Friday, August 31, 2001
Larry Smith, puppets return to TV
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Hattie the Witch flies again! Hattie, Snarfie R. Dog, Nasty
Old Thing, Spookie the Ghost and the whole gang return to TV on Larry
Smith's Puppets Saturday (8 a.m., Channel 25).
“I've had so many requests to do a (TV) show again from
people who grew up with the show and are now mothers and
grandmothers,” says Mr. Smith, 63.
The Dayton native started at age 14 on WHIO-TV in 1952. He
came to Cincinnati in 1957, where he has done puppet shows forChannels
9, 12, 48, 19 and WGRR-FM.
“Yes, I even did puppets on the radio! But Edgar Bergen
did, too,” he says.
The 6-by-6-foot Hattie's castle set used for Channel 25 dates
back to his Channel 9 days.
“It was strange working in the castle again. I was stiff
and sore the next day,” Mr. Smith says.
Each half-hour show will include a Popeye cartoon, and a
request for kids to mail (or e-mail) letters and pictures. “I'll
be interested to see what the fan mail will be like,” he says.
His weekly series for the low-power UPN affiliate is his first
broadcast series since his 1968-74 weekday show on Channel 19. He did
a Thanksgiving special for Channel 19 in 1987, and a 65-episode series
for Northern Kentucky's Storer Cable (now Insight) about 10 years ago.
Mr. Smith's puppet show was the first program broadcast by
Channel 19 when it signed on the air in 1968.
The Rudy and Teaser clubhouse set, to be seen in the Sept. 15
episode, was first used on Channel 19. The popular 3-5 p.m. weekday
show drew such stars as Tiny Tim and Bobby Sherman to Channel 19's old
Woodlawn studio.
“Those were crazy days,” he says
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