Garfield Goose and Friends

And a big part of it was WGN, Frazier Thomas and Ray Rayner. Garfield Goose, and the rabbit were silent puppets and Christmas elfs Coco and Joe. Journey to the Beginning of Time. And wasn't there a hound dog too. I loved every episode and now at 61 years of age, cherish those memories as an old dude.

'Garfield Goose' was a show on WGN-TV, not WBKB. The reason for the confusion is that the lead Character was a hand puppet, designed and operated by Bruce Newton. The amazing Mr. Newton was under contract at the time to WBKB, but was allowed to work for the competition for that one show.

Bruce Newton also appeared as Shorty on 'Shock Theater' on WBKB in 1957. Shock Theater was the brainchild of the incomparable Terry Bennet, who also played the lead character Mad Marvin. Bruce's shorty was made-up to look like the Frankenstein Monster, due to his extreme height. Bruce was a talented artist, and a gentle soul.

Both Bruce Newton and Terry Bennett added immeasurably to the wild creativity that distinguished WBKB from every other television station in America. All worked under a literate, talent loving, visionary named Sterling 'Red' Quinlan. 'Red' presided over a magical loony bin of artists, actors, musicians, writers, comedians, directors, announcers, and personalities as big as The Ritz.

It was a Super Circus of entertainment in a brief, golden time.

I was the kid (literally) who bluffed himself into the candy store, and loved every minute of it.

WELL, WHAATTA YA know! After all of these past 10 or so years of reading reviews and then writing them for IMDb.com, we were quite surprised to find such an old childhood "friend" as GARFIELD GOOSE & FRIENDS listed in the titles of series.

THIS ISN'T BECAUSE we thought the kiddie show to be unworthy of such inclusion; for we feel strongly about its being of such a quality to put it at the top of such a list of juvenile programming.

IT'S JUST THAT we had never known until this very evening that it had a short run on Network Television. You see, you learn something new every day!

WE WERE AWARE that the show did do some jumping around; going from one local Chicago Television Station to another, during those early days. As a matter of fact, in those early 1950's, when we here in the Chicago market had only 4 TV Stations, GARFIELD GOOSE & FRIENDS managed to play on three of them. Having started on WBBM Chanel 2 (CBS), where it saw two non-consecutive year long runs, as well as a stint on WBKB Channel 7* (ABC); before settling down to an extended stay of over two decades on WGN Channel 9 (Independent**).

THE FORMAT OF the show was very simple, being one set; which was the front of Garfield's "Castle". This was the puppet stage, where the M.C./Creator, Frazier Thomas, would stand and carry on "conversations" with the "King" and various other denizens of the "Castle".

THE OTHER CHARACTERS included: Gar's nephew Chris (full name Christmas Goose); former Magician's assistant, Romberg Rabbit, McIntosh Mouse, cute& cuddly, but otherwise nondescript; Bloodhound Beauregard Burnside III, Chief of the King's Secret Service. In the very early tears, they even had a Butler, Geronimo; who was a real, live monkey in butler suit!

MR. THOMAS DID a great job of creating interest for their young viewers by almost always opening the new days's episode already in a conversation with one of the characters; a ploy which immediately drew the viewer into the festivities. Frazier was also a good sport in his use of self deprecating humor. He would refer to himself as "Big, Fat, Friendly Frazier. Much like this writer, he was truly "fully figured."

THERE WAS A GOOD deal of continuity maintained over the years as there were many references to Gar's girlfriend, "Gasparella", his rival "Garfunkel" and various "Goose Boy" Organizations.

ONE OF OUR favourite bits involved reference to Garfield's Mother, who was said to be retired and living in Florida. She would send a letter before visits stating things like "I'll be flying up (to Chicago) to see you soon"; at which point Mr. Thomas (who was reading the letter aloud) would motion to the King, flapping his arms like wings. Gar would shake it off, making motion mimicking the flight of a passenger plane.

ANOTHER ON GOING gag involved Gar's Mother referring to Frazier Thomas as being Gar's "Doorman"; as he was always wearing a suit-coat with shoulder epaulets and many military type medals, befitting the King's Prime Minister; which was his official title.

OTHER FEATURES ON the series featured (in the early days) the Magic Drawing Board; on which the puppeteer/artist Roy Brown would illustrate recorded kids' stories from the rear of the paper surface unseen on the TV screen. There was also the Little Theatre Screen which gave us a seemingly endless array of cartoons. The titles ranged from 1930's Screen Gems KRAZY KAT and SCRAPPY episodes to some Warner Brothers LOONEY TUNES ans MERRIE MELODIES. Made for TV animation included: POW-WOW THE Indian BOY, BUCKY & PEPITO, THE MIGHTY HERCULES, THE FUNNY COMPANY, some odd European imports and (of course) CLUTCH CARGO!

AS YOU CAN see, we were viewers in the Ryan household on Damen Avenue; and we have a great fondness for the show, which persists to this very day!

NOTE: * Our local Channel 7 has had three different call letters; WENR (Water Electricity Natural Resourses), then WBKB (for Balaban & Katz Broadcasting) and finally WLS (from its former sister radio station).

NOTE: ** WGN (from "World's Greatest Newspaper") was and is owned by the Chicago Tribune; which has now grown to a national Superstation.

AryeDirect from United States above seems to be in error in view of all the photographic evidence and historical data the exits.

Frazier Thomas created the show and puppet at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati and the show did, indeed, move to WBKB in 1951 and WBBM in Chicago where Bruce Newton had "something" to do with the show (rumor has it he either worked only for a short time or never actually did any work at all, but did get credit, this is very murky) and was even broadcast nationally on ABC for one year in 1954. Roy Brown was the primary puppet creator as well as the graphic artist designing the sets. The primary puppet design was Thomas and Brown, however there is some indication that Newton may have had his own Goose puppet at WBBM.