The Incredible Inman: 'Captain Kangaroo' previously served as 'Mister Mayor' on Saturday mornings
Question: I have several extremely important questions about “Captain Kangaroo.” First, what was the name of the blobby guy who lived inside the Magic Drawing Board or whatever that screen was? Second, I remember the cartoons with Tom Terrific, but there was another Western cartoon with a character whose name I can't remember. Third, wasn't the guy who played the Captain also on some kind of Saturday-morning show for a while?
Answer: Fred was the blobby guy, who could only be seen on channel one, which apparently could only be tuned in by the Captain at the Treasure House. Fred began appearing on “Captain Kangaroo” in 1965.
The Western cartoon character was Lariat Sam, whose horse was named Tippy Toes. He first appeared on the show in 1962.
And Bob Keeshan, who played Captain Kangaroo, was also the star of “Mister Mayor,” which ran Saturday mornings on CBS from 1964 to 1965. Keeshan also did pantomime bits on that show in a regular sketch called “The Town Clown.”
Q: There was a TV program from the 1970s, I think it was from England, about a group of kids about 5, 6 or 7 being filmed and interviewed during their everyday lives. Then, seven years later, they went back and filmed and interviewed them again, then again after seven more years. I did not see any more of this program after that. Do you know if it was dropped or any information on the people in the program?
A: What you saw is part of a series of BBC documentaries that began with “Seven Up!” in 1963, which focused on a group of 7-year-old children in working-class England. One of the researchers on that documentary, Michael Apted, has gone on to film a documentary about this group every seven years. The most recent one, “56 Up,” premiered last year and is in limited theatrical release in America. It should show up on Netflix or pay cable sometime soon.
Q: In a recent column, you responded to the reader who asked about “a movie that was based on the JFK assassination and the idea of a second gunman” in which “an investigator uncovers a Jeep (?) in a remote desert area, and in the vehicle he finds human remains, I think, and a rifle identical to the one used in Dallas.” You said it sounds like the 1973 film “Executive Action.” I am virtually certain that it was the 1984 film “Flashpoint,” which starred Kris Kristofferson as the border agent who discovers a jeep wrecked in 1963 in the Texas border country, and he is the one who holds up the rifle and cries out, “Who were you?” It was a really riveting, suspenseful story and a movie I thoroughly enjoyed.
A: It sure sounds like that's the one. Thanks!
Q: I was born in 1981, and my mom named me Nicki after a character on a TV show. It was a soap-type drama about a college town. Can you tell me the title and when it ran?
A: Methinks it was “Secrets of Midland Heights,” which ran on CBS from 1980 to 1981. The cast included Lorenzo Lamas, Linda Hamilton and Melora Hardin as Micki Carroll!
Q: Many years ago, I saw a TV movie starring the dreamy Monte Markham. It was called, as best I remember, “The Astronaut.” Do you remember it? I have searched high and low and can't find it on video anywhere. Can you help?
A: Monte Markham just called from the assisted living facility and said thanks for referring to him as “dreamy.”
That 1972 TV movie also stars Jackie Cooper, Robert Lansing and Susan Clark, and it's not yet on video.
Q: I'm a huge James Garner fan and when I tell people about the TV series where he played a character who was murdered in the last episode, no one believes me. Can you set everyone else in the world straight on this one?
A: Yes. Dear Everyone Else in the World: There was a TV series called “James Garner as Nichols,” which aired on NBC from 1971 to 1972. The star was, um, James Garner. The show was set in Arizona in 1912. Garner played an Army veteran, no-first-name Nichols, who came home to find the family's land had been stolen by the Ketcham family, who ruled the town with an iron (or at least aluminum) hand.
Nichols becomes the town sheriff and tries to outwit the Ketchams because he is a reluctant fighter. When the show failed to catch on, the kindly Nichols was killed (in the second-to-last episode of that season) and replaced by his twin brother, a more action-oriented type called no-first-name Nichols, also played by, um, Garner. The show was canceled nonetheless.
Q: I have a question about a movie with a giant bald man searching a desert city looking for a certain woman. Is it on DVD?
A: That is the cult classic “Mr. Clean Gets Mad.”
No, just joshing.
Because I'm kind of an idiot savant (emphasis on idiot) about these things, may I direct your attention to 1957's “The Amazing Colossal Man,” with Glenn Langan in the title role, wearing a big diaper because no one, not even the Big and Tall Store, makes pants for a 50-foot guy, and Cathy Downs as the woman in question.
It's on DVD.
Write David Inman in care of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, 525 W. Broadway, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431; or email him at incredibleinman@yahoo.com. Questions of general interest will be answered; personal replies are not possible.
