(WBBM NEWSRADO) — A beloved Chicago cartoonist and Saturday morning children's television show host has died.
If you grew up in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s, you know Bill "BJ" Jackson and his beloved puppets: Blob, Dirty Dragon, The Professor and Mother Plumtree, Wally and Weird.
They were a staple of local children’s television. Jackson made his debut with “Cartoontown.” Later, “BJ and Dirty Dragon” and “The Gigglesnort Hotel” became among the highest-rated children's shows in ABC 7’s history.
In the latter show, Jackson played the desk clerk at a chaotic hotel populated by a motley assortment of characters, including the owner, Old Man Gigglesnort, who thought he was on a ship. Often, “Gigglesnort Hotel” imparted lessons about ethics and morality.
“He really pushed imagination on the show. He wrote it, he did the voices. He couldn’t do all the puppeteering, but in some cases he even did the puppeteering,” friend Jim Engel said of Jackson.
“I just think the overall experience is just something you can’t forget.”
Jackson was 86 at the time of his death. He was living in Paso Robles, California and had been having health issues, Engel said.
Engel, children's television curator for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, recalls tracking down Jackson three decades ago in California after Jackson had taught at CalArts. He said Jackson had no idea his '70s-era shows still resonated with people in the Chicago area and was reluctant to come back for any retrospectives.
“I remember specifically telling him, ‘You’ve been out of Chicago forever. If you were in the line at the White Hen and you ordered a pound of ham, somebody — two people behind you — would recognize your voice and say, “Hey, aren’t you Bill Jackson?”’”
The Chicago events that Jackson attended were successful, demonstrating that his legacy was intact, Engel said.
Jackson was inducted into the Silver Circle in 2005. His puppets are on display at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
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