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 * Axel & Casey's Christmas Traditions * A TVparty CHRISTMAS SPECIAL Text by Julian West
"It is entirely imaginative," Clellan declared in 1957. "We've put Axel, a crusty old guy who likes kids, in a treehouse. It's a good setting for kids' imagination and lends itself to the stories I tell or the films being run." Unlike many kids' TV shows, Axel and His Dog did not include a "peanut gallery" full of breathless, restless youngsters. It was felt that seeing the show in the studio would shatter the illusion for kids. Watching Axel cavort on the mysterious, glowing cathode screen at home might seem magical; seeing the same thing in person, divorced from the alchemy of the airwaves, might expose him as a man in a goofy costume in front of a cheap painted backdrop. Worse, it would be impossible to prevent a studio audience from seeing Towser's true identity. That couldn't be allowed to happen -- despite the silliness, Axel and His Dog always maintained a tantalizing air of mystery.  A
TWIN CITIESHOLIDAY TRADITION: Every Christmas, Axel would deliver his own, warped version of the classic tale, The Night Before Christmas. Here are two examples, the first a home recording of one of Axel's shows. Axel
does Axel
and Carmine bake cookies  Back
at WTCN-TV, Lynn Dwyer joined "Lunch
with Casey" as Roundhouse Rodney after Chris Wedes in the
early-sixties. The short but sturdy Lynn had previously been a skater
with the Ice Capades. A gifted performer and talented mimic, Roundhouse's
manic personality contrasted perfectly with Casey's pleasant quiescence.
On the show, Roundhouse might appear as Tarzan spouting one-liners, a life-size windup female doll, or do his dead-on Jimmy Durante impression. Every year at Halloween, an evil witch would shrink Roundhouse and trap him in a pumpkin -- probably so Lynn could take a vacation. Just in time for Halloween, Casey would carve the pumpkin, rescue Roundhouse, and restore him to normal size.  HOLIDAY
CLIPS:
A popular Christmas feature on the 'Lunch With Casey' show was the musical video that he showed each year - "Walking in My Winter Underwear". A clip from the 1969 Christmas Day episode of 'Lunch With Casey' clearly shows how religious values were re-inforced on local children's shows. By the early 1970s, the heyday of local children's programming was coming to an end. After almost nineteen years on the air, Channel 11's "Lunch with Casey" was cancelled by Metromedia, Inc., the conglomerate which then owned WTCN. NEW - DON'T MISS THIS: If you'd like to have Axel's version of "The Night Before Christmas" but don't want to pay big bucks for the original collector's item, I offer two different CDs which both contain the 1964 recording plus various other stuff. The CDs come with color reproductions of the original packaging (or rare photos) and cost $10 each (plus $4 shipping per order). Here are details about the CDs: AXEL ARTYFACTS TWIN CITIES KID STUFF If you're interested in either CD, please email me for
details on how to |
Axel
& His Dog & more
PR4 & PR5 Pages for ads - CHEAP!
Excerpts from thenew book
Axel's Treehouse website:
TV
on DVD
|
Axel's
Treehouse was an idealized version of that childhood daydream, with
the intimate atmosphere of a clubhouse. Anyone with a television set
could join the gang. 
