Made to celebrate the show's Fortieth Anniversary, this special is both a fun retrospective and a model Howdy Doody adventure, with a jealous Phineas T. Bluster trying to break up Howdy's birthday celebration by exploiting Howdy's midlife crisis. (Howdy thinks no one wants to be around him anymore, not realizing it's because they're secretly planning a birthday party for him.)
Some of the show's bumps are ignored, like the lawsuit over the licensing of the original Howdy Doody puppet, or the firing of the first Clarabell Clown performer, Bob Keenan, who would go on to star as Captain Kangaroo, eclipsing Howdy l's show by by over three decades.
But this show is for kids and adults who remember the good times, songs, and silliness of the first true Children's TV Show.
