Slog Comments

Nobody could have convinced little-boy me that Gertrude was not J.P.'s girlfriend. I simply knew it to be true.

I'm pretty sure others over the years have referred to Gertrude as J.P.'s "girlfriend" as well. And calling Gertrude "his co-star" would probably have been even more confusing to those not familiar with the show, as there were of course numerous other regularly featured characters: Gorst, Boris S. Wort, Mr. Announcer Man, Grandpa Tick-Tock, Sturdley, most - but not all - of whom were played by Bob Newman, who truly performed yoeman's duty on the show. In fact, one of the interesting things to observe when watching some of the old clips is how often the camera has to zoom in to essentially cut Newman out of the frame, because, while he's on-set as one character, he frequently has to perform some pretty impressive verbal gymnastics in order to cover other character voices, say, Gertrude on the phone, or Miss Smith delivering a package, for example. It's really quite impressive, particularly when you consider it's all improvised.