Romper Room

"Romper Room" is 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, Puerto Rico and Japan. The program was targeted at pre-schoolers (children five years of age or younger).

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. [http://www.riverwestbrands.com River West Brands] is the current owner of the Romper Room trademark and intends to re-launch the brand.

A typical episode

Each program would open with a greeting from the hostess and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then the hostess and her group of children would embark on an hour (or half hour) of games, exercises, songs and moral lessons, which were regularly accompanied by background music. The young cast was rotated every two months and ranged from four to five years old.

"Romper Room" tried to teach its young charges to be polite. For instance, the hostesses were always addressed as "Miss." Many of the hostesses had prior experience in dealing with small children, as many 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!" There was also a "Mr. Don't Bee" to show children exactly what they should "not" do.

The show used the then-popular Mattel Jack-in-the-box for its opening and closing titles, with its "Pop Goes the Weasel" theme song.

At the end of each broadcast, the hostess would look through a "magic mirror" (actually a face-sized open hoop with a handle) and name the children she saw in "televisionland," then recite 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 Kelly and all of you boys and girls out there!" Kids were encouraged to mail in their names, which would be read on the air.

"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").

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, located in Baltimore, MD, 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, in Baltimore and the surrounding area, until 1981 when it was retitled.

In New York City, the show aired on WNEW-TV (now WNYW) until the fall of 1966 when it moved to WOR-TV (now WWOR). Romper Room was locally produced in New York on and by WOR-TV Channel 9. "Miss Louise" was the hostess until 1975 followed by "Miss Mary Ann". During these years, "Romper Room" aired at 10 a.m. in order not to conflict with PBS's "Sesame Street". Molly McCloskey took over as the hostess in New York in 1980. She hosted the syndicated version as well until the late 1980s, when Nancy Terrell took that one over. WOR-TV continued to produce the show moving it to 9 a.m. in the fall of 1981 and then back to 10 a.m. a month later. It would remain there until the summer of 1985 when the show was pushed up to 8:30 am. A few months after WOR-TV was sold and renamed WWOR, "Romper Room" was reduced to 30 minutes and moved to 6 a.m. in September of 1987. A year later it discontinued production in the New York area. While many local versions ended in the late 1980s and early 1990s, nationally syndicated episodes of "Romper Room and Friends" with Miss Nancy stopped airing in 1994.

Another early "Romper Room" hostess was Claire Coleman, who was the original "Miss Claire" at the Romper Room debut in Philadelphia in 1954. Miss Claire hosted the show at WFIL TV from 1954 until 1956. During this time she shared an office with Dick Clark from American Bandstand. Claire Coleman is married to former U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker.

One host would find some measure of success in music. Margaret Jones, who hosted the Little Rock show as "Miss Peggy" between 1963 and 1966, went on to sing and to play tabla and keyboards for a locally popular psychedelic rock band called Campbell's Lavender Circus (or sometimes simply Lavender Circus). The sextet would sell a respectable 2,000 copies statewide of their single, "I Have No Time for Time"/"Mr. N. Bourbaki's Multicoloured Jam".

Controversy

Two controversial events were connected with "Romper Room":

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. Being a community-minded woman, Finkbine made a public announcement about the dangers of thalidomide.

The hospital refused to allow an abortion, apparently because of her announcement 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 as Finkbine.

Action For Children's Television vs. Romper Room

After the Children's television group Action for Children's Television was organised in 1968, ACT's first target was Boston's version of "Romper Room" at WHDH-TV (today's WCVB-TV), which at the time was a children's show that focused on the promotion of its branded line of toys to its viewers. Threatened with referral to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), WHDH scaled back the host's role in pitching the program's products ("host-selling").

Through the 1980s, Hasbro (which would later acquire Claster Television) sold branded "Romper Room" toys and products, but since ACT's intervention, ads and promotions for the items were not seen in the "Romper Room" program.

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). A version was also produced at CHCH in Hamilton, Ontario.

There were two versions 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 Susan, Miss Patricia, Miss Mary, 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, and was hosted by Miss Rosalind. In Northern Ireland, local ITV company UTV created a local production in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hosted by Miss Adrienne (mother of television reporter Andrea Catherwood), and then Miss Helen. Around the same time, Grampian Television in northern Scotland also produced a version, presented by the late Lesley Blair, a continuity announcer.

In Puerto Rico, the show was hosted by Rosaura Andreu, and later, by Sandra Zaiter.

Japan

In Japan, there was a localised version called "ロンパールーム" "(Ronpaaruumu)", which aired from 1963 to 1979. Just before Ronpaaruumu debuted, the first Japanese hostess, Midori Namiki, visited in New York for training with other hostesses from several countries. ( [http://www.isec-j.co.jp/90midori/romperroom.htm] )

Hostesses of the Japanese version were always named Miss Midori, with "Midori" meaning "green".

The Japanese version had a controversial episode; when hostess Midori Utsumi (second hostess) asked the kids, "Tell me a word that begin with "Ki" (き or キ). A boy answered with "kintama" (testicles). Miss Midori replied "Do you know any words that are more beautiful?" The same boy responded with "kireina kintama!" ("beautiful testicles"; the word "kireina" (beautiful) also begins with "Ki"). After a commercial break, the boy was replaced with a teddy bear. Midori Utsumi, who has since became a major media personality, often tells this story on some TV programs that she appears in.

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIRu8-5Nyek A Clip from the Australian Romper Room circa 1985]
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* [http://www.missnancysjournal.com Miss Nancy's Journal]
* [http://www.tvparty.com/lostromper.html Romper Room info from tvparty.com]
* [http://www.captainerniesshowboat.com/romperroom.html Romper Room on WOC TV 6 Davenport, Iowa]
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=138079;querytype=;rec=0;resCount=10 Romper Room at the National Film and Sound Archive]