Story by: Craig Wirthnews@abc4.comSALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - One of the earliest recordings from 1948 is of a Channel 4 kids show.
When TV was young, it was how you started your day, or what you ran home to watch after school. Channel 4 was your TV uncle.
Later, it was Fireman Frank who captured the attention of young hearts and minds.
The early kid's local TV stars were heroes. Fireman Frank could draw a crowd where ever he went, and he always had a message: don’t play with matches...good advice in any era.
You joined captain KC’s Club promising to be truthful and help mom, making sure you wrote the good captain, who displayed your personal letter.
When Channel 4 was KCPX, there was also Captain Scotty. When he wasn’t in space, he was at the super market.
And on a special day you got to go actually see Captain Scotty, and there were astronauts, skippers, and firefighters, too.
And then two BYU students opened up a hotel named Balderdash. A generation grew up with Cannonball, Harvey and their sidekick Raymond.
The Hotel Balderdash guys did 480 shows a year, over 240 days of mornings and afternoons. How could three guys think of that much stuff to do?
Harvey says Raymond was a good source of material because he chewed Bazooka Bubble gum, and the trio got many of those corny kid jokes from the wrappers.
They taped five days of shows one night a week, with 100 kids crammed in the studio; 20 at a time for each show.
It was all good, clean kids entertainment, with sight gags and knock knock jokes.
It's hard for TV veterans to imagine those morning and afternoon shows would ever disappear. They were just so much a part of growing up.
Little remains of these shows. Video tape was too expensive not to re-use back then, and besides, there was always going to be another day, another show, and another 20 kids in the studio.
Gone are the days when local stars told a few jokes, promoted safety, took us to far-away places of our own imagination, and presented a few cartoons.
For many who grew up with television, it's too bad TV had to grow up, too.
