WBKB-TV (now WLS-TV) (1954–1955) Garfield Goose and Friends is a children's television show produced by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1955 to 1976.

There were many other puppet characters such as Romberg Rabbit, Macintosh Mouse, Chris Goose (Garfield's nephew who was born on Christmas, hence "Christmas Goose") and a sleepy bloodhound called Beauregard Burnside III (whose name happened to be a mix of two American Civil War generals).

The show used a "Little Theater Screen", upon which the camera would zoom before cartoons such as Total Television, The Funny Company, Clutch Cargo, The Pink Panther, Jay Ward, Hanna-Barbera, Space Angel and The Mighty Hercules were broadcast.

He wanted to do something special to award prizes to children on his television show, so he created a Garfield Goose puppet for that purpose.

Later, when the character was thought to have enough appeal for a show of its own, Garfield Goose and Friend debuted on September 29, 1952 with Chicago puppeteer Bruce Newton.

[9][5][10] The actual first puppeteer for Garfield was a WBKB secretary, Lee Ann Prineas, who left her clerical duties while the show was on the air.

[11] In early broadcasts, Thomas hosted the show in a suit and tie, but on October 16, 1952, Garfield appointed him Admiral of his navy and his Prime Minister.

This obviously was Frazier Thomas, and it meant that any role played by Bruce Newton would be paid as non-union scale; he had to stay off-camera and could not speak.

In it, Thomas detailed information such as the names of Garfield's parents, Georgia (born in the state), and Godfrey, that he had a sister, Gloria, a brother in law, Gilbert, and a young nephew, Christmas.

[18][19] The initial sale contract for WBKB to CBS called for a one-year period where the new ownership agreed to keep all present programs on the station.

[20] Before the transition period was over, Garfield Goose and Friend moved to the new WBKB-TV, an ABC owned-and-operated station which jumped to channel 7.

They included: bloodhound Beauregard Burnside III, who was the chief of Garfield's secret service and who readily fell asleep, prompting Thomas to pick up one of Beau's ears and call out "hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti and meatballs!"

Garfield would also go down into his castle and type a note (viewers would hear the sound of a typewriter), bringing it up for Thomas to read aloud.

Guests from the Museum of Science and Industry, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the show's own viewers with their hobby projects made learning interesting and also fun.

The mother knew how to respond to this emergency because of a Garfield Goose segment about scouting where a short film about life saving was shown.

[7][28] Thomas' performances with a Jew's harp either drove the King of the United States to find a place in his castle out of earshot or to simply hit his Prime Minister and Admiral of his navy on the head.

[32][33] The show remained on WGN-TV (channel 9), which bought the rights in 1955, for over two decades, most of this time running in the late afternoon after children had come home from school.

The general manager of WBKB-TV at the time the program first went on the air, Sterling "Red" Quinlan, says it was Frazier Thomas who came up with the concept of Garfield Goose.

[13][40][41][42] As often happened during the 1950s and early 1960s (such as with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson or the first Super Bowl game), Garfield Goose and Friends aired live for much of its history.

[43] In December 2005, WGN-TV ran a primetime special called Bozo, Gar and Ray: WGN TV Classics, which carried the earliest known saved clip of the show, wherein Garfield Goose had "luckily" gotten hold of tickets to the 1959 World Series at Chicago's Comiskey Park.

Additional color kinescope footage from 1965 came from a vintage WGN-TV sales film which also includes some scenes from Bozo's Circus.