Willie Whistle was the most incomprehensible kids show host in known history. Period. Still, he was a Boston institution on and off for the better part of 20+ years.
Willie was on and off beginning in 1962, and his last run came around 1983-4 on WSBK. The higher-than-high-pitched, ultra squeaky voice was hard to understand, and of course difficult to duplicate unless you overdosed on helium trying to learn how to mimic him, which I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy. If he made you laugh, he did his job. If he caused discomfort, well, I guess we know who Stephen King had in mind when he created the malevolent Pennywise for his novel, It, which later became a TV miniseries for ABC.
Boston based artist Fred Grandinetti appeared on the show in 1984, and uploaded this clip to YouTube:
It's just too bad Bozo wasn't on TV-38. At least you could relate to him.
Rating: C.
4 comments:
I had successfully suppressed any memory of this show until you brought it up. I never could stand that show!
It was because of the voice, wasn't it? I wasn't exactly a fan of Willie's, either, hence the rating I gave the show, but what it lacked was subtitles so you could understand what he was saying!
Hated, hated, HATED Willie Whistle, an unfortunate memory of my days in Massachusetts in the late '70s. I think that he was almost universally despised by anyone over the age of 6.
I again reference my remarks in response to SaturdayMorningFan. Willie was incomprehensible, which contributes mightily to all the haterizing. Personally, he should've been seen and not heard.
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