Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Commander Tom-o-rama
Somebody obviously ran across my early entry about a month ago detailing my visit to the CBC Museum, and especially of the memories evoked by seeing the sets of shows I saw which I was a child, and sent me the following email:

This Fall, the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers will partner with the Toy Town Museum to celebrate two Western New York Treasures-the "Commander Tom Show" and "Rocketship 7". For the first time since the shows originally aired, the puppets, costumes, props, pictures and video from Commander Tom and Rocketship 7 are being assembled for a six-month exhibit to begin October 25, 2003.

The exhibit will showcase artifacts from the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers permanent collection and various loaned items. The Toy Town Museum has create a 1970’s Commander Tom set to act as the exhibit background. The display will include Commander Tom’s costumes, puppets from the shows including Dustmop, Mattie the Mod and the Furry Burry creatures, photos and video of the original shows and Promo the Robot from "Rocketship 7."

To kickoff the event, October 25 will be "Rocketship 7" and "Commander Tom" Day at the Toy Town Museum. It will be a day long celebration of Buffalo’s most popular children’s television programs that includes special appearances by Tom Jolls and Dave Thomas. There will also be special family activities including celebrity story telling, autographs and photo opportunities, puppet making and a "Robot Costume Contest".

"In the mid-1960s, Channel 7 began a television legacy that would be forever linked with growing up in Western New York," said Marty Biniasz, President of the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers. "The Rocketship 7 & Commander Tom Exhibit at the Toy Town Museum will chronicle the nearly 30 year history of two of the most popular locally produced television programs in local history."

The Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the region's rich radio and television heritage. Founded in 1997, the BBP has safeguarded thousands of pictures, reels of film, pictures and artifacts documenting the popular culture of Buffalo-Niagara as seen on television and heard on the radio. The organization also sponsors the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame which can be accessed at www.buffalobroadcasting.com.

The Toy Town Museum is a non-profit organization located at 636 Girard Ave. in East Aurora and is open Monday through Saturday from 10:00am-4: 00pm. For more information about ToyFest call the Toy Town Museum at 687-5151 or log on to www.toytownusa.com

Thank you kind stranger! Unfortunately I’m not likely to be heading down to Buffalo anytime soon, but it sounds like something I’d enjoy seeing.

When I was growing up in Willowdale I remember watching the Commander Tom show avidly most weekday mornings before school. I remember enjoying waking up early so I could catch the stirring opening sequence where some pre-Apollo era rocket was counted down and then blasted off. Cheesy now, but at the time, magical. (If I woke up even earlier I could catch the oddball cartoons they used to show on CFTO, including “The New Adventures of Pinocchio” “Tales of the Wizard of Oz” and my favourite, “Professor Kitzel”). They showed plenty of classic ’50s era cartoons on the show, starting a life-long love of such characters as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I once even sent in a drawing I had made of one of the show’s characters and sent in, and being thrilled when it appeared on the show – and the character in question (the cat character, whatever his name was) commented on it. The thrills of childhood. ;-)

Anyways, if you are in or near Buffalo and remember the original show, go see it.