Transcript

How Howdy Doody Changed Children's TV Forever #sponsored

From Biographics · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 29 min · 4,466 words · 36 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "How Howdy Doody Changed Children's TV Forever #sponsored", an episode of Biographics published December 24, 2025 (29 min, about 4,466 words). It mentions 11 people, works and ideas, including Bob Smith, Peanut Gallery, Howdy Doody, Clarabel the Clown, Fluba Dub.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: American Broadcasting Corporation, Bob Smith, National Broadcasting Corporation, Squarespace
  2. – 10:00: Squarespace, Bob Smith, Clarabel the Clown, Frank Paris
  3. – 15:00: Bob Smith
  4. – 20:00: Peanut Gallery, Clarabel the Clown
  5. – 25:00: Peanut Gallery, Bob Smith, Fluba Dub
  6. – 28:40: Bob Smith, Edward Keane, Fluba Dub

Notable quotes from "How Howdy Doody Changed Children's TV Forever #sponsored"

  • This video is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform. More about them later in the video. If one was to travel backwards in time to the late 1940s, they would find the world of broadcast television in the.
    about Squarespace · at
  • Began using the anglicized version of Schmidt as his last name, calling himself Smiling Bob Smith. Adept at creating numerous voices and accents, he introduced several characters on his radio broadcasts, voicing them himself.
    about Bob Smith · at
  • Were the creation of Eddie Keane. Keen created the character of the mute clown Clarabel the clown as well as the popular character Princess Summerfall Winterpring for his…
    about Clarabel the Clown · at
  • Howdy Duty as a marionette, reacting to both other marionets and with humans, he turned to puppet master Frank Paris.
    about Frank Paris · at
  • One of the most important and innovative aspects of the show was the in-house audience of children called the Peanut Gallery. And suddenly I realized that when my father would…
    about Peanut Gallery · at
  • NBC switchboards and those of affiliate stations. It seems the original story line featuring Fluba Dub claimed the strange creature ate only flowers. What type of flowers were…
    about Fluba Dub · at
  • Movies and television appearances, including on Happy Days, appropriately for an icon of the 1950s. Edward Keane left Howdy Duty in 1955 and for a while worked as a stock…
    about Edward Keane · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

  • American Broadcasting Corporation — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Most of them located in the eastern part of the country. There were only three national networks. the American Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, and something called the Dumont Network.
  • National Broadcasting Corporation — Company · 1 mention · first at
    National networks. the American Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, and something called the Dumont Network.
  • Columbia Broadcasting System — Company · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

This video is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform. More about them later in the video. If one was to travel backwards in time to the late 1940s, they would find the world of broadcast television in the United States to be completely different than what exists today. Television stations were few and far between, with most of them located in the eastern part of the country. There were only three national networks. the American Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, and something called the Dumont Network.

Both NBC and Dant had parent companies which manufactured television sets, which is the oldtimey word for TV. You learn something every day, kids. Come on. Everyone knows what a TV is called. ABC originated as a radio network owned and operated by NBC and was known then as NBC Blue Network. The Columbia Broadcast System, today's CBS, had existed as a radio network since the 1920s, but it did not begin television broadcasting until late spring in 1948. Even then, with fewer than two dozen television stations in existence throughout the United States, a marketing juggernaut had emerged among the limited number of newly created programs being aired for public consumption. Like the majority of early television programs, it had been derived from an earlier presentation aired over radio. Unlike many of the shows which emerged in the ensuing years, it did not rely on airing old movies or on amateur

hours, which were early versions of what later became known as reality television. It introduced new animated characters, marionets, which interacted with human characters, all living in a fictional universe. It included a live audience composed of children which performed on Q as part of the show. From 1947 until 1960 when it went off the air, the show announced its presence with the question, "Say kids, what time is it?" followed by the onstage audience shouting, "It's howdy duty time." The children in the audience then enthusiastically sang the program's theme song set to the tune of the popular diddy to Ra Boom Da. A short excerpt of the song goes.

