Spent a little bit of time today on the phone with a gentleman who hosted a children’s television show for years. He’s in his 80s and couldn’t have been a bigger delight to speak with. His onscreen persona was named “Captain.” It reminded me of one of my own childhood favorite shows (back when we had about one choice in children’s programming). The host of that show was also named “Captain.”
What’s the deal with Captains hosting kids’ shows? Was that a trend? I wonder if there are other Captains I’m not aware of. (So far I’ve found three…Captain Kangaroo, Captain Noah, and Captain Penny…I don’t think Captain Planet counts). Wonder if today’s kids are missing out because they don’t have a gentle Captain to guide them through the happy waters of childhood. Instead, they’ve got a purple dinosaur and a handful of animated characters. The only live-action humans I can remember from Sir and Mister’s early childhood (uh…a couple years ago) were the young cuties, the Kratt Brothers. And they were yanked off the air. Maybe if they’d called themselves Captain Chris and Captain Martin and worn flamboyant polyester they’d have endured 30 plus years?
Anyhoo. I kind of miss the Captain years of yore. The Captains were benevolent uncles, talking to puppets and getting laughs by having ping-pong balls dropped on their heads. They didn’t need high-falutin’ technology or deep-pocketed advertisers to talk to kids about stranger danger and learning manners.
I just asked Sir if there were any hosts named Captain he could remember. He said, “Wasn’t there a Captain Squarepants?” Sigh. Maybe it’s time to just stick to helming the ship myself. Captain Kate. It’s got a nice ring.
I laughed out loud at the thought of Captain Chris and Captain Martin. I, for one, was sad to see them go. We loved that show!
“We’re going to the closet, we’re going on a trip…”