7.2TMDB17 votesCaptain Kangaroo was an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the CBS network for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955, to December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its time. In 1986, the American Program Service incorporated some newly produced segments into reruns of past episodes, distributing the updated version of the series until 1993. The show was created and the title character was portrayed by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children." Keeshan had previously played the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC. Captain Kangaroo had a loose format, centered around life in the "Treasure House," where the Captain would tell stories, meet guests, and engage in silly antics with regular characters, both human and puppet. The show was broadcast live to the East Coast and the Midwest for its first four years and aired on kinescope for the West Coast, as Keeshan would not perform the show live three times a day, and it was in black-and-white until 1966. The May 17, 1971 episode introduced two significant changes: The Treasure House was renovated and renamed "The Captain's Place," and the Captain swapped his navy blue coat for a red one. In September 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour, briefly retitled it Wake Up with the Captain, and moved it to an earlier time slot; it was later shifted to weekends in September 1982, and returned to an hour-long format. It was canceled by CBS at the end of 1984.