Froggy the Gremlin
Froggie with Smilin' Ed and rest of cast of Smilin' Ed's Buster Brown Gang, 1947.
Froggy the Gremlin was a character created by Smilin' Ed McConnell and brought to radio in the 1940s and television in 1950s on the Smilin' Ed's Gang show, and later Andy's Gang TV show, hosted by actor Andy Devine after McConnell's death.
Character
Froggy was a troublemaker. Disrespectful of adult authority figures, Froggy played practical jokes and disrupted the presentations of other guests. If a guest were to demonstrate how to paint a wall, he might say, "And now I'm going to take this can of paint..." Froggy would chime in, "And dump it over my head." And the confused guest would proceed to do so.[1]
On radio and the early TV shows, Froggy's voice was frequently supplied by Arch ("Archie") Presby, who was also the program's announcer.
Quotes and errata
- Smilin' Ed: "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!"
- Froggy (appearing in a puff of smoke): "Hiya, Kids! Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!"
- Froggy appears as a character on the fictional television series "Young People's After-school Press Conference" to disrupt an interview with Dr. Henry Kissinger (as played by Roger Bowen) in the 1976 satirical film TunnelVision.
- Buckner & Garcia paid tribute to these characters on a 1982 novelty song about the arcade game Frogger called "Froggy's Lament" from their album Pac-Man Fever with its lyrics "Hiya kids" and "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!".
- Froggy also made regular appearances on The Ghoul Show where he was more often the victim of the host's pranks rather than initiator of same.
See also
References
- ↑ McMahon, Ed and Fisher, David C., When Television Was Young, Thomas Nelson Inc, 2007, ISBN 9781418578411
External links
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