By the time CBS began television broadcasting in May 1948, it faced a children's program which gained popularity with each new station joining NBC. It was a broadcasting phenomenon with advertisers paying the network large fees to hawk their products on the show. It was also a production fraught with considerable rancor among the creators, performers, crew, and network executives. Ranker, which included reports of sexual innuendo, and improprieties. Oh my. Theft of creative ideas, vandalism, trademark violations, false advertising, and others. So, you know, another day in the business, I guess.

Here is its story. Howdy, duty time. Welcome back to Biographics. I'm your host, Eric Malikite, and today's video was written by Larry Hollesworth. So, be sure to show him some love in the comments as you do all the things that help keep the Eldrich beast, that is the YouTube algorithm, happy. Let's get to it. Robert Eml Schmidt was born in Buffalo, New York on November 27th, 1917. He spent his youth in Buffalo, attended high school there, and developed an interest in music, performing locally in a group calling themselves the Highat Trio. The trio failed to develop a large audience locally, though some accounts have them performing in New York City at the behast of Kate Smith. True or not, income from musical performances was insufficient to make a living, and Bob returned to radio, first at Buffalo's WGA. And then at the same city's WBN.

While working his shows in Buffalo, Bob began using the anglicized version of Schmidt as his last name, calling himself Smiling Bob Smith. Adept at creating numerous voices and accents, he introduced several characters on his radio broadcasts, voicing them himself. One of these was in a recurring skit from the fictional TripleB Ranch, whom he introduced as Howdy Duty. WBEN had the advantage of both being fed programs from NBC radio in New York and feeding back programs of its own to the parent company. In 1946, Smith moved to NBC in New York as an early morning host on WNBC. He continued calling himself Smile and Bob and broadcast his Howdy Duty character in occasional segments during his morning show. At that time, Howdy Duty consisted of nothing more than a voice and a backstory, though several supporting characters had been introduced. In fact, Howdy Dudy was not yet the character's name. His name was

Elmer, who lived on the Triple B ranch and was not exactly a mental giant. Whenever Elmer was introduced on the show, his stock response was to say, "Howdy duty, Mr. Smith." He was presented as a circus rouseabout or rube. By early 1947, NBC's then chief of programming, Warren Wade, wanted a children's show to take up airtime and attract advertisers for children's products. He saw the seeds of a children's show in Bomb Smith's Howdy Duty segments, and he asked one of NBC's writers to join him in a meeting with Smith to redevelop the character for television. Wade recognized that television being a visual medium would require a visual representation of Howdy Duty. He decided the best visual means to achieve this, at least as far as expenses go, would be through the use of marionets. If you want your business to leave a lasting impact on your niche, like Howdy Dudy did for children's entertainment, then you're going to need

a snazzy website. And the sponsor for today's video, Squarespace, has you covered. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform perfect for entrepreneurs and hobbyists alike. Recently, I needed to make a simple website for a tabletop RPG I'm developing and play testing to make looking through the rule book easier. And it was beyond simple to add sections, format, and even incorporate my existing knowledge of CSS and HTML. Though, you don't need any knowledge in that area at all. And it's all thanks to Squarespace's innovative Fluid Engine.

The Fluid Engine makes it easier than ever for pretty much anyone to dive in and make a beautiful website. Answer a few questions about the goals you'd like to accomplish with your site, choose a template, and get dragging and dropping elements onto your template. Drag and drop technology is included in every Squarespace site. But that's not all because if you're working on a long-term project like the tabletop RPG I just mentioned, Squarespace makes it easy for you to create membersonly content for your community. Monetize your projects by selling access to online courses, blogs, videos, and memberships. Start with a fully customizable website and earn recurring revenue by gating your content behind a payw wall. Simply set the price and choose whether to charge a onetime fee or subscription for access.

