The Gigglesnort Hotel

In the ongoing quest to analyze my youth for clues to explain why I am the way I am, I think I’ve hit the motherlode.

The Gigglesnort Hotel was a children’s show of which I have only the vaguest memories, but they’re all dark. Which is odd for a kid show, no?

Gigglesnort is a cherished memory of anyone who grew up in the 70’s in Chicago. It was produced locally and its creator and lone human actor was Bill Jackson, something of an icon in Children’s TV here. But damn was it creepy. It was all puppets and, looking back on them now, I’m not surprised I think of it more in fear than in joy. Chucky would have been right at home in Jackson’s entourage.

The hotel was run by a senile admiral who stayed in the attic and thought the inn was a ship. He’d steer it at a captain’s wheel and request reports on the crew. A dragon — Dirty Dragon by name — ran the boiler in the basement, spewed smoke from his nose and was generally mean. I think he was also the mail man. There was a hotel employee named Weird who was exactly such, looking vaguely mentally addled (pictured above).

But the strangest character was a lump of clay named Blob that “spoke” in grunts and wheezes and basically sounded like a drunk old man. He was constantly being manhandled into new forms by BJ the clerk.

I suppose it all balances out with the Superfriends and The Bozo Show, but when I think about what I was watching in the 70’s — Land of the Lost, Son of Svengoolie, and Gigglesnort Hotel — I do wonder if my current viewing tastes would be, you know, less macabre.

Only one way to find out I guess. Gotta buy some Gigglesnort DVD’s and choose a control group from the kids.