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It’s the early 1970′s, and we’re in the era of B.C. (Before Cable).  Since there weren’t any “morning news” shows in 1972, our entertainment for the morning – before catching the school bus – was an assortment of Popeye the Sailor and Three Stooges cartoons, maybe even some single episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

But at 7:45 am, we were greeted by the smiling face of Ralph Vartigan, as “Commander Ralph” hosted the Good Ship News.  For the Good Ship News, Vartigan provided early morning viewers with positive news and stories of the day, and maybe a few film clips.  It wasn’t full of “if it bleeds, it leads” features; it was more of a news program aimed for the Froot Loops set.

The show would run for about 10 minutes, there would be a commercial break, and then a puppet named “Mr. Monkey” would appear, as Vartigan gave a weather report.  The idea was that Mr. Monkey was the WTEN children’s meteorologist, and would bounce around as Vartigan predicted the weather.  There would be a motivational comment from Vartigan as well, “Remember what Mr. Monkey said, you can fool all of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”