Lie me Kangaroo Down, Sport

Or
Oh Captain, Bye Captain
Bob Keeshan, who delighted millions of children first as Clarabelle on the Howdy Doody Show, later as Captain Kangaroo, died last week at the age of 76. No cause of death was listed, but a number of ping pong balls were found near the body. A suspect, Bunny Rabbit, was interviewed, but said nothing. With his walrus mustache, Beatles haircut, and overlapeled jacket, he hardly cut a dashing figure, but he was a fixture on CBS for 30 years, as the longest running children’s show in network TV history, before continuing for another 6 years on PBS. Entering the medium in its infancy, Keeshan virtually invented how a television program can teach children without pandering or demeaning them. Mixing education with a dose of anarchy in the form of a carrot-stealing rabbit and knock-knock joke telling Mr. Moose, Keeshan laid the groundwork for such later programs as Mister Rogers, but without the latter’s signature creepiness. Over his career, he won 6 Emmys and 3 Peabody Awards, but the impact he had on children will be his greatest legacy and was his greatest reward.