canadian editions, howdy doody, and zefrank

This one's for the little readers. For those who say that the globalization of television is a new phenomenon or that the presence of "Canadian editions" of television programs (like Idol) are eating away at the country's cultural distinctiveness, allow me to offer the following, thanks to the fine people at tvdays.com:


A few things worth noting:

1. The Canadian edition of Howdy Doody retained some of the characters in the American version, like Clarabell, Howdy Doody, and Phineas T. Bluster. However, the voices were provided by Canadian actors. The show was also set in "the great north" and had a couple of distinctive characters, including Ranger Bill, played by James "Scotty" Doohan.

2. According to the entry in the Encyclopedia of Television, there were both Canadian and Cuban editions of the show. The Canadian version began in 1954 and aired on the CBC.

3. Kids shows are interesting examples of attempts to localize programming from other countries. One of the best examples, of course, is the Canadian edition of Sesame Street. Here's a thoroughly strange 1975 essay by Morris Wolfe, the former television critic for Saturday Night magazine, talking about the globalization of Big Bird.

4. I couldn't help but notice how the reference to "safety clubbers" during the "news" portion at the beginning of the show reminded me how references to membership resonate in the idea of "sports racers" that made the show with zefrank so popular during its one-year reign as the toast of the video blogging world. Onward to better things, zefrank -- and here's hoping you don't go the way of Amanda Congdon. Oops, too late.