![]() ![]() Sadly during the 1980s many stations began to drop the show and move on to other things. The stations that still wanted to produce Romper Room on a local level still had that option, and cut ins with the new characters were produced so that the local stations were able to insert those characters in their local versions. The main show was hosted by Molly McCloskey (who did a local version in New York before and after taping the syndicated), and three new characters were introduced Kimble (think of him as an oversized lost cousin of Cookie Monster), Granny Cat, and a clown puppet named Up-Up. To remedy this Romper Room was retitled "Romper Room & Friends" in 1981. This show held it's ground for three decades, by 1981 due to an increasing demand from TV stations that wanted a syndicated version of Romper Room. The "Magic Mirror" at the end of the show was a way that the Romper Room teacher could reach out to the kids that were watching from home, and who could forget the show's popular mascot Do-Bee. ![]() Regardless of any version, Romper Room was a show in which children could play games, read stories, and learned about those things that children needed to know about. Nancy also did the Baltimore version of the show, and was replaced by her daughter Sally Claster in order to focus on training more Romper Room teachers.īert and Nancy also provided the much of the props and set design for the local version as well. Nancy Claster trained the local hostess herself, and they all had a college education. They gave local TV stations the option broadcasting the main version out of Baltimore (Chicago in the 70s and back to Baltimore in 1981) via syndication or producing their "own" local version of Romper Room ie Franchising which many TV stations that brought the rights to Romper Room did. The Clasters turned down the offer from CBS, but still wanted to bring Romper Room to all of America, but in their own unique way. This show however got the attention from the folks at CBS who wanted to bring Romper Room on a national level. In 1953 this was only station that Romper Room was seen. This TV preschool of sorts was created by Bert & Nancy Claster and begin on WBAL in Baltimore, MD. I hope that these shows will be released for future generations to enjoy. ![]() I always ended my shows with a wink after the magic mirror. Since this was the last show in the last Romper Room version in the US, many of the tapes were archived at KTVU and I have copies of most of them as well. My shows were filmed at KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was trained by Sally Claster Bell in Pacific Palisades, California. The shows were taped on weekends and later, on Monday evenings. I also taught preschool and kindergarten. ![]() I was a teacher at the time and I was the first real classroom teacher to host the show. I am also the only African American host of the show. "I was the last Romper Room Teacher in Northern California, Miss Sharon. In 2006 "Miss Sharon" posted the following message on IMBb: The only African-American hostess of Romper Room, Miss Sharon was featured on the show from 1987-1992, which was filmed at KTVU in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she was the final teacher on the last Romper Room in the United States. Sally Claster Bell hired and trained "Miss Sharon" in Pacific Palisades, California. "Miss Sharon" was the last Romper Room host in Northern California, who before being hired, was a fourth grade teacher. " Miss Nancy" Besst became the host of Romper Room in 1958, which was originally broadcast on KGO and then later from KTVU. The show was originally out of Baltimore, and the Oakland / San Francisco Bay Area had its very own franchised version which was broadcast from KTVU in Oakland for most of the show's run. If it was so magical.Romper Room was a much beloved children's television show on KTVU from the 1950's up until 1992. She never did read my name out which aroused my suspicions about this so called “magic”mirror. I waited in vain for my name to be read out, week after week, year after year. For example, “I see Tommy and Susan and Hannah and William and Mary and all you boys and girls out there.” Of course, the hostess really couldn’t see the children, but to the kids at home, as they listened for their name to be mentioned, they knew that they were someone special, at least in the World of Romper Room. With the chant spoken, the Romper Room hostess gazed through the empty mirror frame and recited the names of the lucky children whom she pretended to see watching the program (a different list of names each day). The Romper Room hostess finished each program by reciting the show’s signature magical chant:”Romper, bomper, stomper, boo. Who could forget the “freaky” Romper Room Magic Mirror. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). ![]()
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