I have so many wonderful memories from the Bozo show. I was on a waiting list to get on it. I heard the list was 4 years long. Every kid wanted to be on Bozo. It was must see tv until I was 11.
Gary Weir played Bozo for 25 years. The show moved around from station to station.
Bozo was used for a lot of promotions. He played an annual promotional game against the Arkansas Travelers (baseball) for many years.
Every Bozo looked a little different. I always thought Gary’s version looked friendlier and less scary. Gary wasn’t a big burly guy and it made a difference in Bozo’s appearance.
Is the Bozo franchise officially dead? Is anyone still playing him?
He was 75.
RIP Old friend
Rootie kazootie, Wowie kazowie. Old Bozo is your best pal
From the summers I spent in Joliet as a kid, I remember Bob Bell as Bozo on WGN. He was like the schoolmarm on Romper Room: Every city had their own version. There was Miss Betty in Minneapolis and Miss June in Chicago (I’m told June’s attributes were especially delightful :o).
Did the Arkansas variant share the “Fuck you, Bozo!” legend of his Northern counterpart? :dubious:
The only thing I didn’t like was the Bozo cartoons. Terrible, cheap animation. They often featured still figures with only the mouth moving. Once in awhile an eye blink or an arm would move.
I remember asking my mom why the Bozo show didn’t show the good cartoons, Tom & Jerry, Looney Toons, and Merrie Melodies.
I guess the franchise required the show to only run Bozo cartoons.
The best part of the show was the games the kids played and Bozo talking to the kids.
I seem to remember a big wooden chest with the prizes they gave the kids.
I wish some former kids from these shows would do a AMA.
I’ve wondered how much they rehearsed. “What are you going to say to Bozo?” Some kids are afraid of clowns. Bozo must have come out early and joked around with the kids. Break the ice.
The games were very active. It involved a lot of running around. I guess they had someday introduce the kids to the game before going on air.
It was live TV. I don’t remember very many bloopers
Yeah, that story has all sorts of variations. “Cram it, clown” “Fuck you, clown,” “Aw, cram it.” It happened in Chicago. Or maybe Boston. Or who knows. It doesn’t seem to have been definitively settled. Zenster’s version in that thread say it was a “Fuck It!” when the kid missed, followed by a “That’s a Bozo no-no” from Bozo, with the kid coming back with “cram it, clown!”
Yeah, “Cram it, clown,” was how I first heard it. Don’t know for sure, as it was not a Catholic school holiday. You miss so much at a parochial school. I first felt Kathy’s bra strap when we square danced at our graduation party, and then she was called away.
I’m pretty sure Bozo is where I was first introduced to Rocky and Bullwinkle. That, the cup game, and some joke about doing something under water (with a cup of water on his head) are all I remember about the show other than the faces.
I also find it weird that so many kids watched him, yet more people than not that I run into find clowns too creepy. I even sorta feel it now, but I never had a problem with them as a kid.
I first felt Kathy’s bra strap when we square danced at our graduation party, and then she was called away. 