Floppy

Unlike national TV, which has a well-documented bias against any puppet who's not a Muppet™ (more about that another time), local TV has long held its arms open wide to puppets. Though almost always relegated to the role of "Kid's TV Host", many puppets who might have otherwise starved have managed to earn a decent living thanks to local television. And one of the best of the local TV kid's show hosts was my old pal Floppy, longtime afternoon TV star of WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. Floppy started hosting a cartoon show after the noon news in 1957, and proved so popular that they soon gave him his own 30-minute after-school show, where he stayed for 30 years. His buddy Duane Ellett stayed behind the wall for the first couple of years, but soon came out to join Floppy on stage. His show featured Popeye cartoons and had a live audience where kids would be invited up to squeeze Floppy's trademark black-olive nose and ask him riddles. Showman that he was, Floppy always pretended not to know the answers. He and Duane also appeared every year at the famous Iowa State Fair. As is often the case, Floppy retired from show business when his partner died in June of 1987 of a heart attack. He is now memorialized in a permanent exhibit at the Iowa State Historical Society in Des Moines. I always laugh when I think of Floppy, in his cute little turtleneck sweater with his ubiquitous bone, citing his "wee paws for station identification". Classic. I miss ya, old buddy!