Whizzo the Clown was a children's TV host from the 1950s to 1987. His show went off the air a month before the actor died of cancer and that shows what a trooper he was. An old Vaudeville performer, Frank Wizarde became of staple of Kansas City and Topeka area television stations. I grew up watching and loving Whizzo; I can understand how someone might look at it and say, "What were they thinking?" Every generation has something of the same, insane, nature. Spongbob might be one of the more recent as most parents hate it and Barney served the generation before. Back when there were only 3, or 4, networks (Dumont was an early network that died in the 1950s) a lot of programming was local and almost every station had a local show featuring a character who did live segments and interspersed them with cartoons. In Wichita, KS it was Major Astro, in the Kansas City area it was Whizzo and another show that featured Old Gus.
The movie is, mostly, a typical Whizzo episode, but with news footage from the stores in the Country Club Plaza. The props were mostly those from the how, but augmented for the North Pole scene. The "changing curtain" doubles as the tablecloth at the North Pole. The film was considered lost and some people doubted it existed (despite there being a trailer.) I actually saw it in the theater and it was a typical movie for parents to dump the kids off and go Christmas shipping. What with the previews, cartoons, newsreels, etc. it gave parents time to shop without the kids knowing what was happening.
As for the quality of the movie, for those of us who grew up and watched local TV shows, the movie represents a look back at something lacking in modern entertainment. The local news is about the only local shows these days. Is it an epic movie of Shakespearean dynamics? Well, no. No it isn't, but it is a great way to get a taste for what local TV presented. It is corny, silly, full of dumb jokes, completely barking mad, and I love every minute of it. What can I say, if Rifftrax can do an episode for Christmas featuring the movie, it has earned a place of honor.
