Michigan's TV Shows for Kids: 1950-1964

I was one of those kids who were raised on TV. Sounds superficial, but ya know...I have great memories of those old shows.

There was such an influx of kids' TV programs in the 1950s and 60s, that there are just too many to name. Some of these you may or may not remember, depending how old you are:
ANDY'S GANG
AUNTIE DEE SHOW
BARKER BILL'S CARTOON FESTIVAL
CAPTAIN VIDEO AND HIS VIDEO RANGERS
DING DONG SCHOOL
GERALD McBOING-BOING
HOWDY DOODY
KUKLA, FRAN, AND OLLIE
LAND OF PLAY
RANGER JIM
ROOTIE KAZOOTIE
TIME FOR BEANY
WINKY DINK AND YOU

That was just a baker's dozen of national kid shows.....a sample.

It didn't take much to keep kids entertained back in the early days of television. Just put on a program with puppets, cartoons, and either a clown, matronly woman, cowboy, or spaceman as the host and you got the kids in the palm of your hand. I mean, what else was on TV back then? NOTHING. When there were only 3 or 4 channels to choose from, it wasn't difficult to find something to keep the kids busy while you went about your daily chores.

Michigan had its fair share of kiddie shows. Many featured clowns: Bozo, Oopsy, Jingles, and Ricky, showing cartoons, doing boring skits, and having visiting studio kids playing games. Sponsors for those shows were usually candy bars, soda pop, pastries, and chocolate milk mixes like Bosco, Ovaltine, Big Shot Chocolate Syrup, Cocoa Marsh, and Nestle's. I wonder how much dentists were raking in back then?

I always dug the cartoons, like the old Looney Tunes and Popeye films. I didn't care much for the newer ones that were being cranked out fast and cheap.

Show the gallery below to some of the seniors in your family...maybe they will get a pleasant memory from one or more of these images...