Also his balls are huge

FUN FACT: this was the inspiration for Life of Pi.

oh man, haven't thought of captain kangaroo in forever. I like the show OK but really watched for a cartoon about a land of chalk drawings.

but the five stars here are for "AFRICA USA"

What could possibly go wrong?

Bob Keshan is an absolute legend.

His first big gig on children's television was the character Clarabelle the Clown on "Howdy Doody."

He created the character Captain Kangaroo in 1955. In 1981, he had a heart attack and a triple bypass, but kept making the show until 1984 when he got tired of CBS dicking around with the schedule and moving the show's time slot.

In 1985, though, he returned to CBS to host a half-hour show called "Storybreak" which featured animated versions of children's books including, "How to Eat Fried Worms," "Arnold of the Ducks" and "Ratha's Creature." Keeshan hosted the show until 1989.

He passed in 2004 at the age of 76.

My favorite show for a while, as primary audience and later when I realized how good of a children's educator and entertainer he was.

I used to record the opening theme every day, with the different celebrities saying 'good morning' and the theme song. I wrote to the Captain several times.

The Captain was there when I was older and making the transition to being more responsible and thinking I'd have to leave a show like this behind. I got emotional at the thought of my beloved Captain's Place, Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Green Jeans. This was the pivotal show.

I went back to look at the show later, on summer vacation I'd guess, and it had changed. Kids were getting into computers at the time, so they had a talking computer in the Captain's Place, and it seemed to be the focus of the episodes, instead of the puppets. The show was trying to be hip and updated, but I was glad it was still on the air.

I remember when the Tube and other video outlets started up, I looked for the Captain, and there was very little for a long time, just snippets of video. A few years ago someone put up the whole episode with Dolly Parton as the Captain's guest, and she sang a song about Crackerjack, a dog.

Most episodes of Captain Kangaroo are probably gone, they didn't save video tapes back then, and probably Dolly's episode was saved only because someone thought it was historical.

Boomer