Two bits of news

originally posted by Steve Guattery:
What about the Banana Man (who used to be on Captain Kangaroo from time to time)? I saw him myself, but I have a hard time believing he was real...
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Wikipedia is your friend: click

Not only was he real, but, when the original Banana Man died, another man picked up the act and continued it.

Knowing the crowd hereabouts, I provide video of the original Banana Man, Adolph Proper (working under "A. Robins").
 
Cap'n Marsupial retired where we have our summer digs. Nice guy. Very, very nice guy. The community misses him.
 
I hate to go all lit. crit. on people, but Captain Kangaroo was fictional. Bob Keeshan, who played him was real, but Clayton Moore wasn't the Lone Ranger either, even though he came to have thought he was.
 
If Captain Kangaroo was fictional, does that mean Mister Roger's was fictional?

Certainly, Fred Rogers, the man who starred in Mister Roger's Neighborhood, was real. But, since he was playing a role in the show, i.e., the character "Mister Rogers," does that make the character fictional? Or is Fred Rogers the performer and Mister Rogers the character one and the same person? If that is the case, why couldn't Captain Kangaroo be perceived as the same person as Bob Keeshan, thus being equally real?

Of course, I have never seen Captain Kangaroo (a little before my time) so I can't really say.
 
originally posted by Yule Kim:
If Captain Kangaroo was fictional, does that mean Mister Roger's was fictional?

Certainly, Fred Rogers, the man who starred in Mister Roger's Neighborhood, was real. But, since he was playing a role in the show, i.e., the character "Mister Rogers," does that make the character fictional? Or is Fred Rogers the performer and Mister Rogers the character one and the same person? If that is the case, why couldn't Captain Kangaroo be perceived as the same person as Bob Keeshan, thus being equally real?

Of course, I have never seen Captain Kangaroo (a little before my time) so I can't really say.
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I don't want to disabuse you but, no matter how much Fred Rogers played in character, Mr. Rogers was also fictional. I would have thought the Eddie Murphy routine on Saturday Night Live, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Rogers, would have answered that question definitively.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Yule Kim:
If Captain Kangaroo was fictional, does that mean Mister Roger's was fictional?

Certainly, Fred Rogers, the man who starred in Mister Roger's Neighborhood, was real. But, since he was playing a role in the show, i.e., the character "Mister Rogers," does that make the character fictional? Or is Fred Rogers the performer and Mister Rogers the character one and the same person? If that is the case, why couldn't Captain Kangaroo be perceived as the same person as Bob Keeshan, thus being equally real?

Of course, I have never seen Captain Kangaroo (a little before my time) so I can't really say.
Click to expand...

I don't want to disabuse you but, no matter how much Fred Rogers played in character, Mr. Rogers was also fictional. I would have thought the Eddie Murphy routine on Saturday Night Live, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Rogers, would have answered that question definitively.
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Next you will be telling me that Santa doesn't exist.
 
originally posted by Yule Kim:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Yule Kim:
If Captain Kangaroo was fictional, does that mean Mister Roger's was fictional?

Certainly, Fred Rogers, the man who starred in Mister Roger's Neighborhood, was real. But, since he was playing a role in the show, i.e., the character "Mister Rogers," does that make the character fictional? Or is Fred Rogers the performer and Mister Rogers the character one and the same person? If that is the case, why couldn't Captain Kangaroo be perceived as the same person as Bob Keeshan, thus being equally real?

Of course, I have never seen Captain Kangaroo (a little before my time) so I can't really say.
Click to expand...

I don't want to disabuse you but, no matter how much Fred Rogers played in character, Mr. Rogers was also fictional. I would have thought the Eddie Murphy routine on Saturday Night Live, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Rogers, would have answered that question definitively.
Click to expand...

Next you will be telling me that Santa doesn't exist.
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Or that pork, bacon, and ham all come from a single, magical animal.
 
originally posted by Doug Padgett:
Toddlers everywhere must weep when they see you coming, professor.
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On the contrary, toddlers and I get along very well. They don't much care if things are fictional, reality still being a mostly fictional concept to them, but somehow they know that art never did betray the heart that loved her and it took me years to relearn that lesson.
 
originally posted by Lou Kessler:
Where one lives
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Yule Kim:
I thought there was real Captain Kangaroo.
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Indeed there was! And his sidekick, Mr. Green Jeans, was real, too.
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So, alas, was The Candyman

Mark Lipton
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You and I have inhabited different neighborhoods, "The Candy Man" has always been the local pot dealer and looked upon with great fondness.
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I must be a rube. When I hear about the Candyman, I think of Sammy Davis Jr.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Knowing the crowd hereabouts, I provide video of the original Banana Man, Adolph Proper (working under "A. Robins").
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Thanks, Jeff. You made my day even if this clip didn't have him pulling watermelons out of his pants, which the Banana Man (apparently Proper/Robins's successor) always did on Captain Kangaroo.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Doug Padgett:
Toddlers everywhere must weep when they see you coming, professor.
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Excepting only those with senses of humor.
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I was joking! I was just ribbing Jonathan Loesberg for bursting our own bubbles of nostalgia. Hated Mr Rogers myself, but I loved the Captain.

Fundamentally I agree with him.

Toddlers (or the ones I know--and special as they are to me, they might not be terribly representative of the type) "don't much care if things are fictional, reality still being a mostly fictional concept to them." And they do "know that art never did betray the heart that loved her." And once lost, it will take years "to relearn that lesson." And that's the hard, sad part. Which is one reason why parents go to such ridiculous lengths to protect their wee things from the Truth--about Santa Claus, fairies, death, whatever--and then ease them into it. Sure Mr. Greenjeans is fictional. To us. As adults.

I will never forget the much-dreaded Disney trip of '07 and watching my 3yo have a near-adult conversation with a mermaid, never realizing the fishy lady was an actor. And me, the sap, in the corner wondering how much longer....
 
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