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Today's Guest: Captain Kangaroo, a.k.a., Bob Keeshan, long-time CBS morning host for children's television
(EDITOR'S NOTE -- Today, June 27, 2016, would have been the 89th birthday of the great CBS-TV children's TV host, Bob Keeshan, better known to the Baby Boomer generation as "Captain Kangaroo." Keeshan passed away in 2004, and I've spent years trying to recover the telephone interview I did with him as a St. Petersburg Times correspondent, published September 19, 1984. I'm pleased to say I finally found it and upgraded the audio quality. You can now read the interview as published or, for the first time ever, listen to our actual conversation. I hope you'll enjoy this classic edition of Mr. Media and share it with your friends and family. -- Bob Andelman)
When it comes to children's television, Captain Kangaroo is a man who knows what he's talking about.
And what the soft-spoken Captain is discussing these days is the scarcity of quality network programing provided for kids. Captain Kangaroo, a.k.a. Bob Keeshan, will address the subject at a free lecture at the University of South Florida's Cooper Hall auditorium, CPR 103 (College of Arts and Letters, Tampa campus), on Thursday at 8 p.m. He was last here in 1976, taping segments of the program at Busch Gardens.
His appearance corresponds to the end of the Captain's nearly 30 years on CBS.
The end has been in sight for some time. In January 1982, some CBS affiliates such as Tampa's WTVT-Ch. 13 dropped the weekday morning Captain Kangaroo Show (it was picked up briefly by WFTS Ch. 28). Later that year, CBS Morning News was lengthened and for the first time the Captain could only be seen on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For a short time even the name and format of his show was changed, to the fast-paced Wake Up.
UNTIL December, the Captain Kangaroo Show continues on weekend mornings, al though it has been unavailable in Tampa Bay for some time. After the first
