Cartoon Town
So you get home from school, toss your homework aside, kick off those shoes, and switch on WFLD TV, and eat those Maurice Lenell Cookies while watching one of your favorite shows.
Sound familiar? It should if you were one of the many children that watched Cartoon Town with BJ & Dirty Dragon.
Remember these unforgettable characters?
Wally Goodscout, Weird, The Old Professor,
Mother Plumtree, The Blob, Myrle & Maynard Thumptwanger, The Lemon Joke Kid, Fregy
& Morty, Lila La Hotcha, W.C. Cornfield, and Mertz The Martian Meanie. Everyone of
them designed & voiced by Bill Jackson himself.
Starting out on live television in the 60's Bill Jackson hosted 'Clown Alley', a weekly children's show where he developed the characters of Dirty Dragon, Blob, and others.
Then in 68' Jackson became the Mayor of 'Cartoon Town' on WFLD TV during the afternoons Monday through Friday. The show consisted of sketches and cartoons of Underdog, Beany & Cecil, & Rocky & Bullwinkle. It was a great and entertaining combination that worked for all children.
Bill was the man in the suit with the derby hat, sitting at his desk and drawing fantastic cartoons out of letters of the alphabet or numbers.
Some days he would wander over to the town monument 'Blob' and before our eyes would transform this lovable lump of clay into whatever emotional situation he was in. Happy, sad, angry, all while having a lively conversation with his creation. Oh sure Blob would talk back, but only BJ could understand that mumbling, groaning language he spoke.
But out of all the characters that wandered this happy town, none was more familiar than the one who ran the post office.
That was the great Dirty Dragon.
"There's no mail today!" he would yell whenever BJ would ask for the home sent viewer mail. Blowing smoke rings and sometimes literally clouding up the studio with his yells of "Fiiiiiiiii!", this dragon was the most famous set piece to the show.
So much so that the entire show changed it's
name to 'The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show' when it moved for a short period to WGN Television
in 73'.
The dragon himself at one time during the show had even put himself on a ballot for president.
The show was just a great thing for children to watch. Jackson had so much to offer.
At times he would have actual serials that starred most of the characters in tales called 'Dirty Dragon Meets The Monsters', or 'Blast Off To Mars'.
Or the time that a secret somebody called the Lemon Joke Kid would fly over the town, drop jokes to B.J., and then drop hundreds of lemons when the punch line was read.
As the show continued on, BJ and company started to make public appearances at Malls, fests, or at Major Daley's 'Back of the Yards Fair' on the south side of Chicago.
Special life sized costumes were worn so the fans can meet and shake hands in person with they're favorite characters.
For a while BJ would give out a muscular dystrophy kits and have viewers have there own back yard carnivals at home to raise money for the organization.
Then in 75' BJ moved to WLS television with the gang and opened 'Gigglesnort Hotel' which lasted until 78'. After that, Bill Jackson moved to L.A. and for 11 years became part of the faculty as a teacher & administrator at California Institute of the Arts.
Retired and living life, Jackson resides in California to this day, where most of his puppet creations are packed away.
Weather arguing with Dirty Dragon for the mail, creating a face for Blob, or saying the words 'Look for the little kid in the cookie jar', Bill Jackson and his creations will remain in our minds as a great part of our childhood.
Hey Gang! Check this out!
Relive your childhood with video tapes of some of your favorite Bill Jackson shows!
Click on Blob and you'll be magically transported to the one and only website owned by the great Bill Jackson himself!
So stop buying those illegal tapes off of Ebay & deal with BJ directly!
Get an autograph! Pick up some of his outstanding artwork!
Or just ask Bill a question in his question & answer forum (for those of you with those questions that you have been wondering about all these years)!
What are you waiting for? Get going!
Tell'em Rog from the Basement sent you!
(Blob Artwork Above Courtesy of Jim Engel)
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Text Copyright ©1999 Roger B. Domian
Photos & Illustrated Materials Copyrighted © 1994 Bill Jackson Productions
Courtesy of The Little Theatre Screen Magazine