It's Howdy Doody Time here at SteveHoffman.tv

The 40-episode set is great. I couldn't find it when it first came out -- had to go Amazon, but now it's all over the place. I saw it at my local Target for under $20. A great deal -- now, whether one can sit through 43 of these shows, that's another thing altogether. (40 episodes plus 3 "bonus episodes")

Mostly earlier shows on the new set, with only 2 episodes repeated from the Image Entertainment DVDs. There also is a feature with interviews conducted for the Museum Of TV & Radio. Bob Smith, Bob Keeshan and Roger Muir are interviewed. That was really cool to see. Keeshan shared some good memories and I couldn't detect any "bitterness."

As far as the last show -- this does not have the "control room countdown audio" that the Image version had preceding the show, but see a previous thread for my past comments about a weird "freeze-frame" at the beginning of the second half-hour of the last show -- this is unaltered, and now I know why they did that. (It's not bad, just a minor glitch for a second or two.) I wonder if it even aired that way, because I have a copy from a B/W kinescope that had been going around years ago, and there is some issue there too.)

I missed the original show (not born yet), but I'm one of the half-dozen people who did watch the 1976 revival show (that is, when I could watch it -- half the time, I was at school when it was on)! I understand that while it bombed nationally, it did fairly well in Chicago, where it aired on WGN (home of Bozo, Ray Rayner and Garfield Goose, so Howdy would have fit right in). Everyone's right, the original show was better.

 

The 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s "Pow Wow",when played backwards,has a song called "Bring Back Howdy Doody"(Which they did in the next decade!),telling about those days..very unusual pick for a Single B-Side,indeed!

 

Even though I was a toddler in the 1950s I didn't get a chance to watch much of Howdy Doody. We couldn't receive an NBC channel until 1960, and I believe that was the last year of the show's run, IIRC.

 

How many eps are repeated between the 20 ep set and the bigger one?

 

All of the shows on the 20 episode set are on the bigger set. The 20 episode set is targeted to the Wal-Mart crowd and the bigger set for the collectors.

 

I was under the impression that they are all repeats from the larger set, and the 20-episode collection is just "highlights" of the 40-episode collection. However, I do not have the smaller set, and there are no reviews at Amazon yet, nor is there a listing of the contents. Under "Frequently Bought Together," they do suggest buying both the 20 and the 40 sets. That's Amazon for ya...

According to the descriptions, the larger collection has episodes from 1949-1954, and the smaller one has episodes from 1949-1952. The first two discs of the 40-episode set do cover that time frame. Hmmmmm...

Can anyone verify this? (I would think the shorter set would be more of an "impulse" thing than anything else, for someone curious about the show. It's a steal at $7.99, but for anyone who's really interested in the show, I would think they'd take the plunge and spend the twenty bucks for twice as many shows...yeah, maybe it's overkill, but it's selling for "peanuts" -- sorry.)

 

Which is what I just said.

 

Here's what's on the 40-episode collection. I'm going to assume the titles listed are just "descriptive" titles and are not official -- I don't remember if I got these off the DVDs themselves or from someone's ebaY listing...

DVD 1
Friendship 2/1/1949
Howdy's Big Surprise 3/8/1949
Clarabell's Practical Joke 3/16/1949
Sight 8/3/1949
Featherman 3/27/1950
Mystery Of The 5 Ls 5/1/1950
Bad Luck 6/19/1950
Fourth Of July/Secret Code 7/4/1950
Abadabazaba 7/10/1950
Beach Party 8/3/1950

DVD 2
Cartoon Strip 10/2/1950
Chief Chickapaw 11/1/1950
Surprises 3/6/1951
Teaching Clarabell A Lesson 4/2/1951
Oil Well Owner 4/6/1951
Lanky Lou 5/2/1951
Tententotube 10/1/1951
Gazinkas 10/17/1951
Grandma Bluster's Picture 11/1/1951
April Fool's Day/Wing Ding 4/1/1952

DVD 3
Mister X 6/2/1952
Mystery Of Mister X 7/1/1952
Fadoozler 10/1/1952
Election Results 11/3/1952
Mystery Bird 12/1/1952
Kids New Year's Eve 12/31/1952
Changing Island, The 1/5/1953
Cobb's General Store 1/6/1953
Horn Hunt 2/2/1953
*Chief Thunderthud 4/1/1953
(*previously issued by Image as "Mr. Bluster Is Up To His Old Tricks")

DVD 4
Mr. Bluster's Contest 5/1/53
Finnygurgle 5/26/53
Mr. Bluster's Big Announcement 6/1/53
Search For Miguel, The 7/2/53
Slam Bang Clang Clang Alarm 8/3/53
Christmas Eve/Mister Mystery 12/24/53
Whatadoodle 12/29/53
Doody Musicana 2/4/54 (B/W version of color show)
Doodyville Play 4/13/54
Missing Windy 6/7/54

DVD 5
5th Anniversary Episode 1/2/53
#1751 (8th Anniversary Episode) 12/31/54
*#2343 (Final Episode) 9/24/60 (From color videotape, the rest are B/W kinescopes)
(*previously issued by Image as "Clarabell Speaks") (The math doesn't seem to work out on the 5th and 8th anniversary shows.)

 

Sorry, was probably writing my reply while you were sending yours!

 

Interesting

 

I have that DVD set! It's great to put that on sometimes and reminisce...

 

I just came across this Luden's Cough Drops commercial that I thought you guys would like.



I think the show is terrific. I totally get why it appealed to kids at the time. I would have totally watched it.

 

Right before my time, I was born in 54, always hear about it, never saw it. What I remember is shows like Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, Bozo, and of course Micky Mouse....also WGN kids shows in the late 50's..

 

I remember turning on the TV just before 5:00, watching the test pattern before Howdy Doody came on. Beany & Cecil came on right after (or was the other way around?).

When they showed the daily "Old Time Movie", my mom told me Mickey McGuire was really Mickey Rooney. Until I got the 40-show set, I had forgotten why I knew that. Fun show.