Pick Temple's Giant Ranch

Friday; August 29, 2008
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A truly funny memory From:
Pick Temple’s Giant Ranch
on WMAL channel 7 in Washington, D.C.

Cowboy folksinger, Lafayette Parker Temple (1911 - 1991) was known as Pick Temple and starred in The Pick Temple Giant Ranch local television show from 1948 through 1961.

His children’s show featured his singing and guitar playing, puppet shows, cartoons, target practice, his pony Piccolo, and his dog Lady. Children sent postcards to Pick, hoping that he might pick them as ‘Lucky Rangers’ to appear as Guests on his show, where they would sit in the studio’s ‘Hayloft’. The show aired on WMAL channel 7, seven days per week, in the Washington, D. C. area and was sponsored by a local grocery store chain, Giant Food of Landover, Maryland.

I could go on about Mr. Temple’s Great Depression era days of riding the rails and singing the songs of the times or I could wax philosophically about his Government job with the Census Bureau but my compositional anecdote, today, is more a lighthearted, whimsical moment on one of his telecasts.

I would be remiss if I did not mention some of the all-time great Children’s TV Shows such as: Howdy Doody, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, Mickey Mouse Club, Barney, Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Romper Room and the Muppets.
And there were other local fare including Bozo, Lil Rascals, Ranger Hal, Capn’ Tugg and Cousin Cupcake.

The memory that I’d like to share with you is from 1959 when I was 10 years old. Yes, that’s 48 years ago. Of course, there’ll be some who may question my recollection of events. I have friends (more aptly described as acquaintances) who often doubt my memory capacity. And then there’s my idiot siblings who think if they can’t remember it - then, I couldn’t possibly .. and if they don’t know it - then, I surely don’t. But I choose not to discuss mean spirited, hateful, selfish morons at this writing. I will vindicate myself and validate my story by mentioning that a year ago, my Daughter (whom I’ve often told this account) and I were watching a TV show with old local clips and this was one of them. My memory matches exactly with that broadcast.

So, here’s what happened. Pick Temple would have local children come on his show and participate in the tomfoolery. And since Pick was (supposedly) a Cowboy, one of the gags was where 4 children would line up with their cap-busters (toy handguns) at the ready and (pretend to) shoot at balloons above a stone wall about 15 feet away. Usually, the kids would pop off about 20-25 caps each and slowly, one by one, the balloons would pop as if the children had shot them. Surely, some TV studio worker was sticking the balloons with a pin from behind the wall and out of sight.

Regardless, a small part of that bit was a small hole in the bottom of the look alike stone wall where a toy snake would, sometimes, appear. It was one of those toy snakes that had about 6-8 straight pieces that were connected with hinges. It was really tacky looking and I think it was supposed to be. It WAS funny. Usually, the camera zeroed in on it but the children would continue firing at the balloons.

One evening I was watching the show and one of the four children selected for this bit was a little Black child. There weren’t that many African-American kids on TV for some reason back then and so I watched it a little closer than I normally would have. Sure enough, at Pick’s command, the children started pretend shooting at the balloons as they popped, one by one. Then, the TV camera zeroed in on the hole in the wall’s bottom area and out came the snake. All of a sudden, the small Black child’s eyes grew large and he screamed out loud a basic exclamation. He cried, “a ma-fuckin’ snake !” And he aimed his cap-buster at it and popped off several shots.

Now, this was before 7 second delays and probably before any type of organizational rules of misconduct. But that’s what I remembered and the only difference in that and what the recent old clip showed was they had bleeped out the curse word. After showing the clip, the narrator
mentioned that they had bleeped out the actual comment by the small Black child. Furthermore, most of those old shows were either in kinnescope that were not kept or not recorded at all. It just so happened that this clip was kept .. and I think that I know the reason why.

I have always remembered this incident and knew that children pick up what they hear from their parents around the house. Even if the parents are unaware of it. It was THIS incident that caused me to be extremely careful with my language while I was raising my Daughter.

LARRY CURTIS SPURLOCK

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