Marshall Brodien (July 10, 1934 – March 8, 2019) was an American professional magician who played Wizzo the Wizard, a wizard clown character which appeared on WGN-TV's '' Bozo's Circus'' and ''The Bozo Show'' from 1968 to 1994.
Early life
Brod ...
, who had been making semi-regular guest appearances in which he frequently interacted with the clowns, also began appearing as a wizard character in an Arabian Nights-inspired costume in 1968 and by the early 1970s evolved into "Wizzo the Wizard."[ From the beginning of the show until 1970, Bozo appeared in a red costume; Larry Harmon, owner of the character's license, insisted Bozo wear blue. Harmon did not have his way regarding the costume's color in Chicago until after Don Sandburg, who was also the show's producer, left for California.
A prime-time version titled ''Big Top'' was seen September through January on Wednesday nights in 1965 through 1967.][
]
1970s
Ray Rayner left ''Bozo's Circus'' in 1971 and was briefly replaced by actor Pat Tobin as Oliver's cousin "Elrod T. Potter" and then by magician John Thompson (an acquaintance of Roy Brown's and Marshall Brodien's) as "Clod Hopper." (Tobin previously had played Bozo on KSOO-TV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Sioux Falls ( ) is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Coun ...
. Thompson has appeared on A&E's ''Criss Angel
Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (; born December 19, 1967), known professionally as Criss Angel, is an American magician, Magic (illusion), illusionist and musician. He is often referred to as one of the world's most successful illusionists, g ...
Mindfreak''.) Rayner periodically returned to guest-host as himself in his morning show's jumpsuit as "Mr. Ray" when Ned Locke was absent.[ The show had its 500,000th visitor in the same year. By 1973, WGN gave up on Thompson] and increased Brodien's appearances as Wizzo. That same year, the National Association of Broadcasters issued an edict forbidding the practice of children's TV show hosts doubling as pitchmen for products. This resulted in major cutbacks to children's show production budgets. In 1975, Bob Trendler retired from television and his Big Top Band was reduced to a three-piece band led by Tom Fitzsimmons.[ Locke also retired from television in 1976 and was replaced by Frazier Thomas, host of WGN's '' Family Classics'' and ''Garfield Goose and Friends'', at which point ''Garfield Goose and Friends'' ended its 24-year run on Chicago television with 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. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...
s moving to a segment on ''Bozo's Circus''. As the storyline went, Gar "bought" ''Bozo's Circus'' from the retiring Ringmaster Ned and appointed "Prime Minister" Thomas as the new Circus Manager. In 1978 when WGN-TV became a national superstation
''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...
on cable and satellite through what eventually became WGN America
WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-T ...
, the show gained more of a national following.[ In 1979, ''Bozo's Circus'' added " TV Powww!", where those at home could play a video game by phone.][
]
1980s
By 1980, Chicago's public schools stopped allowing students to go home for lunch and Ray Rayner announced his imminent retirement from his morning show and Chicago television. The show stopped issuing tickets; the wait to be part of the audience was eight years long. Beginning a summer hiatus and airing taped shows the next year pushed the wait back to ten years.[ On 11 August 1980, ''Bozo’s Circus'' was renamed ''The Bozo Show'' and moved to weekdays at 8:00 a.m., on tape, immediately following ''Ray Rayner and His Friends''. On 26 January 1981, ''The Bozo Show'' replaced ''Ray Rayner and His Friends'' at 7:00 a.m. The program expanded to 90 minutes, the circus acts and ''Garfield Goose and Friends'' puppets were dropped, and Cuddly Dudley (a puppet on ''Ray Rayner and His Friends'' voiced and operated by Roy Brown) and more cartoons were added.][ In 1983, Pat Hurley from ABC-TV's '']Kids Are People Too
''Kids Are People Too'' is an American television series that ran on Sunday morning cartoon, Sunday mornings from 1978 to 1982 on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The series was a variety/news magazine show oriented toward kids, with the inten ...
'' joined the cast as himself, interviewing kids in the studio audience and periodically participating in sketches.
The biggest change occurred in 1984 with the retirement of Bob Bell, with the show still the most-watched in its timeslot and a ten-year wait for studio audience reservations.[ After a nationwide search, Bell was replaced by actor ]Joey D'Auria
Joey D'Auria is an American actor, and writer best known for his role as Bozo the Clown in ''The Bozo Show'', succeeding original actor Bob Bell. He is also known as J.W. Terry, Joseph J. Terry, and Joseph W. Terry.
Career
D'Auria is best kno ...
, who would play the role of Bozo for the next 17 years.[
In 1985, Frazier Thomas died and Hurley filled in as host for the final six shows that season, stepping into a semi-authority character. In 1987, Hurley was dropped and the show's timeslot returned to 60 minutes. In 1987, a ]synthesizer
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
, played by "Professor Andy" (actor Andy Mitran), replaced the three-piece Big Top Band.
