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| Exclusive
Rootie Kazootie Home Video Collection |
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| The
new Rootie
Kazootie TV show |
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| Send
us your comment-a-rooties and memories, we'll post them -click- |
Creator Steve Carlin's official website
If you’re a babyboomer kid like me, who grew up watching television in the 1950’s, you’ll remember the name ROOTIE KAZOOTIE, almost as well as you know your own name. It’s a memory flash to our childhood past, and images of a by-gone era, lost and forgotten in time, when puppets and their human hosts first dominated the Saturday morning air waves, all at the start of what would become known as the Golden Age of Television.
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| Creator Steve Carlin |
At the height of the Rootie Kazootie craze in this country, the kids, adults and even comedians of the time found themselves mimicking the show’s fresh, slangy use of the English language with terms like- yesirootie, nosirootie, gosharootie and absotootie--each one making English teachers flinch Even today, Rootie-isms are in many ways a permanent part of our American slang, without us knowing , and originated with Steve Carlin, Rootie's creator.
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| History
of Rootie Kazootie |
The show’s characters included the all-American boy himself, who as the opening song says “ is filled with Zip and Joy, he’s “ROOTIE KAZOOTIE, a cross between Pinocchio and the yet-to-be-born Beaver Cleaver, who could be anything he wanted to with the help of his magic kazootie, a kazoo capable of performing magic feats.
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| Collectables &apparel |
And what would a little boy be without his faithful dog, GALA POOCHIE PUP, his cute girlfriend POLKA DOTTIE, who always dressed in Polka Dots, the villain POISON ZOOMACK, whose sole aim in life is to steal Rootie’s magic Kazootie, and EL SQUEAKO MOUSE, the great Mexican catador, who dressed like a turn-of-the-century boxer and hated cats.
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| Read original Rootie Kazootie |
The two human hosts were the talented chief rooter Big Todd Russell, who sang songs and played games with the kids in the studio gallery, while his sidekick Mr. Deedle Doodle, actor John Vee dressed like a Keystone Cop from the silent film era, was the policeman-magician and provided comic relief.
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| Rootie
Reviews 1950-1953 -click- |
Just as memorable, and what makes the show the classic, were the littleptin puppets created by the brilliant Paul Ashley, and the now legendary voices of Naomi Lewis (the voice of Rootie) and puppeteer John Milano (voice of Gala Poochie, Poison Zoomack and El Squeako the Mouse)Where’s Rootie Been all this time ?For over 20 years, the only known copy to exist of this early live kids show was a 16mm Kinescope film print that I donated to the Museum of Television and Radio in New York.
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| Music Library |
That first print was found in a garbage can in an empty warehouse, by accident, when I was scouting for a location to build sets in for the first Death Wish film with Charles Bronson, in 1975 in New York City. (click-collecting 16mm films)
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This website, I’m proud to announce, is almost 25 years in the making--it took me that long to finally locate the show’s creator, writer and producer, Steve Carlin, who, fortunately for history, saved his television work, which included many kinescope copies of the shows.
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| Original Rootie Memorabilia Auction -click- |
In March of 1995, I was the first person to walk into the dusty warehouse room that Steve had closed up in the 1950’s. Now I’m partners with Steve, and we’ll bring back the old Rootie shows on Home Video for collectors, aging babyboomers and fans of the era to see again and now buy, exclusively on this site, and through my company Video Resources New YorkIN SEARCH OF ROOTIE KAZOOTIE HISTORY But were also in search of all the old cast, crew, staff members and puppeteers that were part of this classic award-winning kids show, so we can include them in this project. Send us E-mail on your thoughts and memories of Rootie andwe’ll post it. Somewhere there must be old fans who, as kids, showed up at a Rootie special appearance promoting the show--did you take any home movies or take pictures? If you have a Rootie Toy collection, take a picture of it and send it to us. In the weeks and months ahead, there should be a lot of surprises in store for all you oldand new Rootie Kazootie fans.