| Garfield Goose And Friends |
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Garfield Goose originated on a local program called ''Meet the Little People'' on WKRC-TV in Cincinnati , Ohio about 1950. Thomas, an Indiana native who had been working on Cincinnati local radio since before World War II , said he had gotten the idea from Catholic nuns collecting for charity. He recalled how they'd appear with a sock puppet in the form of a goose and children were invited to "feed the goose" with donations. The name "Garfield" came from WKRC's telephone exchange. Cincinnati's version was somewhat different in that Garfield lived in a cuckoo clock as he'd wanted to be a cuckoo bird. Thomas moved to Chicago in 1951, appearing originally on CBS affiliate WBKB, then on Channel 4. Originally, the goose had appeared as a featured character on a show called ''Petticoat Party'' but it was decided the charcater had enough appeal for a show of his own and on September 29, 1952, "Garfield Goose and Friend" made its debut. Garfield originally communicated with Thomas via an off-screen typewriter but when Thomas expanded the cast, it would fall upon Romberg Rabbit to translate for Garfield -- no easy task as Romberg's speech, as well as the rest of the puppets, was so quiet (silent, in reality), no one but Thomas could "hear" them. Thomas would then repeat what Rom and the rest of the puppets were communicating to him. After a complicated sale of stations in February 1953, WBKB became WBBM, the CBS o-and-o (owned-and-operated station), and moved to Channel 2. Garfield moved to WBKB (now an ABC o-and-o) to Channel 7 a year later. "Garfield Goose and Friends" finally nested in on WGN in 1955 and remained for over two decades, usually appearing weekday afternoons and later mornings. However, the show lost viewership over the years due to competition (and in part because of timeslot tampering with one episode even depicting Garfield as being VERY upset over this) and the show's long run ended in 1976. But this was not the end of the puppets. Frazier Thomas had taken the role of circus manager on WGN's longtime hit program " Bozo's Circus " after the retirement of Ringmaster Ned Locke, and Thomas cleverly kept his puppets on the air with a storyline that had Garfield buying "Bozo's Circus." The puppets would continue to make appearances until 1981, when they were retired. Frazier Thomas would continue to work on "The Bozo Show" until his death in 1985. The puppets were donated to The Museum Of Broadcast Communications in Chicago in 1987. As was often the case for television producers in the 1950s and early 1960s (such as with . Coincidentally, the White Sox had just won the 2005 World Series when this show aired. The premiere was #1 in the Chicago market and the station announced plans to re-air it every holiday season. EXTERNAL LINK Many thanks to www.chicagotelevision.com for info on the show and Frazier Thomas |
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