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Skipper Chuck
Overview
Skipper Chuck was the host of a popular local children's television series called Popeye Playhouse, which aired weekday mornings on the American television station WTVJ in South Florida from 1957 until 1979. The show was produced and the title character played by announcer and television personality Chuck Zink. The show was built around life in the Playhouse, where the Skipper would tell stories, meet guests, and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. This local children's show went on the air live in January 1957. Originally, the show was aired in an afternoon time slot from 5:00PM to 6:00PM, prior to Ralph Renick and the local news program. Popeye Playhouse had an audience of children who were primarily from Dade and Broward County Florida schools. Skipper Chuck announced the birthdays of children, and he and his co-hosts frequently did a "Safety and Manners" program at regional elementary schools. The show moved to a videotape format sometime after 1958. Popeye Playhouse was then recorded at 4:00PM at the WTVJ Studios in downtown Miami, and broadcast the next weekday morning at 7:00AM. His show was radically impacted by the fact that Chuck was from the north. Born in Indiana, with radio and TV experience in Pennsylvania, he rejected the separation of the races on the program when he found out children were booked in groups from schools which were not integrated. Chuck demanded that management allow integration on his program. That happened in the late 1950s, and was prior to the 1960s when race relations became a national movement.