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Director's Notes - Episode 247: Rerun
🕑 Added 2024-05-01 15:00:12 +0000 UTCI was recently in Arizona visiting family, and my aunt (who’s a patron of this show and maybe reading this? Shoutout Aunt Lori!) was telling me about a long-running but long-gone local Phoenix area children’s show called Wallace and Ladmo. It unlocked my own memories of the former (long-gone) Oregon-based children’s show that I grew up with, Ramblin’ Rod.
Ramblin’ Rod wore a signature red cardigan that was covered in pins and buttons, hosted Smile Contests with the kids in the studio audience, and arrived on set in a fake wooden tugboat. I spent almost every morning with him for years, and then when I started to grow up, just kind of forgot he existed.
It got me thinking (while eating a burrito on that cloudy Arizona day) that local children’s shows were once a real phenomenon in this country. That there were literally thousands of Captains and Uncles and Misses and Clowns, existing in thousands of Ranches and Treehouses and Tugboats and Jungles in almost every major city in the nation.
And of course, that got me thinking about Night Vale and what a local kids show there might have looked like when Cecil was growing up. And just like me, Cecil would probably wonder, where was that show host now? What happened to him? Did he simply cease to exist when everyone stopped watching, like a mythical creature that relied on the attention of children in order to survive? Or was he still out there somewhere?
A Wikipedia search revealed that Ramblin’ Rod died of a stroke in a thrift shop a few weeks before I graduated high school. But in Night Vale, there is no Wikipedia (that I know of)—so whether or not certain things or people exist is a lot more indefinite, and that means anything is possible.
-Brie Williams
May 2024
Comments
cole k
i loved this episode! but on spotify, it’s listed as episode 246, same as “A Story about Him”
Camille Malmquist
Ramblin’ Rod is exactly who I was picturing listening to this! I got to go in his show once and I gave him a pin for his jacket. Thanks for the memory jog!
Melissa Decost
The one I remember for Colorado was Blinky the Clown. Could not stand it at any age, so it was my signal that tv time (aka Sesame Street) was done. Only thing I know about the man was that he was an alcoholic, and apparently those who went to his live show could smell it on his breath.
Melissa Decost
I loved Beakman. Vastly superior to Nye, in my opinion at the time
Keri Kramer
really amazing episode, brie, i've loved the energy, concepts, and writing you've brought to the show. so happy to have you on as a permanent writer! this episode was gut wrenching, i've been really enjoying the exploration of the gerschwin-palmer family's generational trauma. i've always been curious, we know leonard burton and cecil were broadcasting on the radio before radio was invented, and now cecil was on tv at 5 despite being a teenager in the 1700s, what goes in to your (you, fink, and cranor's) decisions to have there be whatever technology is needed to tell the stories and explore the themes you want to?
Cheris Lifford
Hey I’m pretty sure it’s a mistake but this episode is labeled as 246 on Spotify! Not sure if you’re able to fix that but just in case you’re unaware thought I’d let you know.
Ollie of the Beholder
Lester! Man, I loved that show...
Madeleine
In Winnipeg (Canada) there were local kids tv hosts that were puppets, a beaver and a dog, Beavis and Buckley (it was the '90s so pretty sure it was a Beavis and Butthead reference lol). They would banter and introduce all the before/after school TV shows and it was called Kids Club,. You could get a membership from Mac's convenience stores (which I believe have all been turned into Circle Ks now) and you could get deals on things like the mini-amusement park just outside the city. I remember one year they held an audition at a mall to be a kids reporter for them, I stood in line with my mom on a Saturday for HOURs but did not make the cut! I was so jealous of the kids who did! I think there's still a fair amount of footage of Beavis and Buckley on YouTube.
Doni Payne
The weird kids show I remember only vaguely wasn't a local one. It was the science show that was real weird called Beakman's World. I don't remember any of the science but I do remember the guy who was dressed up in a bulky rat costume.