1990s
Roy Brown began suffering heart-related problems and was absent from the show for an extended period during the 1991–92 season.[ This coincided with the show's 30th anniversary and a reunion special that included Don Sandburg as Sandy, who also filled in for Cooky for the first two weeks that season. Actor Adrian Zmed (best known from ABC-TV's '']T.J. Hooker
''T. J. Hooker'' is an American police drama television program starring William Shatner in the title role as a 15-year veteran police sergeant. The series premiered as a mid-season replacement on March 13, 1982, on ABC and ran on the network u ...
''), who was a childhood fan of ''Bozo's Circus'' and former Grand Prize Game contestant, also appeared on the special and portrayed himself as a "Rookie Clown" for the following two weeks. Actor Michael Immel then joined the show as "Spiffy" (Spifford Q. Fahrquahrrr). Brown returned in January 1992, initially on a part-time basis but suffered additional health setbacks and took another extended leave of absence in the fall of 1993. Brown's presence on the show remained, though, as previously aired segments as Cooky and Cuddly Dudley were incorporated until 1994, when he and Marshall Brodien retired from television.
Later that year, WGN management, due to the high cost of producing a daily television program, plus the rising competition from dedicated children's television networks, decided to get out of the weekday children's television business and buried ''The Bozo Show'' in an early Sunday timeslot as '' The Bozo Super Sunday Show'' on 11 September 1994; WGN's decision to relegate the program to Sundays coincided with the launch of the '' WGN Morning News'' (which debuted five days earlier), a weekday morning newscast that originally launched as an hour-long program (the move of ''Bozo'' effectively resulted in the cancellation of the station's then two-year-old Sunday morning newscast, whose 8 a.m. timeslot ''Bozo'' took over). Immel was replaced by Robin Eurich as "Rusty the Handyman," Michele Gregory as "Tunia" and Cathy Schenkelberg as "Pepper." (Shenkelberg was dropped in 1996.)[
The show suffered another blow in 1997, when its format became educational following a ]Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
mandate requiring broadcast television stations to air a minimum three hours of educational children's programs per week. In 1998, Michele Gregory left the cast following more budget cuts.
2000s
In 2001, station management controversially ended production citing increased competition from newer children's cable channels. The final taping, a 90-minute primetime special titled ''Bozo: 40 Years of Fun!'', was taped on 12 June 2001 and aired 14 July 2001. By this time, it was the only Bozo show that remained on television. The special featured Joey D'Auria as Bozo, Robin Eurich as Rusty, Andy Mitran as Professor Andy, Marshall Brodien as Wizzo and Don Sandburg as Sandy. Also present at the last show were Billy Corgan
William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...
of The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...
, who performed, and Bob Bell's family. Many of the costumes and props are on display at The Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum that showcases historic and contemporary radio and television content. It is headquartered in Chicago.
Museum locations (1987–present)
The Museum of Broadcast Communications wa ...
.[ Reruns of ''The Bozo Super Sunday Show'' aired until 26 August 2001. Bozo returned to television on 24 December 2005 in a two-hour retrospective titled '' Bozo, Gar & Ray: WGN TV Classics''. The primetime premiere was #1 in the Chicago market and continues to be rebroadcast and streamed live online annually during the holiday season.
Bozo also returned to Chicago's parade scene and the WGN-TV float in 2008 as the station celebrated its 60th anniversary. He also appeared in a 2008 public service announcement alerting WGN-TV analog viewers about the upcoming switch to digital television. Bozo was played by WGN-TV staff member George Pappas. Since then, Bozo continues to appear annually in Chicago's biggest parades.
]
2010s
Few episodes from the show's first two decades survive; although some were recorded to videotape for delayed broadcasts, the tapes were reused and eventually discarded. In 2012, a vintage tape was located on the Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection website archive list by Rick Klein of The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, containing material from two 1971 episodes. WGN reacquired the tape and put together a new special entitled ''Bozo's Circus: The Lost Tape'', which aired in December 2012. Klein maintains a substantial number of Bozo tapes in his museum; WGN initially prevented Klein from sharing the tapes on the museum's YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
page but later dropped its objection, recognizing the importance of preserving the content.
On 6 October 2018, Don Sandburg, ''Bozo's Circus'' producer, writer and the last surviving original cast member, died at the age of 87. Four months later, WGN-TV paid tribute to Sandburg and the rest of the original cast with a two-hour special titled ''Bozo's Circus: The 1960s''.
2020s
Characters
^ Costume part of the Museum of Broadcast Communications' ''Bozo's Circus'' collection.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
History (fan website) of WGN-TV Chicago's Bozo show
Bozo Photo Gallery
''Chicago Tribune''
Watch
Various shorts clips and original commercial breaks from airings of ''Bozo's Circus''/''The Bozo Show''
, courtesy The Museum of Classic Chicago Television
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bozo Show, The
1960 American television series debuts
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1960s American children's comedy television series
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American television shows featuring puppetry
American English-language television shows
Local children's television programming in the United States
WGN America original programming
Television series by Tribune Entertainment
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