On My Way to Europe and Froggy the Gremlin

It is late and I should be in bed. I am flying to Europe tomorrow for the Better World conference and it will be a long and tiring trip.

I decided to use the Internet for something constructive and started looking up children's television programs from the 1950's, when I was quite young and we had three channels in the Los Angeles suburbs.

I had a lot of fun reviewing Bozo the Clown, a fairly popular program in many parts of America, and I even have a Bozo mini-punching bag and the term "Bozo" has always been popular for me. The mini-punching bag was a gift, by the way.

Then there were a couple of boring cartoon programs I researched, including Skipper Frank's Cartoon Carousel and Engineer Bill. I even had a "red light green light" milk drinking gm official glass to use along with Engineer Bill.

Other programs were a bit racier, including the Soupy Sales programs of various incarnations and versions.

But the real deal wasn't even on very long but had a huge impact on me as a very young boy. I am talking about Froggy the Gremlin. On the program Andy's Gang there was a big clock, and it would chime and Andy Devine would say, "Plunk your magic twanger Froggy" and in a puff of smoke this strange rubber frog would appear and begin his antics.

Froggy was a troublemaker. He made fun of everyone and used low level magic to mock people. Usually there was some "expert" who came in to explain something or how to do something and Froggy would lead them astray and make them mess up always with hilarity. Then he wold vanish in a puff of smoke. Froggy was the bad boy who was interested in defying authority and using mockery to do so. This is pretty progressive stuff for 1958. I loved it.

Froggy had a number of remarks and speech paterns I still use from time to time but no one recognizes them, of course. Froggy always would arrive and say, "Hiya kids, hiya, hiya!" He would always repeat the verbs at the end of the sentence, like "I will be good from now on, I will, I will." He had a gravelly growl much deeper than his little green rubber body.

So, Froggy, thanks for the inspiration. I'm off to Europe and the conference now.