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The Keys Stopped the Music When They Hung On The Nail

posted 16 years ago by richard.fuller1
9 replies | jump to latest

I bought the two episodes, Cleaning the Clubhouse and Most Amazing Watch, off Ebay.

The first one is listed as having aired in '61 and the second in '68, but I wouldn't be surprised if the second one is older.

The captain does look somewhat bigger in the second one, so it may have taken seven years for him to get big like that.

I remember the show before I started school and either this was a bad episode, or it is older, as the Captain I remember was just a wee bit better structured than this, plus I can't believe the set changed so much to when I was able to recognize and remember things, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, the Captain would enter with the ring of keys and hang them on a nail. The theme music would suddenly stop.

This was the '61 episode.

The slant seems to be the music would stop when he hung up the keys.

I remember this! It went for a while.

In the '61 episode, two clowns can't clean the clubhouse cuz they keep dancing, so the Captain gets rid of the record player and the radio so they can't have anymore music.

The clowns move the keys and the music starts playing.

[–] holbrookp 15 years ago

I can remember a few times in the 1960s when he would drop the keys on the nail, then pick them up again to start the music, then immediately drop them again, and this would go on as he apparently was having a little fun with the guy in the sound booth.

[–] richard.fuller1 15 years ago

That's sort of what took place in the '61 episode with the clowns, but it was choreographed-rehearsed, obviously.

The show was only six years old by this time!

Keeshan knew he was established, obviously, as he made fun of Mr. Green Jeans (who was playing a different character) and the way he said something with over-emphasis. I had forgotten how corny Keeshan could be like that!

No wonder that music has always stayed stuck in my head, if it was stopped and started with keys being placed on a nail.

I guess that stopped when he moved into the pink house.

[–] stevenbyczek 11 years ago

My CK memories are very vague, but didn't the Captain's theme-song play whenever a visitor pushed his doorbell button?

Sincerely,

Steve :-)

Keep the faith!

[–] richard.fuller1 11 years ago

I don't recall. I just read my OP and I really have no idea what I was talking about with 'the captain being more structured' that was supposed to be so different here in these two eps as compared to what I initially recall of seeing his show.

[–] stevenbyczek 11 years ago

Thanks anyway Richard.

Off-topic: Didn't the Captain "see" a group of "little people" who lived underneath the floorboards of the pink-colored "Treasure House?" One of the episodes posted on "You-Tube" (the one from 1976 with special guest star: Dolly Parton) features a miniature "marching band." But I seem to recall the Captain "spying" on a small family that lived near Bunny Rabbit's hutch. If memory serves, they had their own living room complete with furniture, appliances, etc.

Sincerely,

Steve :-)

Keep the faith!

[–] richard.fuller1 11 years ago

I remember the marching band very well. He kept seeing them and no one else did.

The little family sounds like The Borrowers. There were never cameos by anyone else other than the Captain regulars (Captain, Greenjeans, Dennis) so I don't know how he could see a family.

[–] stevenbyczek 11 years ago

Please refresh my memory. Who were "The Borrowers?"

Keep the faith!

[–] richard.fuller1 11 years ago

The Borrowers is about a little family of two parents and their daughter, Arriety, who live underneath a house in a small crawlspace.

A movie about them was made last year or so called Arriety, focusing more on the daughter.

I saw them in a tv movie that came out in '73 that I have since learned starred Eddie Albert and Tammy Grimes. This was apparently a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation.

It seems there was also a '97 movie with John Goodman that looks a little silly to me.

To the best of my knowledge it never aired on Captain Kangaroo.

I remember 'Dennis' as a black moustache-twirling bad guy who was stealing paint from the Captain, Mr. Green Jeans and Mr. Baxter. That little skit ran into exterior shots. That had to have been before I started first grade in '72 for me to remember so much of it.

[–] stevenbyczek 11 years ago

Thanks for the info Richard. Very interesting! I remember hearing about the John Goodman version, but I never saw it. Nor did I see the original "Hallmark" production with Eddie Albert and the Japanese remake.

I have no memories of the "long" sketch (you mentioned) featuring the Captain (and the others) being chased by a paint-stealing "Dennis", even though, chances are, I was watching CK by '72 (as a four-year-old). I still have vague memories of Captain Kangaroo observing a race of "tiny people" underneath the floor-panels of the "Treasure House." I know for a fact that CK introduced segments of "The Most Important Person", "Simon in the Land of Chalk" and "Crystal Tipps And Alistair." Off-topic, I also recall an animated made-for-TV movie (circa 1981?)involving a family of gnomes that lived underground. If memory serves, Tom Bosley was the voice of the gnome-patriarch. Much to my frustration, I couldn't seem to find any reference to this movie anywhere online. Perhaps this film (along with the "little people" on "Captain Kangaroo") were false-memories? We experience a lot of those, as we get older.

Sincerely,

Steve :-)

Keep the faith!