Bozo the Clown (Fictional TV Series)

Bozo the Clown is a clown character whose broad popularity peaked in the United States in the 1960s as a result of widespread franchising in early television.
Originally created by Alan W. Livingston and portrayed by Pinto Colvig for a children's storytelling record album and illustrative read-along book set, the character became very popular during the 1940s and was a mascot for record company Capitol Records.
The character first appeared on television in 1949 starring Pinto Colvig. After the creative rights to Bozo were purchased by Larry Harmon in 1956, the character became a common franchise across the United States, with local television stations producing their own Bozo shows featuring the character. Harmon bought out his business partners in 1965 and produced Bozo's Big Top for syndication to local television markets not producing their own Bozo shows in 1966, while Chicago's Bozo's Circus which premiered in 1960, went national via cable and satellite in 1978.
The most notable performers to have played Bozo, aside from Colvig and Harmon, include Willard Scott (1959-1962), Frank Avruch (1959–1970), Bob Bell (1960–1984) and Joey D'Auria (1984–2001). Bozo TV shows were also produced in other countries including Mexico, Thailand, Australia, Greeceand Brazil. Larry Harmon claimed that more than 200 actors have portrayed the clown.
Bozo appeared in the series Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown.
== History ==
Bozo was created as a character by Alan W. Livingston, who produced a children's storytelling record-album and illustrative read-along book set, the first of its kind, titled Bozo at the Circus for Capitol Records and released in October 1946. Pinto Colvig portrayed the character on this and subsequent Bozo read-along records. The albums were very popular and the character became a mascot for the record company and was later nicknamed "Bozo the Capitol Clown." Many non-Bozo Capitol children's records had a "Bozo Approved" label on the jacket. In 1948, Capitol and Livingston began setting up royalty arrangements with manufacturers and television stations for use of the Bozo character. KRKO-TV in Los Angeles began broadcasting the first show, Bozo's Circus, in 1949 featuring Colvig as Bozo with his blue-and-red costume, oversized red hair and whiteface clown makeup on Fridays at 7:30 p.m.
In 1956, Larry Harmon, one of several actors hired by Livingston and Capitol Records to portray Bozo at promotional appearances, formed a business partnership and bought the licensing rights (excluding the record-readers) to the character when Livingston briefly left Capitol in 1956. Harmon had the vision and drive to take advantage of the growing television industry and make a better future for Bozo. He renamed the character "Bozo, The World’s Most Famous Clown" and modified the voice, laugh and costume. He then worked with a wig stylist to get the wing-tipped bright orange style and look of the hair that had previously appeared in Capitol's Bozo comic books. He started his own animation studio and distributed (through Jayark Films Corporation) a series of cartoons (with Harmon as the voice of Bozo) to television stations, along with the rights for each to hire its own live Bozo host, beginning with KLAC in Los Angeles on January 5, 1959 and starring Vance Colvig, Jr., son of the original "Bozo the Clown," Pinto Colvig.
Unlike many other shows on television, "Bozo the Clown" was mostly a franchise as opposed to being syndicated, meaning that local TV stations could put on their own local productions of the show complete with their own Bozo. Another show that had previously used this model successfully was Romper Room. Since each market used a different portrayer for the character, the voice and look of each market's Bozo also differed slightly.
In 2001, support for Bozo the Clown was way down, and unless they get support, the franchise was going to tank. DuMont Productions stepped up to the plate and decided to take over the franchise's TV franchising rights. DuMont decided that stations should have the option of airing either their own version of Bozo the Clown or they can air the Bozo the Clown show that would air in syndication, and with that, Bozo the Clown got the much needed boost that they need. In 2015, DuMont Productions entered into a partnership with Adelphia Communications, announcing that the majority of Adelphia's stations will air either their own version of the character or the syndicated version of the character, with DuMont continuing to produce the syndicated version, and area affiliates continuing to produce the local versions.
== Syndicated Format and Local Format ==
When DuMont decided to launch a syndicated format for local affiliates, they decided to take a different approach while keeping some of the key elements of the show.
=== Syndication ===
For the syndicated version, DuMont named the series "Bozo's Circus", while tapping Moshe Cohen (who founded Clowns without Borders) as the syndicated Bozo, Curtis Carlyle as Cooky the Cook, Clay Letson (an Australian magician and historian) as Wizzo the Wizard, and Jasper Patterson as "Ringmaster Jay." The tradition on "Bozo's Circus" from its start was that at the end of the program, Bozo would lead the audience out of the television studio in a Grand March, complete with baton and music. Also added to the series was an old favorite, "The Grand Prize Game," wherein a boy and girl were selected from the studio audience by the Magic Arrows, to toss a ping-pong ball into a series of successively numbered buckets until they missed. If they made the winning toss into the sixth bucket, they (and an "at-home player") received a cash prize, a bike and, in later years, a trip. For many years, the cash prize for Bucket #6 was a progressive jackpot growing by one "silver dollar" each day "until someone wins them all." The Grand Prize Game became so popular, Larry Harmon, who purchased the rights to the Bozo the Clown character, later adapted it for other Bozo shows (as "Bozo Buckets" to some and "Bucket Bonanza" to others) and also licensed home and coin-operated versions.
