Edward George Kean (October 28, 1924 – August 13, 2010) was an American television pioneer and writer who helped create The Howdy Doody Show and wrote over 2,000 episodes of the program.
In his eight years with the show, he scripted "almost every line spoken and every note sung", created characters such as Clarabell the Clown and Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and conceived of Howdy Doody's 1948 run for President of the United States.
Kean coined the word "kawabonga" as a greeting for the character Chief Thunderthud,[3] which was later adopted by surfers as "cowabunga" and popularized by Snoopy, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bart Simpson among others.
[3] Kean left the show in 1955 and went to work in the public relations field and as a stockbroker along with writing a newspaper column called The Consumer Madvocate for a number of years.
[4] A resident of West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Kean died at age 85 on 13 August 2010, at a health care facility there due to emphysema.