Episode 306: Howdy Doody (November 1, 1950)

What I watched: A 1950 episode of children’s puppet show Howdy Doody., created by Roger Muir. The series starred “Buffalo” Bob Smith as the host and voice of the puppets and Bob Keeshan as Clarabell, with additional voices by Dayton Allen, Rhoda Mann and Bill LeCornec (although I’m not sure who played this episode’s guest character). This episode was directed by Bob Rippen and written by Ed Kean. It aired on November 1 at 5:30 PM on NBC and is available to view on the Internet Archive.

What happened: After the customary opening song, Howdy regales us with “the Howdy Doody Rumba”, including a couple of culturally questionable “ay carumba”s. We then launch into this week’s mystery, as “Chief Chickapaw” was drawing a picture of his “Indian Reservation” and inadvertently revealed something. This leads to a tableau of the chief being held hostage by Buffalo Bob and Clarabell. Bob thinks the Chief was drawing a map of the Howdy Doody Circus instead, and his suspicions are soon confirmed.

Bob can’t believe this script either.

The extremely European-sounding Chief says that he was drawing the picture as a gift, and only didn’t want to show it because it wasn’t ready. Bob seems to buy this completely. The Chief signs the picture with a “T” instead of a “C”, which gets Bob’s suspicions going again. Bob tries to relate him to the other Native American characters they’ve had on the show. This leads into another song on the piano, “The Friend Song.”

Chief says he needs a little more time to finish his work, which leads into today’s old time movie, which involves a couple of dudes trying to catch a horse while hanging from a harness. Chickapaw explains how his warpaint is very significant, which leads into Buffalo Bob encouraging kids to get the Howdy Doody colouring book, where kids can draw their own face on the last panel. Howdy appears with an unsettling-looking parrot puppet, and sings to encourage kids to get their parents to buy things.

The Chief is finished with his very simple drawing, and says that his tribe, the Chigoochies, were caught in a conflict between the Sigafoose and Tinka Tonka. Not sure these are historically accurate names. Apparently there’s also a princess with a magic necklace in there. Clarabell sprinkles water on the drawing to simulate the upcoming rainy season. The Chief ultimately decides he’s going to help “the Feather Man” and the Sigafooses, as it’s easier to attack downhill in the rain. He presents Bob and Howdy with a ceremonial necklace, but ends up giving it to Mr. Buster instead.

Bob goes over to the “Shoedoodle” to advertise an array of Poll-Parrot children’s shoes, including “really rugged he-man Oxford, like dad wears.” He reflects on the episode’s events, and finds it strange that the Chief gave beads to Mr. Buster. The camera pans down to find the Chief writing in his notebook, with Suspense organ music playing. What a gripping cliffhanger, a shame we’ll never see the ending.

What I thought: Look, I genuinely don’t go into these articles looking to condemn 73-year-old TV shows for being racially insensitive, because it’s a waste of time. But I don’t think you need to be a social justice warrior to be a little uncomfortable with the appearance of the nefarious “Chief Chickapaw” in Howdy Doody. The series seems to have created a whole cosmology of made-up “Indians”, rendering them as a kind of fantasy world. It makes The Lone Ranger look like Reservation Dogs.

The plot of the episode is that Chickenfoot is being suspicious but the credulous Bob and Howdy buy into everything he’s saying, believing he’s going to be friendly. This requires the Chief being shady in a way that will be detectable by small children, resulting in Howdy and Bob looking like total idiots. It’s an interesting tack, making the children’s show host an unreliable narrator, but it also has the effect of training kids to see Indigenous people as untrustworthy even if they seem to be benevolent.

This is like the map at the start of a fantasy book.

But, as always, the main purpose of Howdy Doody is to sell shit to kids. At this point the ads and merchandise have metastasized to take over a big portion of the show. Howdy is largely separated from the main action, sitting at his piano to play songs from the recent record, also featured on Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Today’s main sponsor, Poll Pocket Shoes, now has its own puppet and set, blending into the larger action.

Obviously every show on traditional television depends on advertising. As a medium, it exists to sell shit. But there’s something especially uncomfortable when Buffalo Bob urges young kids to ask their parents to buy them a particular model of shoe. Together with the Native American stuff, all of this makes this episode of Howdy Doody a very weird and somewhat insidious watch.

Coming up next: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie plan to put on a show for a visiting humourist.

