''Razzle Dazzle'' is a Canadian
children's television
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...
program produced by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
between October 2, 1961, and July 1, 1966.
The series was initially co-hosted by
Alan Hamel and Michele Finney,
later replaced by
Ray Bellew and
Trudy Young. There was also a cast of characters who appeared in every episode, most notably the puppet Howard the Turtle (John Keogh), who was considered the star of the show. Howard would tell jokes which he called Groaners. Other recurring characters on the show included Howard's nemesis, Percy Q. Kidpester (
/ drawn by
George Feyer); conman and travelling salesman, Mr. Sharpey (
Paul Kligman) who was known for saying "A knuckle full of nickels" and the general store proprietor, Mr. Igotit.
Fans of the show could write in to become members of the Razzle Dazzle Fan Club. They were sent, in a large Manila envelope, the following fan club items: the Razzle Dazzle Membership Letter of Welcome; the Razzle Dazzle Fan Club Newspaper; the Razzle Dazzle Fan Club Button, featuring Howard the Turtle's glowing face, and the Razzle Dazzle Secret Decoder Wheel, which fans would assemble out of paper. A highlight of the show was the Secret Decoder Wheel message. At the end of each show, a secret message was shown on the TV screen. Home users of a Decoder Wheel could then decipher the message. It was a code similar in nature to Superman's Secret Code, used by the
Supermen of America
The Supermen of America is the name of two fictional superhero teams published by DC Comics. The original group first appeared in a special written by Stuart Immonen published in 1999, and a later mini-series written by Fabian Nicieza, which was ...
/Superman Fan Club, sponsored by DC Comics and appearing in issues of the Superman Family of comics published at that time, featuring Superman's Secret Message. A further connection to DC Comics appeared in the fact that both Howard the Turtle appeared on the show as a character called Super Turtle and an illustrated character backup feature in DC Comics appeared at this same period in time also called
Super-Turtle, drawn by
Henry Boltinoff
Henry Boltinoff (February 19, 1914 – April 26, 2001) was an American cartoonist who worked for both comic strips and comic books. He was a prolific cartoonist and drew many of the humor and filler strips that appeared in National Periodical c ...
.
"Spots and Stripes" was often a feature on the show, where groups of kids competed against each other in two teams, the "Spots" and the "Stripes".
Another regular feature was the serialization of a children's adventure series in the final five minutes (thus spreading each episode over a week's worth of shows). Initially shown was ''
The Magic Boomerang'', an Australian adventure series, followed by ''
The Adventures of the Terrible Ten''. This was replaced by the Canadian-made ''
The Forest Rangers'' which was
spun off to become a series of its own.
The writer of most of the scripts was Jerry Rochwerg (Jerry Ross). He went on to have a long career in Hollywood winning an Emmy for ''
The Bill Cosby Show''.
References
External links
*
CBC Television original programming
1960s Canadian children's television series
1961 Canadian television series debuts
1966 Canadian television series endings
Canadian television shows featuring puppetry
Television series about turtles
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