THE CAPTAIN

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I was fresh out of college, looking to get a gig in journalism of some sort. I had been sent to the offices of CBS News, where I was to interview for what was, quite frankly, a pretty crappy job: I would be transcribing tapes of evening broadcasts. Sounds riveting, doesn’t it. I thought that perhaps it might be a foot in the door at CBS News. In retrospect, it probably wouldn’t have led to a dámņëd thing, and it’s probably better that I didn’t get the job.

In any event, I was sitting in the main lobby, waiting for the assistant to the assistant to the assistant to come down and fetch me out of there. It was late in the day. I was reading a newspaper and suddenly I heard the receptionist say, “Good night, Mr. Keeshan,” and a voice I had known since practically infancy replied, “Good night.”

I looked up and there was Bob Keeshan, not more than three feet away from me, heading out the front door.

I wanted to say something and my throat completely closed up. Not a syllable could I get out. I have no idea what I would have said–probably something stupid, or something he’d heard a million times from similar awestruck adults reduced to children in his presence. And there’s not a shred of doubt in my mind that he would have been very nice and very pleasant and very understanding because of all the times it must have happened to him.

But I said nothing, and then he was gone and out the door.

I sagged back in my chair and told myself that, if I got the job, I’d have plenty of chances to run into him once more. Except I didn’t, and more than twenty years later I never had another chance encounter with him or an opportunity to tell him face to face how much I enjoyed his show in my childhood.

Ðámņ.

I hope they drop ping pong balls at his funeral. I bet he’d love that.

PAD

40 comments on “THE CAPTAIN”

  1. Now he and Mr.Greenjeans can gather around the conveniently placed counter and make jokes with the moose puppet (I can’t remember his name anymore). I’ll bet there’ll be some pretty good cartoons.

  4. Its a shame that great guys like this are leaving us and that our kids will never experience them. Except for PBS reruns our kids only know Spongebob and other brainless entertainment.

  5. A couple of years ago, I caught something on UPN that completely blew my mind: Captain Kangaroo…except…it wasn’t the Captain that ~I~ knew.

    Some fat, balding guy in a cheap, knock-off reproduction of the REAL Captain’s trademark jacket, was on the tube. I honestly sat there with my mouth hanging open.

    I’d like to tell you that I stood and yelled to the heavens: “DEATH TO THE IMPOSTER!”, but alas, that ain’t what I did. Closer to the truth, I really sat there for a few moments, before I turned the TV off in disgust.

    The Captain was an American icon, there’s no doubt about it.

    He WILL be sorely missed.

  6. Too many times in our lives do opportunities to meet legends pass by. Between my childhood and my current geriatric age of 29, I worked at a hotel where Jerry Garcia was staying in Tempe, AZ. I’d never seen the Dead. I never will, in this life.

    The comparison may be lacking but the point is true. I can’t honestly say I can recall a single thing from when I was three and loved watching Captain Kangaroo. But I remember being three and loving to watch Captain Kangaroo. All I can hope for is that the small differences I’ve made in people’s lives will go on and touch a few more down the road. It’s special when one like him gets to touch so many lives, and know that he did make a difference in a few lives too.

  7. Prayers for his family, friends. But we can be thankful that he has touched all of our lives in some way helping to shape who we are today. Just like Fred Rogers.

    Chris

  8. I, too, had a missed chance to meet the Captain.

    I’m originally from Knoxville, Tennessee, and, about seventeen years ago, he visited the city to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our library system.

    I really wanted to shake hands with him, and tell him, with all honesty, that the only people who had more influence on who I turned out to be were relatives and maybe a few teachers.

    I got there to hear him speak,

    but, sadly, I had misunderstood the schedule, and he was only having a “receiving line” before he spoke. I got an autographed picture, but I didn’t get to meet the man who’s work I had long enjoyed.

    Yes, though, PAD is right: there must be ping-pong balls at the funeral.

  9. I have to say: Speaking as an Australian; and not knowing who you were talking about until I read through some of the comments; it strikes me as strange that ‘Captain Kangaroo’ is referred to as an ‘American Icon’.