And then use Squarespace email campaigns to make it easy for you to spread the word about your project, engage clients, promote your services, and grow your business. Plus, if you're as busy as I am, you can even set up email automations to stay connected, nurture leads, and save time. Ready to get started? Head to squarespace.com/bioraphics for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code biographics to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Now, back to the video. There is no question that the character of Howdy Dudy arose from the mind of Bob Smith. However, the concept of the show, its many characters and storylines, most of its music, and many of its story arcs were the creation of Eddie Keane. Keen created the character of the mute clown Clarabel the clown as well as the popular character Princess Summerfall Winterpring for his character Chief Thunderthod. Keen coined a single word

greeting cowabunga. The word has found many other uses in the years since. I'm sure you can guess at a few or one in particular. It was also Keen who conceived the story arc in which Howdy Dudy ran for president in 1948 after less than one year on television. Viewers were asked to send in mail-in votes on postcards. Official ballots were supplied by a major advertiser for the show, Wonderbread, which included ballots in the wrapping of the loaves of their product. Kids who wished to send in an official ballot had to beg their parents to buy Wonderbread if they weren't already. Wonderbread profited from increased sales while NBC was able to increase advertising rates. One of the many campaign slogans was vote for a real puppet, which is pretty damn funny.

Actually, the presidential campaign was so successful from the point of view of the show's creators that it was repeated in 1952. Keen remained with the show until 1955, after which he worked in several different positions, including writing the stories for several Howdy Duty books and comics. During his tenure with the show, he wrote over 2,000 episodes, over 150 songs, and helped create numerous characters. Possibly his biggest contribution to the show, as regarded through the passing of years, is that it was he who changed Smile and Bob to Buffalo Bob.

When Warren Wade decided to present Howdy Duty as a marionette, reacting to both other marionets and with humans, he turned to puppet master Frank Paris. Paris had created a collection of marionets and puppets in a show he called Toby Tyler and the Circus. WDE's vision was for the new NBC show to be known as Puppet Playhouse, having three separate programs alternating each week until the most popular one became the main focus. Paris began working on his Howdy Duty puppet in early 1947 with a deadline of December for the character's first appearance on television. At the time of Howdy's debut, December 27th, 1947, the puppet wasn't ready. Smith was furious. Wade was concerned. Paris was more concerned about readying the marionets for his own Toby Tyler segments. Meanwhile, Howdy Duty, having been heavily advertised, was not available for his debut. Bob Smith voiced both himself, of course, and the

non-existent marionette in his desk drawer. Keen overcame that potential disaster by recording Howdy's replies, which he wrote on the spot during rehearsals. The show was broadcast live on the East Coast. The illusion of the shy marionette worked. And though Howdy Duty had yet to be seen, even by network executives, he was an overnight television star. Howdy Dudy the Puppet wasn't seen that day, but the program was by a resounding margin in part because of inclement weather across the US East Coast. NBC quickly cancelled the idea of three shows competing for the honor of being featured on Puppet Playhouse and ordered additional episodes. In early January, Wade, Paris, Keen, and Smith met with other NBC executives to plot additional shows. At that meeting, Paris revealed his Howdy Duty puppet. It had very little resemblance to the puppet, which remains famous to this day. The marionette bore

a closer resemblance to Jug Head from the Archie comics than to the iconic puppet remembered today. Smith was appalled and called the puppet Ugly Howdy. Paris had every artist's dilemma when working with a client. He was not given guidance regarding Howdy's appearance other than he was to create an image in line with voice recordings he had received from Smith. When confronted with Smith's objections over the appearance of the character he had created, Paris being the soul of reason announced they could use the puppet as is, which NBC had paid for, or he could take his puppet and go home.

Screw you guys, I'm going home. With another show due in a matter of days and few options available, Ugly Howdy led the charge to the show's popularity. By midsummer of 1948, Howdy Duty was in demand for product endorsements and advertisers streamed to NBC's offices, cash in hand. And inevitably, this began a new dispute over marketing rights and royalties distribution. In late summer, Macy's department store, as well as their competitor, Gimbals, and several other marketers, approached NBC with the idea of marketing Howdy-Dudy endorsed products, including clothes, shoes, toys, books, art sets, and other items.

Paris believed the image of Howdy-Dudy, no matter how ugly, belonged to him, and thus so did the lion share of profits obtained from its use. Bob Smith, however, held the position that he had created the character and thus owned the rights to its use. NBC's position was that they had paid for the character and its image. Paris again took the entirely adult position of if the others didn't like it, he would simply take his puppet and go home. And in late summer 1948, he did exactly that, leaving NBC studios with Howdy stuffed in a bag just 4 hours before airtime. What a dick.