=== Harrisburg, PA Television ===
For more information, see The Bozo Show 
Unlike other Bozo show franchises, Harrisburg's Bozo took a completely different look. In 1976, Kayla Herbert, original owner of WDOSP, using a bank loan, bought the Harrisburg license for Bozo the Clown. While she and Larry Harmon looked for someone to play Bozo while Kayla created characters and sketched up ideas, she saw Zack Leal, a local comedian, making fun of clowns in a comedy act. Soon, she brought Zack to Larry, leading to Larry selecting Zack as the Harrisburg Bozo. After gaining a Bozo costume, the show take form. The show had originally ran from 1976 until 2000, but in 2002, the series return with a completely different format.
=== Vice City, VS Television ===
The Vice City version was produced by WZQZ (now WCVC) and was simply titled Bozo the Clown. It was broadcast live on weekdays in English and pre-recorded in Spanish on Saturday mornings, featuring Bozo, and his Latin helper "Petunia". Local children were featured on the program daily, with many waiting up to 7 weeks for their chance to be on the show. The show was cancelled after WZQZ became WCVC and became a Spanish International Network affiliate. Much of the show's materials were sent back to Larry Harmon Productions, and ended up with WDOSP when they started their Bozo show.
=== Boston, MA Television ===
The local WBNE Boston production of Bozo's Circus with booth announcer Frank Avruch aired from 1959 until 1970. In 1965, Larry Harmon became the sole owner of the Bozo licensing rights after buying out his business partners and produced 130 episodes between 1965 and 1967 and syndicated them to local U.S. television markets that did not produce their own Bozo shows. The half-hour syndicated shows were retitled Bozo The Clown (on episodes with a 1965 date) and Bozo's Big Top (on episodes with a 1966 date). Caroll Spinney appeared as "Mr. Lion" and "Kookie The Boxing Kangaroo," billed in the credits as Ed Spinney. He later went on to portray "Big Bird" and "Oscar the Grouch" on the PBS series Sesame Street. Harmon supervised the taping of these episodes, with Harmon-approved characters added, some based on characters in Harmon's classic animated Bozo cartoon shorts. These were the only Bozo shows Harmon fully owned. Bozo's exclamations on the show included, "Whoa, Nellie!", "Wowie Kazowie!" and always ended the show with, "Always keep laughing!"
The Boston show also occasionally featured Nozo the Clown, the brother of Bozo, played by Bill Harrington. Nozo was used to fill in for Bozo when Frank Avruch was unable to appear on the show.
In 2003, Harmon released six of these shows on DVD and, in 2007, 30 of them in a DVD box set entitled Larry Harmon's Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown, Collection 1. A second box set was released later that year, also containing 30 of the half-hours; the second box set (Collection 2) includes the six episodes previously released on the two earlier single DVD releases, and also repeats one show from Collection 1, for a grand total of 59 episodes released on DVD altogether. Although the shows included on the two single-disc DVDs had contemporary computer-animated characters superimposed over some scenes, the 59 episodes included in Collections 1 & 2 are presented in their original form.
=== Benton, AK Television ===
KCER-TV's production, titled Bozo and Pals aired on weekdays at 10:00, and was popular with kids at schools that had TV's. Woldemichael Akintola, a local Rastafarian singer, played Bozo. The production aired from 1982 until 1999, when Woldemichael failed to come onto the set. When KCER management and paramedics, along with firefighters arrived at his home, they had found that he had died from wounds received in a home invasion. An episode of WDOSP's Bozo show was dedicated to him.
=== Wilmington, NC Television ===
WMTN aired their Bozo show, entitled Bozo's Super Show, from 1991 to 1997. Newscaster Alfonzo Del Ray played Bozo. He also hosted the local version of Svengoolie. Both Bozo's Super Show and said local version of Svengoolie were cancelled after Alfonzo left for California to play characters for the syndicated version of another TV franchise, RockTown, mainly Kimber when the actress that did her suit acting was unable to appear on the show.
=== McDonaldland, MS Television ===
WMYM's Bozo show was called Bozo's Big Top Circus and featured Benny Raton as Bozo, using a break cable puppet (e.g. Mystery Science Theater 3000) that looked like Bozo's "little pal Butchie" in the cartoons, who Benny moved the mouth of to pre-recorded lines done by the then-station manager, Arnold McDonald.
=== San Juan, PR Television ===
WHSJ-TV's Bozo show, Lunch with Bozo, started in 1969, and took it's current form in 1985 when the station became a PolyGram Network affiliate. It was originally called Lunch with Ho-Ho, but the show's main character, a clown named, well, Ho-Ho, was replaced with Bozo when WHSJ gained the Bozo license. It features Alejandro Diéguez, son of 80's station manager Diego Gutiérrez, as Bozo. The show still continues to this day. This show is one of the top Bozo franchise shows as stated by DuMont Productions.
Category:Franchises
Category:Television programmes in the United States