    I don’t deny that he’s American. It just sounds weird to these Aussie ears 🙂

  10. i grew up on this show. i almost always missed the school bus in the morning because i was glued to this show. bunny rabbit was my favorite. he will be missed

  12. Captain Kangaroo was one of my “must see” shows to watch when I was a child in the 60’s. I reached a point where, like many children, I felt I’d “outgrown” him and stopped watching.

    Then we got our first color television. Captain Kangaroo was in color! It was like rediscovering an old friend and I didn’t feel silly that I was enjoying it while I was in Junior High and High School. The times that I caught the show as I got older were wonderfully refreshing moments that seemed to let me get away from day to day concerns for just a little while.

    Definitely ping-pong balls at the funeral.

  13. What makes me happy to remember is that Mr. Keeshan had such longevity. The fact that people of different generations could have similar childhood experiences with the same man, the same show…it gives me goosebumps.

    Maybe he and Mr. Rogers are kicking back together right about now…

  14. I remember the sense of whimsy in the Captain’s shows. The intro music to the show wouldn’t stop until the Captain fished out a key ring (with a diameter big as a small plate) out of a large jacket pocket and hung them on a hook in the upper right corner of the desk where characters like Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose (the latter, the one who suffered the ping pong ball attack that came after the telling of a ‘knock,knock’ joke) played.

    One episode, the Captain would put the key ring on the hook… then lifted it again, which got the music to start again. He did this a few times, like any kid who’d discovered a causal link.

    Whimsy. That was the Captain.

    George Guay

  15. As someone else pointed out, I can remember very little about what happened on the Captain’s show but I do remember watching it religiously.

    I find it strange that while the quality of cartoons has improved by a quantum leap over those of the 60s and 70s, the live action shows have all but vanished.

  16. Thirded on the ping-pong balls: it seems only sporting.

    Losing the Captain and Mr. Rogers in the same twelve-month period … eesh. What are OUR kids gonna have to remember?

    TWL

  17. I work at a San Francisco radio station. About 8 years ago, The Captain was promoting his book and was a guest on one of the talk shows. I was walking down the hall when I noticed Captain Kangaroo walking toward me. My mood lifted and before I knew it, I was shaking hands with THE Captain Kangaroo.

    With a big dopey grin on my face, I said the usual “I loved your show Captain, I watched it all the time!”

    He gave me an odd look. Then his face lit up. “I remember you!” He pointed at my beard. “But you didn’t have that back then, did you?” He patted me on the shoulder and moved on.

    For an instant, I was that skinny little five-year-old again…who had just met Captain Kangaroo.

  18. Jose – that’s a great memory – I envy you.

    I always loved mornings with the Captain. Mr. Green Jeans, Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit, and Dancing Bear (who, I think, made an appearance on Angel this week) were wonderful supporting characters.

    I said on another board that I pictured the Captain being greeted at the Pearly Gates by a shower of ping pong balls. 🙂

    Peace to you, Captain.

  20. About 12 of us were sitting around at a Chinese buffet on Saturday, when it occurred to me that one of the saddest things about the Captain’s passing is that he was REAL. That is to say, not a guy (or gal) in a Bharni suit, or someone dressed up like a big yellow bird or even Bozo the clown, clad head to toe in loud clothing and make-up so as to be possibly almost any graduate of the Acme Clown School.

    No, he was real, as was Mr. Greenjeans. As was Shari Lewis, as was Fred Rogers.

    And real people leave their marks on the world and make us laugh and cry.

    I still remember the Second City parody of Captain Commando, Mr. Green Fatigues and Gunny Rabbit.

    Across several dozen years. people still remember.

    Rest in peace Bob.

    You will live forever in our hearts

  21. For some reason (maybe it wasn’t carried locally when I was the right age), I never even heard of Mister Rogers until college in ’78 when there was a brief fad of imitating his “Can you say [] boys and girls?”. And Sesame Street started a few years too late for me to have gotten into it.

    Ah, but Captain Kangaroo. Some smartass puppets (Mr. Moose and Bunny Rabbit) and a cartoon which may have had a fair amount of influence on little me. Namely, Tom Terrific. That and the Tom Swift Jr. books also coming out at the time clearly had an attraction to me due to my first name. And while Tom T.’s power was really shape-changing, to do so he had to put on a “Thinking Cap” and, well, think. Which may have influenced me into becoming the intellectual type I did.

