Wacko

1977

Color Videotape

This half-hour children's TV series aired on Saturday mornings between September and November of 1977. A live-action comedy/music program, it was created by Chris Bearde whose resume includes work as a writer on the groundbreaking NBC comedy series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In which, during it's 1967-73 run, set the style and format for virtually all subsequent TV variety shows.

Bearde's career began in radio and then children's television programming in early 1950s Australia. He was lured to North America by the Canadian network CTV circa 1960. There he continued to work in both radio and TV and further refined his unique style of satirical entertainment.

For Wacko, hosts Bo Kaprall and talented voice-over actress Julie McWhirter (wife of deejay Rick Dees) headed up a comic cast of regulars featuring Charles Fleischer (known for being the voice of Roger Rabbit as well as a laundry list of credits that include roles on television (Welcome Back, Kotter, Laverne & Shirley, The Drew Carey Show and The Weird Al Show) and in movies such as Back To The Future II, Straight Talk and My Girl 2.

Bob Comfort & Rick Kellard (both known primarily as a TV writers including their 1986 collaboration on The Redd Foxx Show) were part of the acting troupe for Wacko as was Doug Cox (whose prolific small-screen career continues right up to the present with recent appearances on the popular, prime-time CBS sit-com Mike & Molly). Actress Millicent Crisp, and manic funnyman Rip Taylor rounded out the crazy cast.

The show was a zany, fast-paced, joke-based Vaudevillian affair with skits and music performances by popular disco/soul band The Sylvers and the Dwight Twilley Band (featuring a pre-Heartbreakers Tom Petty!)

Wacko Television Library includes footage of: