A little
wooden puppet who dressed like a
cowboy and had his own show, also starring
Buffalo Bob Smith (human),
Clarabell the Clown (human),
Flubadub,
Phineas T. Bluster and
Dilly Dally. Every
episode started out with the question, "What time is it, kids?" to which everybody in the
audience shouted, "
It's Howdy Doody time!" and then the song would begin. You may remember this intro from
Back to the Future III when
Marty goes back to 1954 and gets waken up by the show.
The Howdy Doody Show was actually quite ground-breaking. Before then, there were no
TV shows for
children.
NBC decided they would try a children's television show and adapted the Howdy Doody show from the
radio,
broadcast on NBC radio. And the rest is history.
Currently, there is a legal battle going on over
custody of
Howdy Doody between the family of
Rufus Rose and the
Detroit Institute of the Arts. For more info on this custody battle, see
The Howdy Doody Internet Conspiracy.