Feder didn't mention, but Wiki did, thanks to Ted Okuda and Jack Mulqueen's
compendium of Chicago kids' telly: the shorter tenure at 'GN was
precipitated by Jackson's having to commute between there and NY, where
NBC4 bought essentially the same format under the title "BJ's Bunch"...
B
Mark Jeffries, Jan 19th:
> Cartoonist Bill Jackson came to Chicago to do two little-remembered kids
> shows for CBS' WBBM, but he flowered at then-UHF independent WFLD in 1968
> with "Cartoon Town," which immediately attracted the attention of kids with
> its colorful group of puppet characters, Mr. Jackson's cartooning talents
> and his penchant for putting in as much production as possible regarding
> the low budget he had to work with, writing, voicing and designing the
> shows--which often included a running serial--with the assistance of only
> two assistant puppeteers. Its hipness for the time immediately made
> inroads with kids over the calcified lineup of WGN ("Bozo's Circus,"
> "Garfield Goose") and probably sold more UHF TV sets than WFLD's expensive
> package of White Sox games. Mr. Jackson moved the show (by then called
> "The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show," giving billing to the smoke-billowing,
> crabby, egomanical postmaster) to WGN in 1972, but only lasted one year.
> He then moved to ABC's WLS in 1975 with the weekly "Gigglesnort Hotel,"
> putting his characters in a more educational format (not that he had
> already been slipping little bits of learning into his shows over the
> years), which went into national syndication and ran there much longer than
> the three years of production. To Chicago kids of a certain age, his
> talents will be long remembered:
>
> https://www.robertfeder.com/2022/01/19/bill-bj-jackson-1935-2022/
>
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