Childhood Television in the Fifties

I remember when we got our first television. It was in 1951 and we were living in a housing development of two-story brick houses connected in groups of ten or so. We were the first in our group to get one. The other kids would often come over so we could watch the Howdy Doody Show with Buffalo Bob Smith. The TV was a light wood cube, called Blonde in the ads, sitting on four rod-iron legs. I loved it. I think the screen was about 9”, normal for back then. And of course, it was black and white. I never had a color television until I was in the Army in the seventies.

Some of my favorite shows were Captain Midnight, Captain Video, and Buck Rogers – see a trend here? – and of course, The Mickey Mouse Club Show. Later on, I would watch the Saturday cowboy shows with Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, and later, the Cisco Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, the Range Rider, Wyatt Earp, and Sky King.

On Sunday night I remember watching my favorite detective show on the Dumont Channel. It was called “Rocky King”, played by Roscoe Kearns or Karns. He was actually a police detective, married to an off-screen wife named Mabel. He ended each show walking away to work, and saying “Goodnight, Mabel”. As I got older I enjoyed  “Dragnet” with Jack Webb.

Part of the fun of watching the TV shows was the ads. Saturday mornings were devoted to kids’ shows, so we had cereal, candy, and toy commercials. I remember Ovaltine sponsored Captain Midnight, and we would use our Decoder Rings to decipher secret messages he would send us. One of the cartoons – I think it was Mighty Mouse – was sponsored by Sugar Crisp cereal. Sugar Pops was one of the cowboy shows.

I remember as I grew older I would watch Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, The Lucy Show, The Red Skeleton Show, and the Ed Sullivan show on Sunday evenings. Then there were the more grown-up westerns like Cheyenne, Maverick, Bronco Lane, Sugarfoot, and Yancey Derringer. For the cop shows, there was Mannix, 77 Sunset Strip, and Perry Mason.

There were many more, but these are the ones that popped up easily. I’ll have to give some more thought to this topic and re-visit it again.  

(Cambria 13 font)