The Story Of How This Page Came To Be
Every single Saturday morning as a young
child of roughly 4 - 6 years old, I'd make myself wake up at the crack of dawn
to watch Starstuff. It was, undoubtedly, my favorite show period, and I'd
look forward to it all week. I distinctly recall it still being dark
outside my bedroom window while I watched it, so I can only guess it was aired
around
Then I grew up, which was a fairly gross process.
Just around me turning 18 years old, I re-remembered the show and truthfully couldn't tell if I had imagined it all or if I was the only one who watched it. Endless combings of the Internet yielded nothing, and nobody I knew save my own mother had any recollection of the show even existing. Frustrating as it was, I never gave up, but rather decreased my concentrated efforts to verify that Starstuff did indeed exist. My mother and I share an overactive imagination, so I couldn't bring myself to fully believe she remembered it as well.
I'm 26 years old now, and decided one last time to try to find proof that Starstuff wasn't a hallucinatory memory. Not only that, but my goal was to obtain actual footage of the show itself on video. I posted messages to newsgroups and web-based bulletin boards, I sent out emails... I literally asked everyone I knew that was around the same age as I. Finally, jackpot. A friend of mine, Tim, recalled the show and loved it as well. His friend Eddie also had distinct memories of it.
I also began receiving responses to the messages I had been posting around the Internet. Eric, Mikey, Ed, Brian, Mr. Hole, Captain Sarcastic, Morio, Bill, and Claud, among others, all remembered the show. It was around this point that I was told that it was only shown exclusively in the local Philadelphia TV market, which would explain how difficult it was finding information about the show.
Through all people listed above, I was given some names associated with Starstuff. Dorothy Louise was the writer of Starstuff, and Mark Ritts was the lead puppeteer for the The Edge Of Space segment.
I immediately emailed them both. Mark Ritts was extremely kind, but had limited information about the show other than a few disjointed memories he had. Dorothy Louise offered a glimmer of hope. She said that, buried somewhere in boxes, she had a recording of one episode that was given to her prior to leaving WCAU as a parting gift. I asked her to let me know if she ever stumbled across it and left it at that, as I really didn't want to be overbearing.
At the end of June of 2003, I received a
phone call from Dorothy. I was elated -- she had found the tape! It
was in some sort of archaic professional camera equipment format, but she found
a place that agreed to transfer it to
I should make it very clear that without Dorothy Louise, this webpage would not exist. Thank you, Dorothy!
And that's how this happened, since you didn't ask.
It's too bad that local programming has died since Chief Halftown and Captain Noah and his Magical Ark went off the air, but I digress. I hope this page brings back as many pleasant memories for you as it did I.