Bill Jackson Biography, Age, Cartoonist, The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show.

BIOGRAPHY OF BILL JACKSON

Bill Jackson (Bill Ray Jackson) is an American television personality, cartoonist and educator born September 15, 1935 in Unionville, Missouri. He is known for hosting the children’s programs ‘Gigglesnort Hotel’ and ‘The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show’. It has twice won the Iris Award for Best Locally Produced Children’s Show in the United States. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a degree in television production in 1975.

BILL JACKSON AGE

He was born on September 15, 1935 in Unionville, Missouri (83 years old in 2018)

BILL JACKSON CAREER

Bill Jackson began his career at KTVO in Ottumwa, Iowa, as a weatherman, editor, and art director. Later he joined the army and was assigned to the armed forces network in Hollywood, where he made his first puppets.

In 1960, Bill Jackson made his first appearance on children’s television as the host of the “Popeye and Little Rascals Club” in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The program ran for two years before moving to Indianapolis for another three years (Bill Jackson) with the “Mickey Mouse Club” on WLWI (now WTHR), later renamed “The Bill Jackson Show”.

At the Mickey Mouse Club he created ‘Dirty Dragon’ which was a character based on his friend in Indianapolis. He said ‘Cartoon Town’ was based on the small town he grew up in and some of his puppet characters were based on some of his Unionville neighbors, and the character ‘Weird’ was based on a friend of Chicago.

In 1965, Chicago-based WBBM-TV gave him a program known as Clown Alley (weekday version) or Here Comes Freckles (Sunday morning version). The show was canceled after two seasons due to poor ratings, as it aired early in the morning.

Bill Jackson played the character ‘Freckles the Clown’ although many puppet characters continued to appear in later series, Jackson usually played himself (or ‘BJ’ as his puppeteer co-stars called him) while throughout his career.

In 1986, Bill Jackson debuted on Chicago-based WFLD with the program ‘Cartoon Town’ which was later renamed ‘The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show’. At the station, its characters such as Dirty Dragon, ‘Weird’ and ‘Wally Goodscout’, ‘Mother Plumtree’, the ‘Old Professor’ and a city landmark called ‘Blob’ (unrelated to the movie) which was made of clay and could, with Jackson’s help, take any shape helped him reach great heights.

Bill Jackson was the writer and producer of the series, he also performed all the voices for the puppet characters, built and designed the sets and the puppets. The show featured a variety of cartoons, including Underdog, Popeye (the early 1960s version made for the TV king), ‘Out Of The Inkwell’ (the made-for-TV version produced by Hal Seeger) and George Of The Jungle.

The show ran for five years, but ended after Field Communications, the station’s owner, sold an interest to Kaiser Broadcasting and Kaiser streamlined its group of stations’ local productions.

In August 1973, The BJ & Dirty Dragon Show (now set in “Carefree Corners”) began a year-long run on WGN. In the fall of 1974, WGN canceled the show, after which Jackson produced a one-shot holiday special, A Gift for Granny, which aired on NBC’s Chicago affiliate WMAQ-TV.

In 1975, Bill Jackson and his cartoons appeared at the Gigglesnort Hotel, an educational themed program. The show was produced and broadcast by Chicago’s ABC affiliate WLS-TV, but ended after three seasons. In 1979 he made his last program “Firehouse Follies” which lasted until 1980.

When Gigglesnort Hotel ended, it was syndicated nationally and reruns continued to air on WLS in Chicago until 1985. In the 1980s, several episodes were released by Karl-Lorimar Home Video in a six-volume series, one of which actually included two holiday specials Jackson produced in California after he left Chicago: Billy Joe’s Thanksgiving –aka Salute To The Turkey– and a later
remake of A Gift For Granny , which featured a green incarnation of Dirty Dragon and a female voice artist as Mother Plumtree.

Bill Jackson did a local featurette on WLS-TV during ABC-TV’s Kids Are People Too show called The Too Late Show Staring Dirty Dragon. a slight takeoff on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show during the 1978-79 season.

In 1995, Bill Jackson donated all of his original puppets to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. In 2005, he became a member of the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle.

In 2008 he published his memoir “The Only Kid on the Carnival”. He released a documentary, “Remembering Cartoon Town and BJ & Dirty Dragon” in 2009.

In December 2009, he made his final appearance as an artist for a presentation for the Museum of Radio Communications, “Saturday Morning with BJ and Dirty Dragon: Bill Jackson, Live in Person—One Last Time.”

Bill Jackson left television in 1980 and joined the California Institute of the Arts for film/video school as a teacher retiring in 1990.