Andy's Gang

There was also Grandee the Talking Piano! This show's pedigree goes back to 1902 when the Brown Shoe Company purchased the rights to Buster Brown comic strip in The New York Herald. It progressed through to radio and then TV.

Ed McConnell was the front man who transferred from radio to TV. He worked a live kid's audience, but as his health faded, he found it easier to work in a dead studio with taped audience. When McConnell died and Andy Devine took over (he was a famed sidekick in some matinée movie westerns), he carried on with the taped audience. Trouble is, it was the same footage, the same audience week after week. Devine had more gimmicks and less natural laughs, but it was still fun and a little anarchic, especially with the Froggy the Gremlin, a cross between Bart Simpson and the Crazy Frog.

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Just one of those early morning wonderful kid's TV program from the fifties. A mish-mash of old movies series with Andy providing the 'anchor'. Still remember the show clearly...

I loved this show, even before Andy Devine, but especially after he began hosting. I heard rumors, as an adult, that Uncle Ed, host of Uncle Ed's Gang(?), the previous host, did a Face-in-the-Crowd stunt and was instantly unemployed, but I have also read that he died in 1955 of a heart attack, at which time Andy Devine replaced him.

As young as I was, I found it confusing that the "new" host appeared to be on a very old show, old set, and with the same children I had seen the week before. The kids in the audience were unchanged over the years--the same laughing and screaming kids appeared with Andy who had appeared with Uncle Ed! I think those children were filmed in the 40s at a movie theater! Every episode featured two (possibly animatronic) animals. One was Midnight, the cat (who did not meow--he/she uttered a long, rising 'Nice,' whenever the camera was close). The other was Squeakie, the mouse (for some reason, I always want to call him Mousie) who generally made life difficult for Midnight, did not talk, but usually did something 'daring' and distracting while Midnight performed some impossible act (playing the violin, while wearing a tutu, was my favorite, all the while circled by Mousie on a motorcycle).

Froggy made me laugh out loud as he usually bested first Uncle Ed and then Andy, appearing in a puff of smoke after the audience was urged to call out, "Froggy, pluck your magic twanger." (After Ed disappeared, Andy made the call.) Froggy stood on a column to bring him to the level of the host, couldn't be made to do anything he didn't want to do, tricked and manipulated the host in every way possible, and then disappeared in another puff of smoke, to my delight.

Every week we were treated to an episode of "Jungle Boy," (I think that's what it was called). The actor looked a lot like Sabu, but I can't remember the actual name of the serial and its actors--two boys who had adventures in the Indian jungle--sometimes dodging wild elephants and tigers, eventually besting the villain--man or animal.

Even the commercials were fantastic--a little boy and his dog who lived in a shoe--Buster Brown and his dog, Tige, (is that how it's spelled?). The dog looked like it might have been a brindle (hence the Tiger in his name) terrier, boxer, bull dog--something like that. His master, his hair cut in the Buster Brown bob, was always dressed in the classic Buster Brown suit for little boys so popular around the turn of the last century, with the ribbon trimmed hat. I hope I'm not making this up--it's so vivid in my memories. We certainly knew what brand of shoes we wanted when school started! I think I still remember the rhyme with which he began the commercial: "I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe! Here's my dog, Tige--he lives here, too!"

Apparently, I was one of very few children who watched early Saturday morning television--I have almost never met anyone who knows what I'm talking about, and I see a lot of disbelieving looks when I describe the show. Only one older adult, who revealed the mystery of Uncle Ed's disappearance, was at all familiar with the show.

I wish they'd show it once more or put it on DVD. The show was the same era as the Susie Snowflake animation that hasn't been seen (by anyone I know) since the 50s--I wonder if these shows exist anywhere.

First of all, this is one "Spinoff" that seems to get more write ups and remembrance than the original. ANDY's GANG was the filmed continuance of the old Radio-TV Series hosted by Smilin' Ed McConnell. It had been known as The Buster Brown Show for some time dating to its earliest days on Radio.

The name was not because it featured old Comic Strip Character, BUSTER BROWN by cartoonist Richard Fenton Outcault, for it did not. But rather, the name came from the Sponsor, The Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis, Missouri. They were manufacturers of The Buster Brown Shoes, the company using the Buster Brown name under license from the copyright owner of the Comic Strip Characters, Buster Brown and his Dog, Tige.

The term "spinoff" is really not appropriate for describing ANDY's GANG as it was essentially the very same series.Let's elaborate on that premise.

Smilin' Ed McConnell had proved himself to be a giant in, not only the Radio Broadcast Business, but also as a Force on Madison Avenue. It has been written elsewhere that from 1942 on, after sponsoring McConnell created and hosted kiddie show, Brown Shoe Company grew at a phenomenal rate. At one point they even designated all of their advertising budget to Smilin' Ed's Show and related items, like comic book give aways of Buster Brown Comic Books, featuring Ed, Midnight, Squeaky and of course, Froggy the Gremlin.

When Smilin' Ed passed away in 1955, what was Brown Shoe to do? Well, for a few seasons anyway, they kept the show going. The answer was simple. They simply cast Andy Devine as new M.C., and inter-cut footage of Andy doing the same old business that Smilin' Ed had done before. The updating was very successful, mainly because so much of the 'Old Show' footage was done in the same way, editing the human M.C.'s on stage action with the audience, or the 'animal' characters (you know Midnight, Squeaky, Froggy).

They even changed the name on the big thick story book from "Smilin' Ed's Stories" to "Andy's Stories". Hence, Andy Devine was shown as leading into the On Going Stories, like Gunga the Elephant Boy*, by 'reading' the intro.

The series continued in reruns on local stations for some time after the deal with Brown Shoe Co., Buster Brown and company had expired.

In retrospect, the replacement of Ed McConnell with Andy Devine, and the celluloid surgery performed has to go down as one of the slickest maneuvers in Broadcast History. And to think that it was an adjunct to one of the greatest advertising/selling giants in History, in our own, nearly forgotten, Smilin' Ed McConnell.

* BUSTER BROWN by R.F. Outcault was a popular comic strip, beginning in 1902 and lasting to 1921. By the time of the show's hey day, Buster Brown was known as a Shoe Brand, the Comic Strip having passed into obscurity.

** The on going story of Gunga Ram (Nino Marcel) and his friend Rama(Vito Scotti) has been called a "Serial", which it wasn't in the usual sense, in that it had chapters with cliff hanging endings. The same Characters were featured in the Movie SABAKA (1954) along with Boris Karloff, Victor Jory and Reginald Denney. It also had the same Writer, Producer and Director in Frank Ferrin.

The song went (I think)

I got a gang, You got a gang Everybody's got to have a gang. But there's only one real true old gang it's Good Old Andy's gang.

Pluck your magic twanger Froggy (a cloud of smoke) Hiya Kids Hiya Hiya Hiya

Does your shoe have a boy inside? what a funny place for a boy to hide. Does your shoe have a dog there too? A boy and a dog and foot in a shoe. Well the boy is Buster Brown and the dog is Tige his friend and its really just a picture but it's fun to play pretend. So look look look in your telephone book for the store that sells the shoe with the picture of the boy and the dog there too so you can put your foot into, a Buster Brown shoe.

Saurday morning line up

1.Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger 2.Andy's Gang, 3.Howdy Doody,4.Roy Rogers, 5.Fury, 6.Sky King, and 7.My Friend Flicka

The golden age of television