Bill Jackson (television Personality) - Chicago

Chicago

Jackson's work did not go unnoticed, however, and he was hired by another Chicago station, the then-independent WFLD, which was looking for a show to go opposite WGN-TV's highly popular Garfield Goose and Friends. Jackson, a gifted artist, comedian and puppeteer, responded in 1968 with a program initially called Cartoon Town, but later renamed The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show. It was here that Jackson, playing the mayor of the cartoon town, reached great heights with characters such as Dirty Dragon, "Weird" and "Wally Goodscout", "Mother Plumtree", the "Old Professor", and a town monument called "Blob" (no relation to the movie) who was made of clay and could, with Jackson's help, assume any form. Jackson wrote and produced the show, performed all of the puppet characters' voices, built and designed the sets and puppets. The show featured a variety of cartoons, including Underdog, Popeye (the early 1960s made-for-TV King Features version), "Out Of The Inkwell" (the made-for-TV version produced by Hal Seeger) and George Of The Jungle. The show was broadcast for five years on WFLD, but ended after the station's owner, Field Communications, sold an interest to Kaiser Broadcasting, and Kaiser streamlined local productions on its group of stations. The final WFLD episode (#1311) was broadcast July 27, 1973; one month later, The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show (now set in "Carefree Corners") began a one-year run on WGN. Meanwhile, Jackson began commuting between Chicago and New York, where he produced and hosted another local show, BJ's Bunch, featuring many of the same characters. By the fall of 1974, WGN cancelled The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show, after which Jackson produced a one-shot holiday special, A Gift For Granny, which aired on WMAQ-TV, Chicago's NBC affiliate.