Romper Room

I was the last Romper Room teacher in Wichita, KS, hosting from 1977-1986. I too was a real teacher. In fact, I was a university teacher educator, helping would-be teachers become elementary educators, during the years I was Miss Marti. Under Ronald Reagan, all federal agencies were deregulated, including the FCC. Previously, the FCC required commercial TV stations (I was on an ABC affiliate, KAKE) to produce a certain number of weekly hours of educational children's programming. That requirement disappeared under federal deregulation, and so did children's shows like Romper Room and Captain Kangaroo (on CBS affiliates; his show was picked up by PBS, the only channel on which children's programming could still be found). The irony is that my ratings in my M-F morning time-slot were beating Phil Donohue, then very popular and programmed against me, but Romper Room was in the wrong demographic zone, children vs. adults who would spend money, even though it was always parents and grandparents who pointed me out to children when I was in public, i.e., adults were watching my program.

I wrote a paper on leadership in my Ph.D. program called "The Axing of Romper Room," for which I received an A+. I guess my passion showed/still shows through.

Yes, back in 1985, I was selected by Miss Molly herself to be on Romper Room which filmed in Secaucus, New Jersey. I was only 4 years old, and I remember watching the show all the time. Miss Molly was a genuine sweetheart, and displayed incredible patience with some of the brattier kids on the show. I still have my one and only appearance recorded on VHS. Such a pity that most of the episodes are long gone. Will we never see Romper Room on DVD?

Romper Room and Friends represents the truly clean-cut children's programming that I remember from my toddler days. It also made little kids stars in their preschools and kindergarten classes everywhere. Far better than the blabbering nonsense we see on The Wiggles and Blues Clues of today.

I miss this era I grew up with and many others. Today's shows are good,but would love to see this show come back. We talk about past times,and shows of today are so different, but I love watching kid programming today.we would love to see this as a memory if our childhood. Great show,especially in the 70s.then went to school, learned alot.respect,love.and today's cartoons are great too.respect,love all.the show taught me how to care for others and help others.i was a great kid to help all.when I was teased,I learned from this show,how to handle it,and I loved all.race was no issue,not today.ty.

i was a Romper Room kid, we filmed in the Channel 20 studios, just over the Maryland line, and Miss Ann was our teacher. i was in a group of 5 or 6 kids that also included Brad Oscar, who has gone on to a Broadway career. as i recall our sponsors were Kinny Shoes and Baskin Robbins ice cream. we had to eat the flavor of the month on camera. one time the October flavor of the month was pumpkin ice cream -- a horrible dark orange. the kids wouldn't eat it so tech crew had to go get some grocery store vanilla and food coloring so we could fake it. would love to find out if anything from the show survived. it would be great if somebody had some old pictures in their basement.

I was born in 1981, so I'm a Gen-Y-er. I grew up watching "Romper Room" with Miss Molly on Channel 9 in New York. It was probably my favorite show as a child...I always wanted to be one of the kids on it, but when my mom called to get me in there was a two year waiting list. Oh well.

Anyway, it really was a great show, and I'm angry that my children will never get a chance to watch it. There were lots of great songs like "Do Bee Dancin'" and some very cool puppets like UpUp, Kimball, and Granny Cat.

Very cool stuff...if you can get some videos from eBay or anything, I'd recommend it. And Miss Molly, if you read this -- I was one of your biggest fans ;-)