In December 1971, Kent Zoya and his brother appeared on The Happy Hour on WTCN-11. Kent’s mother had her camera and snapped these photos.
Kent remembers: “My brother and I were in the group of kids. I remember the lights were very hot. Each of us kids got a gift bag (you can see them lined up in the front row). I don’t remember all of what was in the bag, but I remember there was a small carton of orange juice or milk. It must have been sitting out under the lights because it was hot. I couldn’t drink it.”
“We were there for my brother’s birthday and he got to talk to the host and the puppet. He was nervous and couldn’t remember how old he was. They coaxed him quite a bit to get the answer. (“How old did you used to be?” “Um, four and a half…” “So how old are you now?”) That went on for quite a while. When we saw the show broadcast on our TV I realized they had cut out some of the conversation. (My brother needed a lot of coaxing to come up with the answer “five”.) It was an early lesson for me in TV editing.”
“My mom filled me in on why my brother had so much trouble saying he was five years old on the show. Kids had to be at least five to be on The Happy Hour. He was told to say he was five even though his fifth birthday was still a few days away. I guess he must have felt nervous under the bright TV lights and decided it best not to say anything.”
The Happy Hour ran from 1970 to 1973 and followed the popular Dave Lee Show when Dave retired. The program was colorful, zany and fun. Like most other kids shows, the limitations on advertising on kids shows led to the cancelation of the program.
My thanks to Kent Zoya and the Zoya family for sharing these wonderful photos.