Episode 63 – Howdy Doody (August 3, 1949)

What I watched: The August 3, 1949 episode of Howdy Doody. This episode would have aired in the afternoon on NBC, and is available to view on the Internet Archive. The episode starred “Buffalo” Bob Smith as the voice of Howdy and guest host “Rodeo” Ray, whom I have been able to find absolutely zero information about.  Bob Keeshan co-starred as Clarabell, while Ed Kean wrote the episode and Bob Rippen is credited with directed. The series was created by Smith and E. Roger Muir directing.

One girl is NOT having it.

What happened: Buffalo Bob is absent, replaced by fill-in host Rodeo Ray. He seems a lot younger and more eager, with little of Bob’s barely-suppressed hatred. He uses a ukulele to lead the Peanut Gallery in a truly ear-melting version of the theme song.

Howdy sings a song about looking both ways when you cross the street. Rodeo Ray invites two kids, apparently friends, onto the set. The boy has come all the way from Alabama to watch this shit. In order to further demonstrate the importance of “using your eyes”, Ray blindfolds the boy and allows him to pick a prize, while the girl gets to pick with her eyes open. The boy ends up with a rolled-up newspaper and the girl gets a Howdy Doody hand-puppet. Thus, through the use of mild S&M and psychological experimentation, children have learned not to cross the street blindfolded.

Buster, the villainous Mayor (?) comes by to demand his daily payment of 500 marbles. We first saw this plot way back in 1948, but Howdy is still deep in the red. Like any good gangster, Buster also takes payment in goods, and demands the Scopedoodle’s curtains in lieu of the marbles which Howdy doesn’t have. You would think that, being Kid President, Howdy’s authority would override Buster’s, but evidently my grasp of the legal system is slipping. Our puppet friends tries to think of something else he can use to pay his debt

This is followed by another old silent film comedy, this one starring Harry Langdon as an unlucky newlywed who gets “shanghaied” onto a merchant ship. One of the kids (possibly our friend Billy from Alabama, a born heckler) interjects to say he’d like to be burned with fire. It’s cute in context, I swear.

The puppet doesn’t get any less creepy when it dances.

After the movie, Buster is back. Ray decides to teach him a cowboy trick with a handkerchief as a form of payment. Clarabell attempts to do the same trick, and only gets manages to get himself tied up. It’s a fairly simple trick to tie a knot with one motion, but still sort of neat. With that, Howdy’s debt is reduced to 1500 marbles — enough so that it can be paid off the next Monday, when Buffalo Bob comes back. Howdy sings and dances, and it’s time to say goodbye.

What I thought: This episode’s content is the typical Howdy Doody banality, and as such it’s mostly interesting as an example of what the show looked like with a different host. Rodeo Ray’s true identity may have been lost to the ravages of time, but he acquits himself pretty well in this half-hour. He has a nice, calming voice, and actually develops a rapport with the audience, with the kids evidently feeling comfortable enough to shout interjections during the movie that liven up the usually awkward narration. Indeed, if Bob didn’t pretty much own the show, his position might be in trouble.

This does raise the practical issue: who was the voice of Howdy in this episode? Did Buffalo Bob pre-record the dialogue before he went off on vacation? That’s certainly possible  — there are no extended conversations between Howdy and Ray, and from the little I know of Bob Smith he seems like the type to micromanage the show when he was away. Certainly, any kind of spontaneity created by the presence of children is minor at best, and you could easily script out a couple weeks of episodes ahead of time. Smith usually recorded the voice of Howdy anyway, so it wouldn’t be a radical departure. (If it was a different voice, it was a pretty exact copy.)

Speaking of the script, it displays the same fixation on debt and repayment that has characterized past Howdy Doody episodes. There’s an incongruent sense of desperation to the plot of Howdy’s dept to Buster. We see various parts of the set put in hock to the banker, with big signs announcing they’re his property. Even when Howdy has no more marbles (currency) to pay, he is forced to slowly give up parts of his workplace, becoming increasingly unable to even hypothetically pay back the loan. The bank, it turns out, is willing to take anything, even his knowledge. By the end of the episode, it appears there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but Howdy has heard that before. Steinbeck couldn’t write a better indictment of capitalism.

As I’ve noted, this type of plot is very understandable coming from writers who had just survived the Great Depression and the rationing of World War II. One wonders, however, what the young audience thought of it. Did they understand the world of capitalism as one of endless debt and suffering, or did they simply swear to themselves to be prudent and always cross the street? Did the miserly economics of Howdy Doody plant the seeds for Reaganomics? Probably not. But, at the very least, the depressing logic underneath the seemingly low-stakes conflicts of the show didn’t hurt it’s popularity.

Coming up next: It’s back to the front, as D-Day approaches.