TFTP Kids: "Howdy Doody" from NBC (Jul. 2, 1948)

Kids' shows like "Howdy Doody" that aired daily on weekdays often had a structure similar to soap operas in which a continuing storyline would carry over from one day to the next. Many such storylines on "Howdy Doody" involved villain Phineas T. Bluster, as in this episode where Bluster has an ongoing threat to take over Doodyville unless Howdy and Buffalo Bob give him 500 marbles a day. Here, they offer to provide 500 marbles worth of entertainment per day instead, with Bluster willing to give that scheme a tryout. (Sometimes, the logic of these ongoing storylines made about as much sense as in soap operas.)

"Howdy Doody" was the iconic children's program of early television, starting on NBC in the fall of 1947 and continuing until 1960. Each day's half-hour episode included a few short scenes advancing the current storyline as well as some musical numbers--always kicked off by the "peanut gallery" (the audience of kids in the studio) singing "It's Howdy Doody Time". Later this same year, Howdy Doody "ran" for president for the first of several times--a canny storyline that both played on current events and helped propel the "Howdy Doody" show's popularity.

"Buffalo" Bob Smith, once a radio DJ before coming to Doodyville, hosted the proceedings, joined by a mute Clarabell the Clown (played in the early years by Bob Keeshan, soon to become another iconic kids' show host, Captain Kangaroo) and an assortment of other human sidekicks. A variety of marionette puppets led by the vaguely Western-themed Howdy Doody filled out the non-human cast of the show.

TFTP Game Shows: "What's My Line?" w/ debut of Fred Allen as panelist, from CBS (Aug. 15, 1954)

Posted to YouTube by user 'What's My Line?'

"What's My Line?" was one of the most durable and popular prime-time game shows of the 1950s and 1960s (it ran from 1950-67, with a syndicated version then continuing until 1975). The four-person panel (which from early in the show's run included Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen, and Bennett Cerf) guessed the profession/vocation of contestants, with one celebrity mystery guest (for which the panelists were blindfolded, so as not to recognize the person) thrown into each episode.

The show was thought to have hit its stride only around the time of this episode, the first with fourth panelist Fred Allen, the great radio comedian. Allen had a legendary wit that is evident in his exchanges here, and although he never really adapted well to television, his run as a "What's My Line?" panelist may be his TV high-point.

This episode's mystery guest, "Buffalo" Bob Smith, host of the iconic "Howdy Doody" kids show (that was in the heart of its 1947-60 TV run at this time), has some fun with Allen, too, at one point doing a Fred Allen impression as one of his voice-disguising gambits. (Mystery guests usually disguised their voices as well, so panelists wouldn't be able to ID them that way.) Overall, in addition to being a landmark episode with Allen's debut, it's a good example of a typical mid-1950s "What's My Line?" episode.