Rocketship 7 facts for kids
Rocketship 7 was a popular children's television show. It aired on weekday mornings in Buffalo, New York on a TV channel called WKBW-TV. The show first started in 1962 and ran until 1978. It even came back for a short time in 1992 and 1993!
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Rocketship 7: A Fun TV Show!
The main host of Rocketship 7 was a friendly person named Dave Thomas. He joined WKBW in 1961. Another very important character on the show was Promo the Robot!
What Was on the Show?
Rocketship 7 had different parts. Dave Thomas and Promo the Robot would appear together. The show also featured many cartoons and other short programs. Some of the cartoons you might have seen included Davey and Goliath and Gumby.
Dave Thomas left WKBW in 1978 to work at another TV station in Philadelphia. There, he started using the name "Dave Roberts." He stayed there until he retired in 2009. When Dave Roberts left, WKBW decided to stop airing Rocketship 7.
The Show Returns!
Years later, in 1991, another popular show called The Commander Tom Show ended. WKBW decided to bring back the fun of "Commander Tom" by restarting Rocketship 7! This new version aired once a week on Saturday mornings at 7 AM.
The new host was Captain Mike Randall. His sidekick was Yeoman Bob (played by Bob Stilson). Special guests like Commander Tom Jolls, Promo the Robot, and Captain Comic (played by Tim Warchocki) would also appear. Yeoman Bob always started the show by saying "Yo!"
New Cartoons and Fun Features
The cartoons shown in the 1992 version included Super Chicken and George of the Jungle. The show also had some fun regular segments:
- "Crummy Cartoon Theater 2000": This was a funny part where Captain Randall and Yeoman Bob would make jokes about old, classic cartoons. It was a bit like a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000.
- "Are You Kidding?": In this part, children would share riddles and jokes.
To keep the "Rocketship" theme going, the TV station even used "Planet Earth" in their mailing address. This was for viewers to send in feedback or enter contests.
The Final Goodbye
Rocketship 7 was canceled for good in 1993. At that time, more and more infomercials (long commercials), public information shows, and educational programs started to fill up the Saturday morning TV schedule. Another show called Off Beat Cinema, which showed movies late at night, took its place on WKBW.
Promo the Robot's New Look
Tim Warchocki, who played Captain Comic, was also a graphic designer for WKBW-TV. He helped give Promo the Robot a cool new look! Before the 1992 return of Rocketship 7, Tim was asked to update Promo. He made Promo fluorescent green and yellow to look better on color television and fit modern designs. The robot's original body, from when the show was in black and white, was gray and sometimes red.
Rocketship 7 in Other Shows
Rocketship 7 is even mentioned in an episode of the TV show Bones. The episode is called "The X in the File". In the episode, a character named Agent Booth gets excited when he sees a photo from Rocketship 7. He says he watched it all the time when he was a kid. Interestingly, the actor who plays Agent Booth, David Boreanaz, is the son of Dave Thomas, the original host of Rocketship 7!
