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I met him once. He was a very nice man. May he rest in peace!

TV’s Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan, Dies at 76
BOSTON (Reuters) – Bob Keeshan, who enchanted millions of American children as television’s grandfatherly Captain Kangaroo, died on Friday in Vermont after a long illness, his family said. He was 76.
The easy-going television personality and his posse of sidekicks, including Mr. Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit, neatly blended entertainment and education on the “Captain Kangaroo” show, which first aired on CBS in October, 1955.
As the mustachioed host — whose pouch-like jacket pockets gave the character his marsupial name — Keeshan captured the hearts and minds of everyone from baby boomers to Generation Xers during more than three decades on the air.
“Our father, grandfather and friend was as passionate for his family as he was for America’s children,” his family said in a statement. “He was largely a private man living an often public life as an advocate for all that our nation’s children deserve.”
A Marine during World War II, Keeshan began his career working as a page at NBC.
Things began to take off when he joined “The Howdy Doody Show” and created the character Clarabell the Clown, who communicated by honking horns and squirting a seltzer bottle, usually at host Buffalo Bob Smith.
Years later, after he had gone his own way as Captain Kangaroo — a more sedate, nurturing character — he credited Smith’s influence on his creative and professional life.
“One of the reasons that Captain Kangaroo was such a success is that it ran so smoothly, and that happened because I ran that show with all the talents that Bob Smith taught me,” Keeshan wrote.
“He is my father in the business,” he said. “I put what he taught me to work on Captain Kangaroo and we ran for thirty years.”
Although children loved the program, CBS eventually jettisoned “Captain Kangaroo” to make room for a morning news program with the hopes of challenging NBC’s “The Today Show.”
Keeshan’s show migrated to public television, where it remained on the air until 1993.
CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves called Keeshan “a true pioneer in children’s television whose legacy goes unmatched,” while Bozo the Clown — whose real name is Larry Harmon — mourned his passing, calling it “a big loss to generations of American kids.”
It was the second such loss in less than a year, following the death last February of Fred Rogers.
In their later years, both men bemoaned the state of children’s entertainment.
In a 1999 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Keeshan expressed frustration with the lack of creativity in children’s television — something he blamed on corporate bean-counters — and increasingly violent video games.
“When you play some of these games, the only way to win is to be skilled at violence. If you want to be conciliatory or to mediate, you’re going to lose,” he said. “You take a game like Mortal Kombat, the conditioning of violence involved, it’s sickening.”