Art Linkletter and the Kids (DVD)

Art Linkletter (1912-2010) was one of the most beloved television personalities of the 20th century. For decades, he was the host of House Party, an anything-goes variety show that aired weekday afternoons. The show's most well-remembered segment was "Kids Say the Darndest Things", in which Art would engage in off-the-cuff interviews with children between the ages of 2 and 10. It was so popular that in 1952, Art Linkletter and the Kids began airing in syndication, featuring three of Art's interviews in a 15-minute show. (The program would conclude with Linkletter giving an adorable baby animal to one of the children to play with or, conversely, make them do something "adult", like shave or carve a turkey.) A disproportionate amount of the children in these six episodes say their parents work at television stations, implying that nepotism may have been involved in their selection as guests. By far the funniest of the kids is the little boy who tells Art with a straight face that "the Devil is the prettiest man in the world." Mostly airing on Saturday mornings, Art Linkletter and the Kids was sponsored by Gordon's Foods, maker of potato chips and snack foods.

BONUS: JOHNNY JUPITER: Broadcast on ABC during the 1953-1954 television season, Johnny Jupiter is surely one of the most bizarre children's shows to ever air on Saturday morning. Wright King plays Ernest P. Duckweather, an unsuccessful inventor making $15 a week at Frisby's General Store. One day, while fiddling with the knobs of an experimental television set, he accidentally tunes in the planet Jupiter! Now he can communicate with "the strange creatures" he sees on the TV: Johnny Jupiter, "a human, more or less", Major Domo, "the chief of the robots", and Reject the Robot, "able to appear and disappear at will!" (all played by puppets voiced by Gilbert Mack.) The industrious Ernest tries to involve his new friends in various get-rich-quick schemes. When they inevitably fail, the Jupiterians send Reject the Robot (now played by Philip London in a robot costume) to Earth to help Duckweather. Wright King had a close to 40-year career, with roles that include the newsboy who kisses Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), appearances on The Twilight Zone (1961-1963), and chimpanzee scientist Dr. Galen in the original Planet of the Apes (1968). This collection includes the episodes "Duckweather and the Professor" and "Duckweather: TV Repairman".

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