Reply #73: "When UHF station WBMG, Channel 42, went on the air in late 1965,

[Radio_Lady]

they needed a host for the Dick Tracy and Mr. Magoo cartoons they had leased. In stepped a towering radio disc jockey, Neal Miller, who wore an authentic Jefferson County sheriff's uniform and became "Sergeant Jack." He was, of course, named after the local Jack's Hamburgers drive-in chain that sponsored most of Birmingham kid shows, and was actually sworn in as a county deputy, allowing him to legally wear the official uniform.

Miller's program was logged as "The Dick Tracy Show" for the first few years of its run, becoming "The Sergeant Jack Show" in the early 1970s. The original set was designed to look like the interior of a police station (complete with jail cells), but by 1971 that had been replaced by an absolutely psychedelic backdrop that definitely showed the influence of the "flower power" age (and perhaps a few other substances as well)."

Others who appeared on the show were: (Puppets) -- Con man Wilbur the Groundhog and his accomplice Oscar the Yellow Monkey, conceived and run by WBMG art director Howard Cruse. When Cruse left the show to pursue an art career in New York, he was replaced by Ted Lowry, who conceived Sneezer the Mouse; Salvadore, the world's oldest man; Oliver, the nearsignted lion; husband-and-wife frogs Burt and Donna; and Reggie, the mynah bird. Sergeant Jack inherited Popeye cartoons and continued in its afternoon run until September 1976. Then, it was programmed sporadically on weekends for the next few years, but eventually lost its puppets and live audience. By the time of its final broadcast in June 1982, "The Sergeant Jack Show" consisted only of Miller sitting in front of a curtain and introducing the Popeye cartoons.