Go Retro: Whitney And The Robot!

Before Nickelodeon, and even before PBS, there was a time when local television stations around the country aired locally-produced children's programming.

Here in Los Angeles, locally-produced kids' shows aired largely from the 1950s to the early 1990s, stretching from Sheriff John to Hobo Kelly to That's Cat (Raise ya fist up if you remember any of those!).

The Militant did some reminiscing as well. When the Militant was young (a.k.a. Lil' Mil), he watched a show from the late '70s called Whitney and the Robot which aired on - and was produced by - KNBC 4.

The show featured an unabashedly blatant R2D2 knockoff robot named 4U2, who came from a planet named Zeda and was sent to the planet Earth to learn more about it, under the care of a whimsical taxi cab driver (not a very busy or lucrative profession in Los Angeles) named Whitney. Whitney's good pal, the red-headed Corky, would join them on their various adventures, and would frequently break out in song.

So what's so militant about this? Well, each episode featured a different locale, filmed around the Los Angeles area, where the child-like robot would learn about things or experience them, from visiting the city dump to learn about recycling and where your garbage goes (the one episode most people seem to recall) or taking a train ride at Union Station or learning about horses at a ranch (filmed at the Old Rex Allen Ranch in Calabasas). Did this show fuel Lil' Mil's budding Angeleno knowledge? It may or may not have...but he tends to think it did.

The show was created by its (human) actors, Whitney Rydbeck, a local actor with a mime background (having performed in the Richmond Shepard mime troupe in Los Angeles in the 1960s), and Robert V. "Corky" Greene, another local actor with a musical background. Both have done bit parts in television and movies since Whitney and the Robot - (Whitney even sealed his place in Star Trek lore), and Rydbeck currently works as a performing arts professor at Pasadena City College. Greene, a Van Nuys High alum, got into directing and producing and seems to be enjoying grandfatherhood these days. He's been known to lurk on teh Interwebz so he might very well stumble upon this here blog post! (Whatup, Corky?!)

Anyway, here's what the show's opening looked like (rather long by today's standards...):



You can watch one of the episodes here - if you were a kid in the late '70s, it may or may not take you back!

There were only 14 episodes made, from late 1978 to 1979. KNBC aired the show on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings up until the mid-1980s, but the show was also syndicated to other cities and aired at one time or another on television up until 1990.

For the Militant, and those around his age who remember this show, it was a way to learn about things and places and present Los Angeles as a familiar place, free from the usual cliches and stereotypes one would eventually pick up later on in life. It's a crying shame the kids of today have no equivalent.

Los Conangeles

As you may or may not know, last night, Conan O'Brien finally brought his Late Night antics westward to become the fifth host of The Tonight Show.

For the Militant, who admits to being a Conan fan since September 1993, the thought of bringing the show here to Los Angeles is an awesome opportunity (for Triumph to poop on!), the ability to go see a taping notwithstanding.

Of note to the Militant is his amazingly beautimous set, which includes the requisite cityscape/skyline talk show backdrop, but prominently features well-known local edifices as the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills city halls, the Hollywood Bowl, Mann's Chinese, the U.S. Bank Tower and Bullock's Wilshire (which seems to tower over all the others). Above the backdrop is an art deco-style mural with So Cal iconic images (beach lifeguard station, etc) - a nice nod to one of the world's capitals of Art Deco.

Of more note to the Militant is how the City gets portrayed to the national audience. Granted this is a comedy program, so people, places and things will no doubt get lampooned, but surely one can be ROTFL funny without resorting to tired old stereotypes. O'Brien's predecessor, Jay Leno, initially relied on poking fun at the usual showbiz/superficial/cosmetic surgery-obsessed jokes posted at Angelenos, though in later years it's either been tempered down, or re-focused (i.e. the same jokes, but pointed at Beverly Hills). The intellectually-challenged interviewees from Leno's "Jaywalking" bit also inadvertently depicted Angelenos as clueless buffoons at first, but eventually the segment was taken nationwide and demonstrated that clueless buffoonery was simply an American phenomenon.

The Militant already has high hopes; so far O'Brien has employed the usage of "Los Angeles" far more times in the first episode than simply "L.A." (A pet peeve of the Militant, especially since you never hear those Frisco people say "S.F." when both cities' names contain the same amount of syllables). Plus, O'Brien's trademark non-sequitur/referential humor would likely offer something more than the expected stereotypical humor. The reference to the 99 Cents Only store (especially in the obscure products found there - in contrast to Leno's approach to 99 Cent store items) in the Universal Studios tour bit was a good indicator of what may be to come.

One thing, though that irked the Militant was O'Brien mentioning that guest comedian Will Ferrell "Lived in Los Angeles for quite a while." For quite a while? Um, the dude's an area native! Ferrell's from Orange County and all of the Militant's USC operatives know that he's a Trojan alum.

So welcome back (O'Brien lived here in the late '80s-early '90s, just prior to starting Late Night) to Los Angeles, Conan! Maybe the Militant can show you and your crew around!