Lew Anderson

A two-hour syndicated TV special celebrating Howdy Doody on the occasion of the show's 40th anniversary.

It's Christmas Eve and Santa hasn't come yet, so Buffalo Bob Smith, Howdy, and Clarabell The Clown decide to take the Rocket Doodle as transportation and head for the North Pole to see what's happened to Santa. When they get there they find out that Ugly Sam thinks that Santa is the Bearded Bandit and has captured him. So, it's up to Howdy and the Crew to prove differently.

Howdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir and telecast on the NBC network in the United States from December 27, 1947 until September 24, 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. One of the first television series produced at NBC in Rockefeller Center, in Studio 3A, it was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.