Phil Roger has a collection of old TV Guides and has sent us scans of some of those pages. Here is an ad for a cartoon character called Colonel Bleep. Created in 1956 by Robert Buchanan at his studio in Miami, Colonel Bleep was a milestone in television animation- the first original TV cartoon series produced in color. The series ran for 104 episodes. Of course, on Channel 13, this cartoon was seen in beautiful black & white.
I have no recollection of this or the Rod & Basil Show. It was just before I became interested in Channel 13. The reason for this was that I don’t think I was allowed to touch the TV knobs until I was older, say 7 or 8 years of age. There were strict rules in the house about TV and telephone. And if my parents didn’t control the TV, my older brother did.
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Colonel Bleep was extremely limited animation, with lots of still frames between character movements. It was narrated throughout to help explain what was going on. He travelled via his cosmic unicycle and had two peculiar sidekicks, a cave man awakened by an atomic bomb, and a boy puppet. Captain Kangaroo featured some of his adventures. More here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Bleep
Here is a collection of the cartoon series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C29oYvtoNak&list=PLTKmp3L0wn-V5C3Ce9mwi6RxSPkjOlrJi
For me it was Sheriff Tex at Safety Junction. Texas Jim Lewis. I even bought his theme song, Goofus by Les Paul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFbomGm4G_A
I too was a Patches pal. My #2 was Brakeman Bill. Honorable mentions to Stan and the captain. But the quest for after school cartoons was ongoing. In my old neighborhood in NW Seattle, channel 13 was hit and miss in the early days. My rabbit ear skills were as good as anyone’s. Colonel Bleep I may have caught once or twice and I watched Penny and her Pals a time or two. The advantage of where I grew up was I could watch channel 12 more consistently than 13. KVOS had morning and afternoon cartoons with Frisky Frolics and Funorama.
Before my time. I was a JP Patches pal.