Museum Of Classic Chicago Television Unearths Another Treasure

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 11, 2012 5:30PM

Rick Klein of the Museum of Classic Chicago Television has another formerly lost treasure from the local children's television of our youth online today: a full episode of The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show unseen for 40 years.

Bill Jackson created The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show (originally titled Cartoon Town with Bill Jackson) for WFLD in 1968, where it ran opposite WGN's Garfield Goose and Friends during the lunch hour, when chool kids would walk home from school for lunch. Jackson starred as "BJ," the mayor of Cartoon Town, and he brought along many of the puppets and characters from his WBBM program Clown Alley, including a surly, smoke snorting dragon called the Dirty Dragon. The late 60s and early 70s were UHF's infancy, but eventually The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show beat Garfield Goose in the ratings.

WGN decided to move Garfield Goose to mornings and brought Jackson and The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show over to take over the spot vacated by Garfield. Jackson would go on to cement his legacy in local Chicago television when he created Gigglesnort Hotel for WLS in 1975.

Klein found the show on a 2-inch Quadruplex videotape stashed away in a location he won't divulge, and helped facilitate a beautiful direct-to-digital transfer financed by donations. The opening of the episode is below. We ask that you watch the rest of the program on the MCCT's website.