    Yes, definitely ping-pong balls and ushers dressed as dancing bears. But wrap up the ceremony with the voice of Might Manfred the Wonder Dog saying “Let’s go home.”

  24. “B – H – A – R – N – I” ?!?

    I remember when he got the new Treasure House door, with a whole bunch of little doors in it.

    Wasn’t there a character named Fred who only appeared on The Captain’s TV set’s Channel 1? Or was that Tom Terrific?

    I also recall a song about different-colored taxis and their different-sounding horns (“… a purple one >eh-eh<“).

  25. I read somewhere, not sure of the source since it has been some years now, but he was also a Marine and awarded for his actions during WWII; most specifically on Iwo Jima.

    Not only was he famous for his TV show (in the states at least), but he also knew about self sacrifice.

  26. Sorry, Steve, but Mr. Keeshan at Iwo Jima is an urban legend…

    Keeshan, later famous as television’s “Captain Kangaroo,” also enlisted in the U.S. Marines, but too late to see any action during World War II. Keeshan was born on 27 June 1927 and enlisted two weeks before his 18th birthday, months too late to have taken part in the fighting at Iwo Jima. A 1997 interview with Keeshan noted that he “later enlisted in the U.S. Marines but saw no combat” because, as Keeshan said, he signed up “just before we dropped the atom bomb.”

    From: http://www.snopes.com/military/keeshan.htm

  27. I was the star of my first grade class when, against my teacher’s expectations, I was actually able to clearly and confidently spell Mississippi and Massachusetts correctly. And I couldn’t even read yet. To this day, I still have to spell them the Captain Kangaroo way, sung: “M-A-S-S-A-C-H-U-S-E-Double T-S”. I’ve even been known to do it out loud. Scary. Sure wish I could remember the rest of the jingle….

  28. I remember the Captain well from my childhood. He will always have a special place in my heart. As Tim said, “What are OUR kids gonna have to remember?”

    I too the horrible UPN copy of Captain Kangaroo and hated it because it wasn’t MY Captain Kangaroo. It catered to the kids that watched that dámņ purple dinosaur in my opinion.

    Bob Keeshan also hosted CBS Storybreak, which did cartoon adaptations of children’s books. Keeshan also said some things in the series that he hoped would encourage children to read.

    He will be missed. I hope that it rains ping pong balls at his funeral. I also hope Mister Moose gives a good eulogy. (I know I spelled that last word wrong, but I’m sure the meaning comes across to all out there.)

    JHL

  29. Re: Fred on channel 1. You might be thinking of Tom Terrific’s pet, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog.

  30. Add mine as another missed opportunity to say thank you to our dear Captain.

    We was doing a book promotion in LA, and I was managing the store across the way. I watched him for a good hour, never being able to muster up the words that could adequately tell him what he’d meant to my generation.

    But what struck me was this: it wasn’t the little children who were interacting with him that day. It was their parents, the men and women my age, who were in awe–some of them quite giddy–in the presence of this gentle man.

    And now the Captain is gone. I’m getting misty just writing this.

  31. Oh yeah, Ping pong balls would definitely be fitting.

    Now he and Mr.Greenjeans can gather around the conveniently placed counter and make jokes with the moose puppet (I can’t remember his name anymore).

    Mr. Moose was the name of the moose puppet.

    You know, CBS is sitting on top of a goldmine. I don’t usually buy DVDs, but if they’d put out the “Captain Kangaroo show” on DVD I’d buy each and everyone. Something to show my kids what REAL kids television is about.

    wonder if I could get a petition or email drive to get that going:?

  32. Same thing happened when I bumped into Kevin Smith. I regret not saying anything at all. My only hope now is too become one of his contemporaries and meet him then. The only problem them is I cant gush.

