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Robert James Keeshan (June 27, 1927 – January 23, 2004) was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day.
Keeshan (left) and Brannum on set. During World War II, Brannum enlisted in the US Marine Corps and joined a Marine band led by Bob Crosby. [3] [4] After the war, he joined the Four Squires, and later moved to Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians; Waring's group had a regular radio show on NBC, where Brannum met fellow Marine Bob Keeshan, who was working at the network, and who later hired ...
The company was an early sponsor (from 1958) of Captain Kangaroo. The Captain himself was enlisted to sell Schwinn-brand bicycles to the show's audience, typically six years old and under. [23] At the end of each live Schwinn marketing promotion, Bob Keeshan would intone, "Schwinn bikes—the quality bikes—are best!"
Originally played by Bob Keeshan, who went on to create the children's TV character Captain Kangaroo, he was later played by Robert "Nick" Nicholson and finally by Lew Anderson. Clarabell did not talk because the actor would have to be paid scale, and it was a low-budget show.
Station executives understandably refused to release Lewis from his contract, so CBS brass settled on Howdy Doody alum Bob Keeshan to host their new kids' show, which became Captain Kangaroo. When WCPO switched networks, both shows would run back-to-back on weekday mornings. Lewis' wife Wanda joined the show in 1956.
Anderson returned to play Clarabell in the short-lived 1976–77 New Howdy Doody Show and in the 1987 40th anniversary special, and in later years in many personal appearances with Buffalo Bob Smith. In addition, Dayton Allen, Bill LeCornec, and others played Clarabell in the early years if Keeshan was busy doing something else for the show.
She played "Kathy" and "a million other characters" on Captain Kangaroo. In his memoir, Kangaroo star Bob Keeshan remarked that Mignini could "sing, dance, act, be funny and anything else you ask of her." [37] She had recurring roles as Maggie Gyllenhaal's mother on The Deuce and in the Ben Stiller-helmed Escape at Dannemora.
Lamb Chop, also appearing, had previously been introduced during Lewis's guest appearance on Captain Kangaroo in March 1956. [4] Lewis with her puppets, Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse, 1960. NBC gave Lewis her first network program, The Shari Lewis Show, which debuted on October 1, 1960, replacing The Howdy Doody Show. The show ran until September ...