I recently came across a listing of Saturday morning (“no school today”) television juvenile shows, ranging from 1946 through 1971. Since my family did not own a television set until about 1951, I had the option of going to a Johnson Avenue neighbor's house who owned a TV to watch a program or do without. The two generous neighbors I recall were the Gaines Johnson and William Wise families.
See how many programs you can recall. Howdy Doody stands high on my list, followed by Winky Dink and You, Sky King, Andy's Gang, Commando Cody, The Soupy Sales Show and Captain Kangaroo. See how many of these programs you can fondly remember:
1946-47: Birthday Party, Juvenile Jury, Small Fry Club.
1947-48: Howdy Doody, Lucky Pup, Scrapbook Jr. Edition, Winchell and Maroney.
1948-49: Adventures of Oky Doky, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, Cartoon Teletales, The Children’s Hour, Child’s World, Dunninger and Winchell, Judy Splinters, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, The Magic Cottage, Mr. I Magination, The Singing Lady, The Quiz Kids, Super Circus, Uncle Mistletoe and His Adventures.
Winky Dink and You
1949-50: The Big Top, Billy Boone and Cousin Kib, Cactus Jim, Children’s Sketch Book, Crash Corrigan’s Ranch, Life with Snarky Parker, Magic Slate, Sleepy Joe.
1950-51: Cowboys and Injuns, Kid Gloves, Fashion Magic, Sandy Strong, Rootie Kazootie, Space Patrol, Mr. Wizard.
1951-52: Foodini the Great, Hail the Champ!, Once Upon a Fence, Fearless Fosdick, Sky King, The Whistling Wizard.
1952-53: Atom Squad, Johnny Jupiter, The Ding Dong School, Lash of the West, There’s One in Every Family.
1953-54: The Pinky Lee Show, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Winky Dink and You.
1954-55: Andy’s Gang, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, Captain Midnight, Children’s Corner, Commando Cody- Sky Marshall of the Universe, The Soupy Sales Show, Uncle Johnny Coons.
Howdy Doody, Clarabell, and Flub-A-Dub
1955-56: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Kangaroo, Fury, The Mickey Mouse Club, My Friend Flicka, Tales of the Texas Rangers.
1956-57: American Bandstand, Circus Boy, Circus Time, The Galen Drake Show, The Gerald Mcboing-Boing Show.
1957-58: The Heckle and Jeckle Show, Gumby, Ruff and Reddy Show, Shariland.
1958-59: Shirley Temple’s Story Book, The Uncle Al Show.
1959-60: Matty’s Funday Funnies, Rocky and His Friends.
1960-61: The Bugs Bunny Show, The Flintstones, The Magic Land of Allakazam, Pip the Piper.
1961-62: The Alvin Show, Beany and Cech, The Bullwinkle Show, Magic Ranch.
1962-63: Cartoonsville, Magic Midway, Picture This.
1963-64: Fireball Xl-5, Hector Heathcote, Quick Draw Mcgraw, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales.
1964-65: The Adventures of Johnny Quest, Hoppity Hooper Show, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, Linus the Lion-Hearted, The Porky Pig Show.
Soupy Sales
1965-66: Underdog, The Atom Ant Show, The Beatles, Milton the Monster, Magilla Gorilla, Tom and Jerry.
1966-67: Cool McCool, The Lone Ranger, The Monkees, The Road Runner, Space Ghost and Dino Boy.
1967-68: The Fantastic Four, George of the Jungle, Happening ’68, The Herculoids, Shazzan!, Spider-Man.
1968-69: The Archie Show, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Batman/Superman Hour, The Go-Go Gophers.
1969-70: The Hardy Boys, H.R. Pufnstuf, The Pink Panther Show, Scooby Doo, The Smokey Bear Show.
1970-71: The Bugaloos, Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and The Pussycats, Woody Woodpecker.
I hope this list brought back some fond memories for you.