Once again, the producers face the pressure of the need to produce multiple shows each week without the presence of the show's main character. So, what's a producer to do? Howdy's 1948 presidential campaign was conceived in part as a means of explaining his absence from the show. The producers created maps which highlighted wherever Howdy could be found on the campaign trail and which allowed Buffalo Bob to talk with Howdy with Bob Smith voicing both characters. Now Bob Smith was not a ventriloquist. In order to create the illusion of conversing with Howdy, he voiced lines attributed to Buffalo Bob while facing the audience. To hear Howdy's replies, he turned his back to the audience facing a speaker of the campaign maps in the background. Meanwhile, Wade and Smith had to face the inconvenient fact that the presidential campaign subtrafuge would come to an end by necessity in November 1948. Marketers

looking for Howdy Duty products for the year's Christmas season needed to know what Howdy Duty would look like when he returned. And NBC was not going to lose such a valuable property. Howdy's television audience was huge for the time. Make no mistake, many TV stations across the country did not broadcast during the daytime since the networks offered little in the way of programming at the time. What they did offer was expensive and locally produced shows were extremely expensive. In interviews long after the Howdy Duty Show had ended, Bombsmith claimed that thousands of children came home from school and camped in front of their family TV, staring at a test pattern until 5:30 p.m. They heard Buffalo Bob's cheery, "Say kids," introduction, and the highlight of their day began. NBC turned to Disney animator Mel Shaw and puppet maker Velma Dawson to design and create a new Howdy Duty. While the original ran

for president, this presented another problem. The audience would clearly recognize that the Howdy Duty who returned from the campaign looked nothing like the Howdy Dudy who had embarked on it. This was explained by announcing that Howdy Duty had taken pains to alter his appearance, including the use of the relatively new discipline of plastic surgery. Yeah.

[snorts] While on the campaign trail, [sighs] the new Howdy Duty appeared in late 1948. Dressed in jeans, a plaid shirt, cowboy style boots, and a kirchief around his neck, western style, of course.

At least I'm wearing cowboy boots. He was younger in appearance than the original thanks to the Botox. And his face bore 48 evenly distributed freckles, an homage to the fact that America had 48 states back then. It took 11 strings to fully manipulate his body and Howdy had doubles for use in both personal appearances and on the show. These usually did not require full manipulation and thus had less strings for controlling his motions. This second Howdy Duty, often incorrectly referred to as the original Howdy Duty Nerd, [screaming]

is the iconic image which still appears today over 60 years since his original television show ended in 1960. One of the most important and innovative aspects of the show was the in-house audience of children called the Peanut Gallery. And suddenly I realized that when my father would say, "If I wanted a comment from the Peanut Gallery, I would ask this is what he was referring to." Yeah, he was born. The Peanut Gallery sang the show's theme song, joined with Buffalo Bob and other characters in other songs, and provided an interactive onstage audience. The term peanut gallery derived from the cheap seats in theaters, which usually housed the least restrained and the least sober members of the audience and was thus considered somewhat disparaging. On Howdy Duty, however, Peanut Gallery seats were seats of honor. The children sat on stage in bleacher seats and were encouraged both before and during the show to be as

boisterous as their little hearts desired. Buffalo Bob played to them throughout the show from its opening exhortation asking the time to his sign off each day. The kids were encouraged to join in with all the songs and they usually did with gusto. Numerous inshow advertisements, which were a common form of commercials in early television, found the kids following Buffalo Bomb's lead by singing the popular jingles for whatever product was being shilled. In doing so, they may have saved the producers a few bucks from the advertising budget. Professional singers require payment at the very least at prescribed union rates. Enthused singers in the audience did not. When Charles Schultz presented his new comic strip featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy to United Features Syndicate, he suggested the name Lil Folks as a title. The Syndicate pointed out the name was too similar to Lil Abner and proposed

