Does anyone remember Engineer Bill on childrens television in the 1950s and 1960s?
In the days before Sesame Street, Engineer Bill Stulla had a very successful children’s program that Baby Boomers who grew up in Southern California remember fondly. It was also known as ’Cartoon Express.’ Engineer Bill, a gentle sort of man, dressed like a train engineer and had a large number of model trains that he played with. There were also cartoons of characters like Gumby and Alvin and the Chipmunks. But the feature we all remember best was “Red Light, Green Light.” On each show, there were a couple of children from the audience who got to be the “Junior Engineers” of the day. Engineer Bill would hand them each a large glass of milk, and when he said “Green Light,” they had to start drinking it. When he said, “Red Light,” they stopped. But somehow before very long, they had all drunk a full glass of milk. All the kids at home were encouraged to play right along with the kids on television, and I’m sure many mothers were very happy that Engineer Bill had gotten their children to
