HERE'S A TVparty LOOK AT
SHERIFF JOHN
IN REAL VIDEO FORMAT - (:45)

I grew up watching Sheriff John in the 1950's. He had a segment where he would announce whose birthday it was and where the kids could find special gifts inside their house (based on information sent in ahead of time by their parents).

On the Big Day my friend across the street was told by Sheriff John to look under his bed, and in the 30-seconds that it took for my brothers and me to race over to his house, he had already unwrapped the gift and was looking proudly at it.

Another funny memory was of writing to Sheriff John about 1955 or 1956 to have Sketchbook Suzie draw a picture for me while she was live on camera. For the life of me, I don't know why - but I asked her to "draw a picture of a dead cat underwater."

When I mailed my request to the station, my mother probably figured they would never select it from the bin containing lots of other requests. But three or four days later the "Good Sheriff" read my request on the air, then paused a moment, hemming and hawing. Finally he and Suzie decided that she was all out of time and would draw it for me on another show. Hmmm.....I'm still waiting for that picture. Our family has had many a laugh recalling that incident over the years.

Note to Sheriff John: no harm was intended. I was only five or six years old, and didn't know any better. Sorry!

- Bruce Pasarow

Courtesy of Jeff Vilencia,
here are some songs from the
Sheriff John LP Record:

SONG ONE: Good Advice

SONG TWO: Eat Your Food, Wash Your Hands & Face, Brush Your Teeth, Take A Nap

SONG THREE: The Safety Song

Thanks so much for bringing back these really great memories of being an LA kid in the 60's...and to remember how great it felt to be 5 years old again!

- Cheryl

Amazing he's still in our memories.

Back in the late 50's, my mom used to get very frustrated at him when he would read the names of the birthday kids. He seemed to have a reading problem, because he couldn't pronounce simple names like "Bill Gossard"....he'd hem and haw and say, "welll, it's Goe-sard, or maybe Goss-hard, or... ". Or a name like "Jean Linneman", he'd work that into "Line-man, or "Linn-men", or .....

My mom would be cussing and screaming at him, calling him an idiot and other titles, and we're just little kids watching our Sheriff get cussed out. So, one day she decides to fix him good, and create names for a fictitious set of twins.

Being Armenian, my mom came up with "Hrair and Jrair Der-Mgrditchian". On the appointed day, she called up our relatives, including my uncle who taught math at Inglewood H.S., and everyone tuned in. It went as you'd expect. Live TV rules.

I wish we could find the tape for that show. He didn't do well. My uncle turned the station to Sheriff John in the teachers lounge that day so all could watch the dear Sheriff suffer my mom's rage. Well, those were the days. We still sing "Put another candle on my birthday cake" at parties.

What happened to Sheriff John, and was he really dumb in real life?

- Thanx,Haig

LA's LOCAL KID SHOWS
Overview of the 50s and 60s / Sheriff John / Romper Room / Chucko, the Birthday Clown / Engineer Bill / Hobo Kelly / Shrimpenstein / Baby Daphne / Skip and Woofer's Last Show / More LA Locals / 'Shotgun Tom' Kelly's Words-A-Poppin'