Peanuts as an alternative. Some attribute this change to the popularity of the Howdy Duty Show and the Peanut Gallery, though it is difficult to find definitive evidence of its veracity. By 1949, the Howdy Duty Show was the most watched program in the United States. Children were enthralled with the antics of the show's characters, both human and puppets, which resided in the town of Dutyville. Yes, I said that with a straight face. The exact location of Dutyville, again sad with a straight face, look at how straight my face is, was never explained, but it was clearly on the coast somewhere since it had its own harbor dominated by Captain Wendy Scuttlebutt. Described in the show as the greatest sea captain of all time, despite his ship, a tugboat, being immobile most of the time for reasons never explained, Captain Scuttlebutt was a puppet, owned a puppet dog named Wendy, and was created as an expedient

to cover the absence of one of the show's most popular characters, Clarabel the Clown. Clarabel was portrayed by three actors over the course of the show. The first being Bob Kishan, who later created and portrayed Captain Kangaroo on CBS for 29 years. As Clarabel, however, Kishan created the illusion that he could not speak. Instead, using horns strapped to his belt to signify his thoughts. One honk meant yes to no, and multiple honks on multiple horns could mean well, almost anything. He also enjoyed spraying Buffalo Bob with seltzer water, much to Bob's annoyance.

Oh dear. Kishan, who did not get along well with Bob Smith, left the show in 1952. Some say over a salary dispute, while others say over a deteriorating relationship with Bob Smith. However, Clarabel had proven to be one of the most popular characters on the show. And while producers sought a replacement, it was important to explain Clarabel's absence to the children in the Peanut Gallery. And so they began lying to them again. In the show, Buffalo Bob sought out the help of Captain Wendy Scuttlebutt, who after Buffalo Bob discovered Clarabel imprisoned on the bottom of Dutyville Harbor, used his tugboat to rescue the clown. Clarabel's imprisonment was used to explain both his recent absence and his newly changed appearance. In 1955, a third actor took over the role of Clarabel. And it was this version of the clown who revealed in the final minutes of the final episode of the program that

he could in fact talk. He did so by turning to the peanut gallery and saying simply goodbye kit.

Not creepy at all. In 1949, Bob Smith was badly in need of a vacation. He ran the show, led in the songs, introduced characters, played the peanut gallery, and he did it 5 days a week, plus rehearsals and other activities related to the show, such as personal appearances. To cover his absence, Keane created a story line in which the audience was told of a recently discovered strange beast to be found only in South America. According to Keen's storyline, the creature had the appearance of being designed by a congressional committee, including the body of a dashhound, but the ears of a spananiel, cat's whiskers alongside a duck's bill, its head sat at top a neck resembling a giraffe's. It also featured a coiled pig's tail, seals flippers rather than legs, and possessed an elephant's memory. Smith got his vacation and by his return, the show's puppet creators had built such a creature named Flleadub. Flleadub became

one of the most popular characters on the program, both human and puppet. It was also the source of a considerable amount of angry mail, snail mail, not electronic, and telephone calls to both NBC switchboards and those of affiliate stations. It seems the original story line featuring Fluba Dub claimed the strange creature ate only flowers. What type of flowers were not specified? In response to the flood of complaints over flowers mysteriously vanishing from vases, flower pots, and garden beds, as evidently children trying to emulate FlubaDub's diet, Smith and Keen hastily change the storyline. Buffalo Bob informed the Peanut Gallery during an early flub appearance that the exotic animal only ate a rare flower only to be found in South America and that common American flowers were distasteful to the beast. Then an advertising opportunity presented itself. It was learned that Flleadub loved meatballs and spaghetti.

His song enthusiastically joined in with by the peanut gallery included the words meatballs meatballs meatballs meatballs. I love some meatballs, meatballs, meatballs, and spaghetti. I'm always ready to eat spaghetti. There's a note from Larry daring me to sing it. To which I say, no. Later, Twinkies were added to its diet. How a children's show featuring a marionette and his puppet friends could be involved in scandal is difficult to fathom, especially in comparison to some of the more recent scandals involving prominent celebrities and politicians.

