Bill Jackson
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- For Bill Jackson the photographer, please see Bill Jackson (photographer).
Bill Jackson (ca. 1937-) is an American television personality, cartoonist and educator. He is best known for having hosted the children's program Gigglesnort Hotel.
Information on Jackson's early life has been very difficult to find (he has not revealed a place or date of birth so far as can be determined, even the Internet Movie Database has no such information). In an interview he says that he was from a small town and graduated from the University of Missouri's school of journalism with a degree in television production. His earliest appearance in the public eye was in 1960 when he hosted a program in Fort Wayne, Indiana called the Popeye and Little Rascals Club; this was broadcast for three years. The show was such a success that he moved on to Indianapolis for another two years where he created his most enduring character, Dirty Dragon (who was said to have been based on a co-worker in Indy.) His work attracted the attention of WBBM-TV in Chicago, which gave him a program in 1965, known variously as Clown Alley or Here Comes Freckles. Unfortunately in spite of wide critical praise the show drew poor ratings largely because it was aired early in the morning, and was cancelled after two seasons.
Jackson's work did not go unnoticed, however, and he was hired by another Chicago station, the then-independent WFLD, which was looking for a show to go opposite WGN-TV's highly popular Garfield Goose and Friends. Jackson, a gifted artist, comedian and puppeteer, responded in 1968 with a program initially called Cartoon Town, but later renamed The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show. It was here that Jackson, playing the mayor of the cartoon town, reached great heights with characaters such as Dirty Dragon, Weird and Wally Goodscout, Mother Plumtree, the Old Professor, and a town monument called the Blob (no relation to the movie) who was made of clay and could, with Jackson's help, assume any form. The show aired for five years on WFLD, made a one-year run on WGN afterwards and then stopped production.
Jackson returned to television with the syndicated program Gigglesnort Hotel in 1975, which brought most of the old Cartoon Town characters back, plus a few originals. The show was very popular with the critics, though less so with the public, and ran for three seasons. Jackson made a final program called Firehouse Follies using the characters in 1979-1980, then left television to teach at California Institute of the Arts for 12 years.
In recent years, Jackson has put up a website to sell DVDs of his old programs online. He lives quietly in California.