  33. >>Wasn’t there a character named Fred who only appeared on The Captain’s TV set’s Channel 1? Or was that Tom Terrific?<<

    Actually, Tom and Raymond, there WAS a character named Fred who interacted with the Captain on a television monitor, mounted on a wall. Visually, I remember him as looking like a cross between Tom Terrific, Mr. Bubble, and, coincidentally enough, Fred Flintstone from very, VERY early episodes of ‘The Flintstones’! Fred’s body was more minimalist than a Hirschfield caricature! Basically, he was a rotund outline with stubby arms and legs, a face, and a mop of hair a la Tom Terrific. His body would squash and stretch for emphasis when he talked, and jiggle when he laughed ( which was frequently ) . What absolutely fascinated me, as a six-year-old….in a ‘how-are-they-DOING-that?‘ sort of way….was that Fred ‘existed’ in ‘real time’!! He was an animated character having a conversation LIVE with The Captain!! No, it wasn’t a pre-recorded image….Fred and The Captain would overlap and interrupt each other, comment on gaffes the other would make… basically, dialogue as real as an Altman movie!! If the technology existed back then, the closest explanation I could possibly come up with would be something along the lines of: ‘motion capture suit’!!!

    And, no, all you Crabby Appletons and BushWhacks out there….I’m NOT thinking of Tom Terrific or Mighty Manfred, The Wonder Dog! My memories….still having an impact nearly forty years later….are distinctive between the incomparable T.T. and the inimitable Fred!!

    Just how the Hëll DID they do that, anyway??

    Hooper

  34. Now that you’ve got me thinking about it, there are a quite a few ‘regular’ segments of the original ‘Captain Kangaroo’ show that the decades just can’t displace.

    The Banana Man: a clown who did sleight-of-hand ( with bananas as props, naturally ) and ‘scarves’ types of magic tricks. His only dialogue was to punctuate his illusions with a falsetto “Ohhhhhhh” or “Ah-aahhhhh!”!

    `Not to be confused, however, with…..

    The Town Clown, who was a silent, Emmett Kelly / Buster Keaton – type figure.

    Say, speaking of which, can anybody verify for me that The Town Clown was portrayed by none other than Bob Keeshan himself?

    Hooper

  35. Hooper,

    First, Mr. Keeshan was indeed the Town Clown.

    And if you want to know how they did the Fred stuff in real time you can go to http://www.tvparty.com/lostterrytoons.html. They have a tribute to the Captain there and in tells all about his career and the show. I can’t believe I forgot about the Dancing Bear and Lariat Sam. God, I miss that show!

  37. Speaking of regulars, how about Dancing Bear? Someone in a kind of bear suit would come, gliding across the stage, to start a pas de deux with Mr. Greenjeans (urban myth: no, he wasn’t Frank Zappa’s father…) or the Captain.

    George Guay

  38. The real tragedy is, if Mr. Keeshan were to try to get a job in TV today, no one would hire him.

    (Allow me to step on this here soapbox for a moment.)

    In Keeshan’s time, broadcasters believed they were serving the public. They did shows like the Captain’s, and local versions of similar shows, because they felt an obligation to the public who gave them permission to use the people’s airwaves. And they did so, quite often losing money in the process, because they felt that obligation.

    Now that big business runs broadcasting, and they don’t have to justify their public service to the government or the public, they don’t care. In fact, children’s programming has rapidly disappeared on free TV, and it may disappear into cable channels in about five years. Why entertain kids on their way to school…or after…when they can make a few pennies shilling crap products on infomercials?

    And are you electing people who support this situation? Or do you even care what gets broadcast on the airwaves that you, the public, own?

    (Okay. Off the soapbox.)

  39. Thomas,

    Sorry to have to disagree with you, but altruism was far from the only reason Bob Keeshan got his own kids show. If you read the history of television then you’ll know that Mr. Keeshan came along at a time when most programs were locally produced anyway, and the tv stations had a lot of air time to fill but few programs. the networks were fledgling and most of their stars had actually crossed over from radio (jack Benny, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, etc.)

    Further more, even by yesteryear’s standards, the Captain’s show was cheap in it’s early years. It took several years for the Captain to take the Treasure house national, and it enjoyed a 29 year run on CBS after that.

  40. Some memories of the Captain:

    waking up early (before I even went to school)and my dad making me a warm milk before he went to work, waiting for “Treasure House” to come on,watching reruns of “The People’s Choice” (starring Cleo the basset hound)on old Ch.4 in NY

    The songs– “How much is that Dogie in the Window?”,”Please Mr. Custer”, and my favorite “Swing on a Star”

    Lariat Sam’s horse:Tippy-Toes

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