Romper Room

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Romper Room was a children's television series which ran in the United States from 1953 to 1994 as well as at various times in Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Puerto Rico. The program was targeted at pre-schoolers (children five years of age or younger).

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[edit] Television franchises

Romper Room was a rare case of a series being franchised and syndicated, so local affiliates (Los Angeles and New York City were prime examples) could produce their own versions of Romper Room instead of airing the national telecast. Originally filmed in Baltimore, Romper Room eventually moved its broadcast facilities to Chicago, then moved back to Baltimore in 1981.

[edit] A typical episode

Each program would consist of the hostess and her group of children embarking on an hour of games, songs and moral lessons. The Romper Room tried to teach its young charges to be polite. For instance, the hostess was always addressed as "Miss". Many of the hostesses had prior experience in dealing with small children; in fact, a good many of them were former kindergarten teachers.

A recurring character was Mr. Do Bee, an oversized bumblebee who came to teach the children how to be well-behaved; he was noted for always starting his sentence with "Do Bee," as in the imperative "Do be"; for example, "Do Bee good boys and girls for your parents!"

At the end of each broadcast, the hostess would look through a "magic mirror" (in reality, a face-sized open hoop with a handle) and name the children she saw in "televisionland."

She would begin with the rhyme: "Romper, bomper, stomper boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me, do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Have all my friends had fun at play?" She would then lead into "I can see Scotty and Kimberly and Julie and Jimmy and Marcie and all of you boys and girls out there!" Kids were encouraged to mail in their names, which would be read on the air.

[edit] Romper Room and Friends

In 1981, the name of the program was changed to Romper Room and Friends, and new characters were introduced: a large puppet named Kimble, Granny Cat, and a clown puppet called Up-Up. The new format of the series allowed these new characters to be seen in vignettes on the stations that still ran their own versions of Romper Room.

The new incarnation of the series aired over 100 episodes, which were rerun into the next decade (shows were frequently recycled as the audience to which the show was geared "grew out" of the show within two or three years, not unlike skits reused on Sesame Street).

From the 1950s - 1990s, the Romper Room hostess ended each program by reciting the show's signature Magic Mirror "chant":

"Romper, bomper, stomper, boo, tell me, tell me, tell me true. Magic mirror, tell me today, did all my friends have fun at play?"

With the chant spoken, the Romper Room hostess gazed through the mirror frame and recited the names of the lucky children whom she pretended to see watching the program (a different list of names each day).

[edit] Hostesses

The first Romper Room hostess was Nancy Claster, who helped produce the series with her husband under the Claster Television banner. Miss Nancy hosted the show from the first episode in 1953 until 1963, when she was replaced with Sally Claster Gelbard, Miss Nancy's daughter. Miss Sally hosted the show until 1981, when it was retitled and Molly McCloskey took over (she had previously been a Romper Room host in New York City). While many local versions ended in the late 1980s and early 1990s, nationally syndicated episodes of Romper Room and Friends with Miss Molly stopped airing in 1994.

[edit] Miss Sherri

In 1962, the hostess of the Phoenix franchise of Romper Room linked her own name with that of the ongoing controversies over abortion. Sherri Finkbine, known to television viewers as "Miss Sherri," sought hospital approval for abortion on the ground that she had been taking thalidomide and believed her child would be born deformed.

The hospital refused to allow an abortion, apparently because of her high profile and its own fear of publicity. Finkbine traveled to Sweden for the abortion. Upon completion, it was confirmed that the fetus had no legs and only one arm.

The incident became a made-for-TV movie in 1992, A Private Matter, with Sissy Spacek in the title role.

[edit] International

The Romper Room format was expanded into other countries, such as Canada, Northern Ireland, Great Britain and Australia.

In Canada, the program was mainly seen on the CTV Network, produced at CKCO in Kitchener, Ontario and was hosted by Miss Fran (Fran Pappert) and Miss Betty (Betty Thompson).

There were two version of Romper Room produced in Australia, one produced by the Seven Network for national consumption, the other produced by NBN Television in Newcastle, for the local market.

The hostesses of the national edition included Miss Patricia, Miss Helena and Miss Megan.

The NBN edition continued after the station became an affiliate of the Nine Network, with a new title, Big Dog and Friends, the title referring to the station's mascot Big Dog, who appeared in the show as the sidekick of the hostess, Miss Kim.

In Great Britain, it was produced by Anglia Television for local showing in the English East Anglia region, as was in the case for Northern Ireland where local ITV company UTV created their own local production.

In Puerto Rico, the show was hosted by Rosaura Andreu.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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