OFF/not music: send out the clowns....

[DASLUD at AOL.COM]

Bozo the Clown Bows Out After 40 Years on TV

Reuters

CHICAGO (March 26) - Bozo the Clown, who goofed off on a Chicago television
stage for 40 years, will bow out and make way for a modern version of the
carrot-topped character, the creators of the show said on Friday.

Chicago's version of the small-scale circus, featuring Bozo and various
sidekicks such as Cooky and Oliver O. Oliver, debuted on Chicago's WGN-TV in
1960 and later aired nationally via WGN-TV's cable channel.

The show has now stopped production and will air its last special on Aug. 26,
WGN-TV said.

The Tribune Co.-owned station said changing viewing habits -- particularly
children not going home for lunch to watch the show that once aired every
weekday -- and competitors for young viewers from cable channels such as
Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel led it to cancel the vintage Bozo.

An updated version, aimed at the national entertainment marketplace and
featuring the latest video tricks, will likely begin production soon, said a
spokesman for Larry Harmon Pictures Corp., which owns the rights to Bozo.

''On a national scale, we've wanted to launch a new kind of production of
'Bozo' for some time now, but our commitments in Chicago have prevented us
from moving forward,'' Larry Harmon said in a statement from Los Angeles.

Bozo, which original creator Alan Livingston introduced on children's records
in the 1940s, was later syndicated for television, and shows were produced in
183 cities around the world. The first televised Bozo aired in Los Angeles in
1949, but was canceled a year later, according to WGN.

WGN said its Bozo was the longest-running children's show in the country and
the last of the locally produced Bozo shows, although the Harmon Pictures
spokesman said there were a few other cities with shows still in production.

The Chicago version changed little over the years, featuring tame circus acts
and children's games beloved by Baby Boomers such as the ''Grand Prize Game''
where bigger and bigger prizes were awarded for tossing a ping-pong ball in
successively numbered pails.

Tickets to the show at WGN's studio were desperately sought after by parents
and some children grew up while awaiting their chance to attend, a WGN
spokeswoman said.

More than 200 actors were trained to play Bozo, though only two donned the
make-up in Chicago, including the late Bob Bell who played the clown for 23
years.

07:46 03-26-01