During the time of Howdy Doody and Fearless Fosdick, there was a daytime (possibly Saturday) circus show. I have been trying for a long time to recall the name of it.
Could you be thinking of Super Circus? 1949-1955
That should be it. My book of TV shows only encompasses prime time and Super Circus is not listed. That should put it in the time slot I envisioned. It was the second TV show I ever saw. There was no TV reception in Fresno at the time. We were visiting my step father's mother near San Jose. I was twelve.
The first face I saw on TV was Art Linkletter, during an episode of House Party.
Rod Steiger played a butcher, hounded by his mother about marriage. Name the televised play (1953)
Was "Marty" a TV play first? Sounds like "Marty", that was a film with Ernest Borgnine and won the oscar in 1955.
Steiger came first as Marty.
There was a show in the late 50's about a boy's life in the circus. The boy, Corky, carried water for the elephants. His chief adult caretaker was Uncle Joey, who was either a clown or a roustabout, I'm not sure which. Both of the actors in these roles are better known for later series. What was the name of this show, and who were the actors?
Circus Boy is part of the answer. The boy playing Corky was later one of The Monkeys.
Mickey Dolenz, drummer for the Monkees was Circus Boy, although I think he used a different name then. Don't know about Uncle Joey.
Interesting trivial note about another one of the Monkees, Davy Jones- he appeared on the same Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles' first appearance. He was appearing as the Artful Dodger in "Oliver!" on Broadway and the cast was performing "Consider Yourself" as one of the other acts.
And, of course, Mike Nesmith's mother invented Liquid Paper.
Peter Tork, as far as I know, has no other claim to fame.
Corky - Mickey Braddock
Joey the Clown - Noah Beery, Jr
Big Tim Champion - Robert Lowery
Hank Miller - Leo Gordon
Little Tom, the midget - Billy Barty
Uncle Joey (Noah Beery, Jr.) was later featured in The Rockford Files as James Garner's Dad.
I didn't remember Billy Barty being in the series, but then again, I was only 6 when the series began its three year run. Don't even remember any story lines. Noah Beery stuck in my mind because he reminded me of an adult relative, although the resemblence, in retrospect, is not very strong.
Noah Beery, Jr. He was in lots of films. He played Wiley Post in a film about Will Rogers.
Here's a quartet that might (or might not) tax you:
On the original Wonderful World of Disney, mini-series were often produced, and, if popular, more episodes followed. One of the more successful was Zorro; the top dog was probabl Davy Crockett. Some of my other favorites were:
1. A revolutionary war hero waging a guerilla war against the British in the swamps of South Carolina.
2. A retired Texas Ranger raising a family on a ranch.
3. A Mexican lawyer roaming the old west, defending the downtrodden in courtrooms and the streets.
4. A British clergyman righting wrongs in the English countryside, not unlike Zorro, only wearing a very different disguise.
Name the characters.
1 Swamp Fox
2 Texas John Slaughter
3 Elfago Bacca
4 ?
There was also Johnny Tremaine.
I cheated a little on the fourth one....it came along a few years after the others. The character was played by Patrick McGoohan, and IMDB says it was a made for TV movie, but I distinctly remember episodes on Disney. Don't know if that was just the movie broken up or what.
I never saw Johnny Tremaine, but I had a Johnny Tremaine playset...
I recall the McGoohan character, but didn't watch any of it.
Do I vaguely remember a short-lived '50's series titled "Frontier Circus", possibly featuring Chill Wills?
Frontier Circus also starred John Derek and Richard Jaekel. Oct '61 - - Sept '62.
Was Leslie Nielsen "Swamp Fox"?
I vaguely remember the Patrick McGoohan one. Was he the "scarecrow" or something of that ilk.
Johnny Tremain was one of my favorites. Was that originally part of the TV show or a feature film? My grade school somehow had copies of Johnny Tremain and Toby Tyler and they showed them every year. I wanted to grow up to be Johnny Tremain.
Tremain was supposed to be Paul Revere's apprentice, and fused his fingers together in an accident pouring molten silver. He winds up being present at most of the important events leading up to the American Revolution. Disneyland & Disneyworld still have "The Liberty Tree" in New Orleans Square, which was from Johnny Tremain.
Toby Tyler was a kid who ran away from home and joined the circus. He has a chimp friend named Mr. Stubbs. Much of the cast came from Disney TV shows. Toby was played by Kevin Corcoran, who was (Moogie??) the little brother on Spin and Marty. Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin, from the Zorro show (Bernardo and Garcia) were Toby's friends,
