Dick Bills And The Sandia Mountain Boys

In the early 60's, before syndication took over, many of America's cities had quirky, variable-quality, but always interesting locally-produced TV shows aimed at kids.

Albuquerque, NM, was fortunate. The early 60's was a Golden Age: we had three high-quality kiddie TV shows.

First, there was Uncle Roy. When I appeared as a narrator in a fifth-grade Christmas play on the "Women's Report" on KOAT TV-7 back in 1966, I remembered how rattled I got when I realized Uncle Roy was sitting in the darkness at the back of the TV studio, watching US!

Then there was Captain Billy on KGGM TV-13, with his maritime dress and Dutch Boy mustache. Captain Billy was a favorite, but his legacy was overshadowed by his murder in 1972. Animation veteran Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead; King of the Hill) has even mentioned Captain Billy's murder as a shocking formative episode in his youth.

Then there was Dick Bills on KOB TV-4. His lead guitarist was a talented youth named Glen Campbell. Maybe you've heard of him!

The hard part was our tube-dense television set would overheat after 20 minutes, so you could watch the beginning of a half-hour-long TV show and miss the end, or miss the beginning and catch the end, but you could never, ever watch the whole thing.

Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys from James L. Perry on Vimeo.