Goodby Clarabell -- from your peanut gallery in the sky! Lew Anderson, Clarabell the clown on the famed early kids TV Show "HOWDY DOODY" died this weekend at 84. 
"Well, his feet are big, his tummy's stout, but we could never do without," --that's what the kids in the Peanut Gallery (what the on-stage audience) used to sing about the clown sidekick to Buffalo Bob, long-time host of this Baby Boomer TV favorite. Long before Sesame Street, "Howdy Doody" 
was appointment television daily in every house in America that had a TV and kids. In those early days -- back in 1947 -- only 20,000 homes in the country had television sets.Anderson was Clarabell from 1954 to 1960. It was Clarabell who had the show's last words.. "Goodbye, kids."
photo of Howdy and Buffalo Bob, courtesy of the Museum of Broadcast Communications website: Cached -
"Say kids, what time is it?" "It's Howdy Doody Time!". Did you know (courtesy of wikipedia.com: In 1954, an unknown Canadian actor named William Shatner (who would later play Captain Kirk in Star Trek) joined the American cast as "Ranger Bill Coincidentally, another future Star Trek actor would join the Canadian Howdy Doody show's cast. The Canadian show starred James Doohan as forest ranger Timber Tom who corresponded to Buffalo Bob in the U.S. version
The last episode aired on September 24, 1960, with Clarabell's one and only line on the program, a teary eyed "Goodbye, kids".
DID YOU KNOW? 
Sigourney Weaver as the daughter of Pat Weaver, the President of NBC, got to sit in the Peanut Gallery many times, as well as Johnny Bench, John Ritter, Joe Namath and others. All were kids at the time, of course!
TV's first audience participation TV show was HOWDY DOODY -- Clarabell's antics including "Harpo Marx"-type horn-blowing and seltzer bottle spraying of yes, the Peanut Gallery kids. Howdy Doody Time website*
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