Rant #2,120: It's a Laugh

Chuck McCann passed away on Sunday, and I guess with him, went one of the last vestiges of New York Baby Boomers' childhoods.

McCann, 83, was the ultra-talented host of Channel 11's variety of Sunday morning children's shows during the early to mid-1960s, including "Let's Have Fun."

It is hard to describe these shows. They were a mix of just about everything that would make kids feel good about themselves on Sunday morning. They had cartoons, short films--the Three Stooges--and skits led by McCann, a multi-talented puppeteer/comedian/writer who could do just about anything and make us kids laugh.

All he had to do was smile, and this roly-poly fellow would make us laugh.

He would participate in a skit, and he would make us laugh.

He would become Stan Laurel, or Oliver Hardy, and he made us laugh.

He would turn into one of a stable of characters, and he read us the comics when the New York newspapers were on strike, and he made us laugh.

He was sort of an Ernie Kovacs/Jackie Gleason for the younger set, young kids in the New York Metropolitan Area who were between the ages of 4 to probably about 12.

No, he was not as well known as Soupy Sales, who turned his local daily kids show into a national phenomenon, and years afterward was still well known for his numerous appearances on national TV shows, in particular game shows.

But he was truly our own guy.

McCann, born in Brooklyn, was all our own, and even when the local kids shows faded from view and he went off to the wilds of Hollywood, he was still our guy.

He had quite a career before Hollywood, and an interesting career in film land.

McCann was in numerous films--including "The Projectionist" with Rodney Dangerfield, a film that is a must for any McCann fan--and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"--even more TV shows, but you know what I think he will ultimately be best remembered for on a national scale, and something that he was very proud of?

Two sets of commercials--the Right Guard man, who spoke through the bathroom mirror to someone on the other side about deodorant--and being the voice of Sonny, who was "Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs"--made him a popular TV personality, if not a TV superstar.

But I will add that no one--and I mean no one--did a better impersonation of "Little Orphan Annie" than he did.

When the New York City newspapers were on strike, he would read the comics to us on Sunday morning, and often dress up as the character that he was reading.

Well, Little Orphan Annie--with those iris-less button eyes, wild red hair, and short dress risen above the knees--was perfect for McCann to play on, and even when the newspapers were not on strike, McCann continued to play the character to the hilt, often with a rock and roll song about Annie playing in the background.

I can remember just laughing off my chair at his antics on "Let's Have Fun," the first show I can ever remember that allowed the stagehands, camera people, the director and whoever else was helping to bring the show to us behind the scenes laugh with us.

So if McCann was in a funny skit, you would often hear lots of laughter in the background, and if I was laughing at this stuff as a seven and eight year old, you can only imagine what those adults were laughing at--this was live TV, after all.

In addition to McCann and Sales, New York City TV had a wealth of personalities who hosted kid shows during this period, including Sonny Fox, Sandy Becker, Carol Corbett, Jack McCarthy, Joe Bolton, and Claude Kirschner.

They were a talented bunch, but Sales and McCann were the cream of the crop, the best of the group, and their shows were not to be missed.

I will personally miss McCann--who I was a Facebook friend of--and if you can, search out his biography, "The Let's Have Fun Scrapbook," which came out several years ago. He talks about all the fun he had on New York TV, as well as many of the challenges. It is a really good, quick read, and I recommend it to you.

And you can find a wealth of clips of the old shows he did on YouTube, so if you want to revisit a different time, you can do it through your computer.

Chuck McCann, R.I.P. You added a lot of laughs to my younger years, and no Baby Boomer based in New York can ever thank you enough for all you brought to us way back when.