Friday, May 21, 2021

WNEP-TV staff from 1975, including Miss Judy

Full disclosure: The reason I wanted to do the series of posts on items in the November 13, 1975, edition of The Scranton Tribune is so I could conclude it with this glorious full-page advertisement for WNEP-TV that's featured on the back page.

I realize this will only resonate with a very specific demographic of people who are both of a certain age and grew up within the area in which Scranton-based WNEP could be picked up on the rabbit ears. That was the case for us in Montoursville in the early 1980s. 

WNEP meant the afternoon silliness of Bowling for Dollars and Dialing for Dollars. And it meant The Land of Hatchy Milatchy every weekday morning with Miss Judy (portrayed by Lois Burns). A 1984 article from The Morning Call of Allentown delves into the reasons why the children's show was such a long-running hit:
"The success of 'Hatchy Milatchy,' which takes its name from a song by Rosemary Clooney, can largely be accredited to this personalization. While Romper Room's hostess may look in her magic mirror and see Kenny and Michael and Jane, Miss Judy roots through the 200 or so letters she receives weekly and tells 4-year-old Benjamin Strohl of Forty Fort he'll find a birthday surprise under the living room sofa or wishes a speedy recovery to little Karen Crenshaw of Pittston, who's home from school with the chicken pox."

Anyway, if you're one of the cool kids who grew up in northcentral or northeastern Pennsylvania during the Miss Judy era, please leave a message in the comments.

And here are closeups of the WNEP-TV gang, including Miss Judy, from the full-page advertisement.

FROM LEFT: Elden Hale, Carol Bogart, Jim Ward, Dick Schorr and J. Kristopher
FROM LEFT: Uncle Ted (horror host and occasional Hatchy Milatchy guest Edwin Raub), John Glawe, Ed Martile, Miss Judy and Mike Stevens
FROM LEFT: Liz Pursell, Bob Carroll and Vince Carroll

3 comments:

  1. Geisinger Children’s Miracle Network would hold a carnival at Queen of Peace Catholic School in Shamokin every year. I guess it was a satellite carnival of the larger one held at the hospital in Danville.
    I went to Transfiguration, which was across the street, and we got to get out of school for a few hours to enjoy the festivities.
    Miss Judy came one year to sign autographs. I believe I still have it in a box. She was the first celebrity I ever met.

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  2. Hatchy Milatchy was magic. When the gates would open at the beginning of the show my brother and I would be on the floor up close to the TV as my Mom would let us and for that hour every morning life was magic! Was it an hour or less I can't recall. The kid has become an old lady.

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  3. The land of Hatchy Milatchy, Dialing for Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, Uncle Teds Ghoul School etc. we’re a priceless past time that made WNEP TV the local leader in community connected relationships. Grew up in the 70s and watching these and other WNEP shows was as common on a local basis as watching the Waltons was on a national basis.

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