Big Bill, Captain Alan and OOM-A-GOG
What Do We Know About the Show?
Big Bill and OOM-A-GOG launched on then-KVOO-TV 2 in Tulsa in 1959. KVOO purchased the Col. Bleep package of cartoons, and OOM was a part of that. Exactly who KVOO bought the package from is lost to time, but we believe it was most likely WDAF in Kansas City — home of the original Oom-A-Gog and the Dr. N. Ventor show — though this is speculation rather than confirmed fact. The show was broadcast live, as was all programming of its day, so no recordings exist. Any possible kinescope recording of the show has long since been lost to time. This means not much is known today about how the show looked or operated, save for a few vague memories shared with us from those who were there both on the show and as kids in the live audience.
We know that the show was a half hour long. In that half hour Big Bill and OOM would talk to the children in studio, show an episode of Colonel Bleep, and talk to two other puppet show characters known as Horse Radish and Parcel Post. Camera crew chief Dick Cardwell wore the OOM-A-GOG suit throughout this era — by all accounts, the only person who ever did. Big Bill had a "magic window" that would have images appear out of nowhere, quite the feat for 1959! In reality it was blank newspaper print, and an artist behind the set would draw in reverse with black marker. These drawings were chosen from one lucky child in the audience to be made famous. One of the artists that held this job was Ben Brown. Mitch Schauer, who went on to create the popular cartoon The Angry Beavers, found his first job in Tulsa alongside Ben at Graphic Associates.
After Big Bill Blair left KVOO in 1964, OOM-A-GOG picked up a new sidekick, "Professor Dingle," played by Dave Moore, before the show went dormant for a few years. Alan Lambert revived it from 1966–1967, airing live shows Monday–Wednesday and pre-taped episodes Thursday and Friday, with Buck Clayton now inside the suit — his voice run through a distortion device that gave OOM his robotic monotone. During that final run, the voice-distortion unit shorted out mid-show in front of a live studio audience of children, sparking a small fire inside the costume and setting Clayton's shirt ablaze. The injuries were minor, but we imagine the kids that day got a lot more than they bargained for! Shortly after, the show went off the air for good, and OOM-A-GOG was put into storage.
What Remains
The following images are all that remains from this time period.
