If you were a kid in the 1960s, on Sunday night you watched Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom before 60 Minutes. Host Marlon Perkins always seemed to be leaving partner Jim Fowler out in the field while he went back to the studio to shill for Mutual of Omaha insurance. It got to be a running joke with us. “While Jim wrestles the Tiger, we’ll talk about your coverage.”
Fowler died at the age of 89.
After Wild Kingdom he was a regular on shows like The Tonight Show, bringing strange and often endangered animals to the show and raising public awareness about extinction. He’'ll be missed
I was born in 1966 so most of my childhood was in the 1970s and 1980s and I remember watching this show. According to Wikipedia, after 1971, the show continued to air, but mostly as syndicated repeats. So that’s what I remember.
My favorite memory of Jim Fowler was the time he wrestled the anaconda in the river for like 10 minutes, appearing to be close to drowning the whole time. After awhile I realized that if he really was in mortal danger, the cameraman wouldn’t still be filming. Ten-year-old me learned a little bit about “reality” TV from watching that episode.
I also just love that he was on Seinfeld. Kramer’s “talk show” (with Newman as sidekick) was one of the funniest things they ever did.
For some reason, I always thought he was Australian. Maybe it was the bush outfit. I can imagine him saying things like “Mind you, Bengal tigers are tricky beasts. Can’t take your eyes off 'em for a second!” in the corresponding accent.
That would be the late Steve Irwin, a.k.a. “The Crocodile Hunter”. But yeah, I can see the “guy in khaki outfit” thing. I often confused Jim Fowler and Jack Hannah.
Fowler was on Carson a lot, Hannah was on Letterman a lot. That’s about the only way I can tell the two apart. If you asked me, I would have guessed that it was Hannah who did the bit on “Seinfeld”. :smack:
I was thinking of this when I heard the news. Note that there are two stages of coolness in making that happen.
Cool 1: Seinfeld people thought it would be cool to have Fowler appear on Kramer’s mock show.
Coo 2: Fowler was cool with appearing on the show.
Given the vast difference between a “show about nothing” and a wildlife guy, such meetings of the minds can’t be common.
Looking at his IMDb page, this is his only appearance as himself on a scripted show.
He’s listed as an actor playing a character in 3 things. One of them seems apt. The other two I wonder about. Esp. the listing for him playing a senator in the R-rated Little Laura and Big John. Maybe one of the many other Jim Fowlers?
I remember watching the original MoO Wild Kingdom on rainy Sunday afternoons as a kid, purely because the other two shows on were even worse.
Yep, Sunday afternoons were definitely a dead zone where TV was concerned (still are, actually). I always hoped there would be a war movie on one of the local channels whenever I was stuck at home on Sundays.
Marlin was avuncular, like that uncle of yours who smelled of dentures and nicotine.
Jim was one of the Kings of Awesome in my childhood, behind the eternal #1, Evel Knievel. Caught it in syndication, MoOWK was one of the few shows allowed in my grandparent’s house when we visited each summer:
Church
The stock market ticker
Wall Street Week
Washington Week in Review, and
Wild Kingdom
Got them to watch an episode of Mork and Mindy once, I’m surprised they didn’t have a coronary.
