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Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics

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Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics is a two-hour television special produced by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois which focuses on children's programming which aired on the station from 1960 to 2001. It debuted in 2005 and featured on both WGN-TV and its former superstation simulcast, WGN America. The program is hosted by WGN-TV personality Dean Richards.

The clip show airs annually, immediately after the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade on Thanksgiving, as well as on Christmas Eve on WGN. Due to cancellation of the 2020 Chicago Thanksgiving Parade due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WGN aired Bozo, Gar, and Ray and a later compilation special, Bozo's Circus: The 1960s in the parade's usual morning timeslot.

The show was created in response to the continuing popularity of WGN programming, including Bozo the Clown, which had been seen weekly on WGN until 2001. Because most Bozo episodes were either wiped or never recorded, and because of scheduling constraints, rerunning the show was not an option. Thus, WGN decided to cobble together the best of the remaining tapes of WGN's children's programming to create the special. Included in the special were the Bozo programs Bozo's Circus (1960–1980), Big Top (1965–1967), The Bozo Show (1980–1994), and The Bozo Super Sunday Show (1994–2001), as well as the long-running children's programs Garfield Goose and Friends and Ray Rayner and His Friends, both of which are well known in Chicago although less known outside the area.[1]

The special also features four animated shorts, all of which have aired on WGN-TV for many years: Hardrock, Coco and Joe: The Three Little Dwarves; Suzy Snowflake; 1954 UPA version of Frosty the Snowman (not to be confused with the 1969 Rankin Bass version, which aired on chicago's CBS affiliate WBBM) and the 1951 UPA version of Peter Cottontail (not to be confused with the 1971 Rankin Bass version, which aired on chicago's CBS affiliate WBBM).

The program is not available on any home media format, although the animated shorts are available separately through The Museum of Broadcast Communications.

References

  1. ^ Kogan, Rick (September 4, 1988). "WGN's Birthday Salute A Tour of Chicago's Past". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 17, 2011.
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