They Don't Make TV Like This Anymore: 'Mulqueen's Kiddie-A-Go-Go' (Video)

Some trends in television are specific to a certain era and that was certainly the case with local TV shows that featured a host or two, some live music and a lot of dancing. While Dick Clark's AMERICAN BANDSTAND was able to move to a national network, from the late 1950s through the end of the 1960s nearly every major market had some variation of the format.

One of the quirkiest was in Chicago, where Elaine Mulqueen spent seven years on the air hosting a pint-sized version of AMERICAN BANDSTAND called MULQUEEN'S KIDDIE A-GO-GO.

Her first television appearance was in 1962, when she appeared in Coca-Cola commercials on the famed WGN-TV Chicago kids show BOZO's CIRCUS. Her husband Jack worked as a puppeteer on the show and the following year Elaine and Jack were hosting THE MULQUEENS on the same station. Elaine appeared as this peculiar pixie-like character named Pandora and the show was the usual mix of kid-friendly sketches.

In 1965, the show moved to the station now known as WLS-TV and it was renamed MULQUEEN'S KIDDIE A-GO-GO. The show cut back on the comedy and added local live bands and a lot of scenes of kids dancing to popular music. The following year, the show moved to WCIU-TV and was renamed KIDDIE A-GO-Go. It aired on that station until 1970.

The video clip below features the local-band-turned-national-act THE NEW COLONY SIX playing on the show in 1966.