J. P. Patches

Julius Pierpont "J. P." Patches was a clown who served as the central figure of The J. P. Patches Show, a local children's program on Seattle's KIRO-TV that won an Emmy and ran from 1958 to 1981. The character was portrayed by Chris Wedes (April 3, 1928 – July 22, 2012), a Seattle-based children's entertainer who also created the show. By the time it concluded, the program had become one of the longest-running locally produced children's television series in the United States.

The show aired for 23 years. For the first 13 years, from February 10, 1958, through December 26, 1970, it ran six days a week, with two daily broadcasts on weekdays (before and after school) plus Saturday mornings. From December 28, 1970, to December 30, 1978, it aired only in the mornings, still six days a week. For its final two years, from January 6, 1979, to September 19, 1981, it was limited to Saturday mornings. The following week, from September 21 to September 25, 1981, five special retrospective and farewell episodes aired, and then the series ended. Over its run, the show produced an estimated 12,000 episodes, nearly all of them live and unrehearsed.

The program premiered on February 10, 1958, on KIRO-TV and became extremely popular in the Puget Sound area and southwestern British Columbia. At its peak, it drew over 100,000 daily local viewers. It was enjoyed by children and their parents alike, who appreciated J. P.'s frequent use of G-rated double entendre and sly subversiveness that mostly went over kids' heads. Two generations of Pacific Northwest viewers grew up as "Patches Pals," sharing the joyful zany antics with their own children. Each show reminded Patches Pals to follow a daily checklist: mind Mommy and Daddy; wash hands, face, neck, and ears; comb hair; brush teeth; drink your milk; eat all of your food; say your prayers; share your toys; put toys away; and hang up clothes.

The show competed with other local children's programs, including Captain Puget on KOMO-TV and Wunda Wunda and King's Klubhouse on KING-TV. KIRO-TV preempted the first half-hour of CBS's Captain Kangaroo to air J. P. Patches.

After 23 years, KIRO-TV canceled the show due to declining ratings, and the final episode aired on September 25, 1981. Following the show's end, Wedes continued to portray J. P. at public and private charity events for another three decades, despite suffering from incurable blood cancer that was in remission. He spent many hours visiting sick children at Seattle Children's Hospital in Laurelhurst, never asking for payment. In 2011, due to declining health, Wedes announced that his final public appearance as J. P. would be on September 17, 2011—56 years after first donning the face paint. On December 14, 2011, a prime-time special titled J. P. Patches: Last Night at the City Dump aired on KCTS-TV as a farewell to the character. Chris Wedes died on July 22, 2012, at age 84, after a long battle with multiple myeloma.

The show was live, unrehearsed improv with rarely more than two live actors on set (Wedes and Bob Newman), but with frequent contributions from the sound effects man and off-camera crew. J. P. was the "Mayor of the City Dump," where he lived in a shack whose interior served as the appropriately rough but colorfully furnished studio set. He welcomed frequent guests, including Seattle boy scout and girl scout troops, various local and national celebrities, and a cast of supporting characters: Sturdley the Bookworm (a puppet), Esmerelda (a Raggedy Ann doll), Ketchikan the Animal Man (a Jack Hanna-like character), Boris S. Wort (the "second meanest man in the world"), LeRoy Frump (a character based on Art Carney's Ed Norton), Tikey Turkey (a rubber chicken), Grandpa Tick Tock (a grandfather clock with an elderly face where the pendulum would be), the Swami of Pastrami, Ggoorrsstt the Friendly Frpl (a one-eyed brown shag carpet), Miss Smith (a motorcycle-riding delivery woman who told mostly awful jokes), Superclown (a J. P.-like superhero), J. P.'s evil counterpart P. J. Scratches, and J. P.'s girlfriend, Gertrude. The entire supporting cast—male and female, human and non-human—was mostly played by the versatile actor Bob Newman.

Bob Newman was born on January 24, 1932, on Mercer Island, Washington. He started at KIRO-TV as a film editor and floor director in 1960, two years into J. P.'s run. He used to hang around the set just to watch the fun. One of J. P.'s bits was to call the city dump telephone operator Gertrude on a big yellow banana phone, though Gertrude herself was never seen or heard. One day, after J. P. asked Gertrude for a ham sandwich for a picnic, Newman yelled out in a falsetto voice, "Okay Julius, I'll send it right down." Wedes was as surprised as everyone else, and from that day forward Newman became Gertrude, with his falsetto voice, frumpy dress, and a wig made from a mop dyed red. J. P. got his ham sandwich, as Bob Newman was willing to do anything for a laugh and proved the perfect foil for Wedes' improvisational comedy. He provided over 17 characters for the show and remained a faithful friend to Chris Wedes for the rest of his life. Newman died on December 13, 2020.

J. P. announced the birthdays of selected Patches Pals by "viewing" them on his "ICU2TV," a cardboard hood that created the illusion that J. P. was looking at you from inside your television. He predicted where a gift might be hidden in the child's house with amazing accuracy, with the never-mentioned assistance of a postcard.