But it did. Evidently, some of the production crew were a randy bunch. Performers and studio executives reported arriving on site for rehearsals to discover some of the puppets strewn about in suggestive positions not usually associated with inanimate objects. Lwd comments and suggestive innuendo were reportedly common among the crew during rehearsals because it's a TV set to the point that they drew the attention of network sensors and outside groups determined to maintain American morality. There were several legal scandals, if that is the correct word, most of which focused on the abrupt departure of Paris, the ownership of the ugly Howdy puppets, and whether Paris destroyed them, as he agreed to do in a settlement with NBC in the 1950s. Rumors continue to swirl that Paris retained one of the original Howdy Duty puppets, though it has never been found. Even photographs of the original Howdy Duty

are relatively rare, although images of his successor are ubiquitous. Paris was paid $20,000 to settle his dispute with NBC, agreeing to destroy the three puppets he had in his possession. For the rest of his life, there were rumors he had kept at least one of the puppets rather than dismembering it and burning it as he had agreed. He died in 1984 after a battle with lung cancer and according to reports was nearly penniless. He remains in high esteem among puppeteers and performers. The Howdy Duty Show left the airwaves in 1960 and was replaced by puppeteer Sherry Lewis and her popular character puppet Lamb Chop. Some episodes of Howdy Duty exist and can be found online and in film and television archives.

However, few which aired before 1956 are available. Buffalo Bob Smith followed Howdy Duty by touring college campuses doing stand-up comedy, making a few movies and television appearances, including on Happy Days, appropriately for an icon of the 1950s. Edward Keane left Howdy Duty in 1955 and for a while worked as a stock broker, a newspaper columnist, and later as a lounge pianist. He died in 2010 at the age of 85. By 1960, when Howdy Duty left the air, there were hundreds of locally produced children's programs which followed its model to some extent. Most of them focused on the afterchool time slot. But rather than producing their own story arcs, they instead introduced numerous characters, human and puppet, who interacted with their live studio audience between presenting reruns of cartoons, Hollywood film shorts, and other forms of children's entertainment.

Most of them died out in the late 1970s, replaced with shock and talk shows, cooking shows, sitcom reruns, and other detritus from television's past. Howdy Duty remains, however, a famous celebrity in America's entertainment history. He does. The program was one of the first to be broadcast entirely in color, in part because NBC's parent company RCA was in the business of selling color TVs. It was the first nationally broadcast children's television program and as a result had a tremendous influence on all those which followed. It was of a different time and place as several attempts to reproduce the show including in the 1980s by Buffalo Bob himself failed to generate an audience. Today, the literally thousands of items endorsed by Howdy Duty and featuring his image as well as those of Buffalo Bob, Clarabel, Fluba Dub, and some of the fabulously named characters which so enthralled the first

wave of the generation known as the baby boomers are readily found. Some collectors seek them out. Others are inspired by nostalgia to acquire a piece which represents a time when they were young, innocent, and happy to sit before the television each afternoon and be transported to another world. I hope you learned something today. And if you enjoyed today's deep dive, be sure to comment a historical figure we haven't covered yet. Subscribe, ring that bell, and share this video with someone who loves learning about historical figures and events alike. I'm Eric Melikite and we'll see you next

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "How Howdy Doody Changed Children's TV Forever #sponsored"?

In order: 0:00 American Broadcasting Corporation, Bob Smith, National Broadcasting Corporation, Squarespace; 5:00 Squarespace, Bob Smith, Clarabel the Clown, Frank Paris; 10:00 Bob Smith; 15:00 Peanut Gallery, Clarabel the Clown; 20:00 Peanut Gallery, Bob Smith, Fluba Dub; 25:00 Bob Smith, Edward Keane, Fluba Dub.

What is mentioned in this Biographics episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Bob Smith, Peanut Gallery, Howdy Doody, Clarabel the Clown, Fluba Dub, American Broadcasting Corporation. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How Howdy Doody Changed Children's TV Forever #sponsored"?

The episode runs 29 min; the transcript is about 4,466 words in 36 timestamped sections.

More from Biographics

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 14, 2026.