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.

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 the last Romper Room Teacher in Northern California, Miss Sharon. I taped the shows from 1987-1992. I am also the only African American host of the show. I was a teacher at the time and I was the first real classroom teacher to host the show. When I was hired, I taught fourth grade. I also taught preschool and kindergarten. The shows were taped on weekends and later, on Monday evenings. I was trained by Sally Claster Bell in Pacific Palisades, California. My shows were filmed at KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since this was the last show in the last Romper Room version in the US, many of the tapes were archived at KTVU and I have copies of most of them as well. I always ended my shows with a wink after the magic mirror. I hope that these shows will be released for future generations to enjoy.

Romper Bomper!

this was a great show i remember watching about 1964-1975 i guess miss sally was the lady then... i liked the singing and 1 episode they had waffle stompers? and i so wanted a pair.... you know basically 2 cups on ropes and you stood on them and marched around? big fun.... :) i do believe she had a story time which was good fun, and maybe even a craft time...i always remember rushing home from kindergarten so that i could watch the show, sometimes we missed it or part of it because the bus went too slow or our farm home lane was real long and my tiny legs couldn't run fast enough so i missed the first 5 minutes or so...these were good times for me in a time when we had family trouble so i have mixed feelings on somedays but mostly good.

great memory...

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.