In 1953 or so, when this was important to me, my parents called it “duty” and said “do your duty” meaning poop.
Howdy Doody was on then, but we never watched it in our house.
Pretty similar to the recommended way of training guide dog puppies to go on command, which is “do your business.”
Howdy Doody was slightly before my time – at least, I was still too young to watch TV at the time it ended – but I had heard of the show. And “doody” was never used for “poop” where I grew up.
When I was a kid, we adopted a rehomed dog, who was three, and who had been very well-trained (I’m kinda surprised his owners rehomed him, but they divorced, and neither one could take him, was the story at the time-- anyway, we got a really fantastic dog, who we had for the next nine years). He had been trained to go to the phrase “Do your duty.” I’d never heard it before, but if it was used for a dog, it was probably used for children potty training around the same time and earlier. He was born the same year I was-- 1967.
Just more data that this is how “doody” came to mean “poop.”
Man, he was a great dog. He was a Basset Hound named Andy. Gentlest dog you could want for a family with little kids. He lived to be 12. I was so torn up when he died, I didn’t appreciate that that was a pretty long life for a Basset back then.
Maybe I’m imagining it but I think there was a HD show in the mid-70’s or so, starring the original Buffalo Bob Smith. I was in high school at the time but remember my younger siblings watching it. It was in color.
“Doody” was childish slang for feces since at least my toddlerhood, which was in the early 70’s, and I can’t imagine my parents would have taught it to me if they (born in the 40’s) weren’t familiar with it as such, though it’s possible that they picked it up after their childhood.
“Howdy Doody” never bothered me in that respect, since “he” was just a puppet. I’d always thought it strange, though, that one of the T-Birds in Grease was called Doody, and he didn’t particularly seem to be the object of derision in the film.
Nope – I recall seeing the revived “Howdy Doody” in syndication in the mid-70s. I was too young to have watched the show when it was first on, and was in college when it came around again.
The New Howdy Doody Show lasted less than a half year. But there were 130 episodes. Only a few of which got released on home media. Cozi supposedly reran them but I don’t recall that.
There was also a 40th anniversary show in the 80s.
And, I just realized that someone above me answered about Doody in Grease.