Lee Reynolds-TV's Cap'n Tugg

Lee Reynolds as Cap'n Tugg on WTTG-5

       Any kid growing up in the Washington area during the 60's will fondly remember the adventures of Cap'n Tugg on WTTG.  Tugg was portrayed by Lee Reynolds, "The Man of a Million Voices" on channel 5 from 1958 to 1966.  He was one of the most popular children's show hosts during the heyday of live television in DC and became a TV star almost by chance.                                                                         

      His career was to have been in aviation.  During World War II, Lee applied to flight school, but the Army had more pilots than planes and he was sent off to radar training instead.  While stationed in Germany, he wandered over to the local AFN radio station offering to play piano for them.  No musicians were needed, but after hearing his voice, Lee was offered a part-time announcing job.  He would go on to host several radio shows and perform multiple parts with different voices for radio dramas.  

     Returning to the states after the service, Lee spent a few years at the famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia where he was the staff photographer and an occasional actor in plays.  He decided to return to radio and came to Washington to look for a job.  After being turned down at a number of radio stations, his last stop was at WTOP.  They had no announcer openings, but did have one for a teletype operator.  Lee took the job and eventually moved over to the television side on channel 9.

     He started working in television first behind the scenes as a floor director at WTOP-TV, then joined   WMAL-TV working on children's shows such as Miss Ruth Anne's Kindergarten and Pick Temple.  He moved up to directing at WTTG, where one of his shows was Pete's Place.  A few months later, Pete Jamerson announced that he was going over to channel 7, leaving channel 5 without a host for their show.  The show was currently in the middle of a contest, so Lee volunteered to fill in temporarily using a character he created called "Grandpa".   The character and show became a hit and Lee was asked to host the show full time.  He would make "Grandpa's Place" one of the first shows to add educational elements in addition to the cartoons.  Grandpa would draw scenes from American history and teach the ABCs.

      About a year into the Grandpa show, Channel 5 acquired the Popeye cartoon library.  They wanted another host for the new show, preferably a sailor.  Lee came up with the character of "Cap'n Tugg" who was a tugboat captain.  Both shows were live on WTTG, with an hour between them to change costumes.  As soon as Grandpa's Place was over at 4PM,  Lee would exchange the white hair for a full beard, putty nose, and a foam rubber stomach to become the Captain of the Channel Queen at 5PM.   There were a number of characters on the show, all voiced by Lee.  Commander Salamander of the Coast Guard; Flash Flood of the rival tugboat Nancy K;  Mr. Flanagan down in the engine room; spies Axel Grackle and Spike Marlin; plus Fantail the parrot.  The voices would be prerecorded on carts for later playback during the live show.  Despite the appearance, Cap'n Tugg was virtually a one-man show.  Lee built and painted the sets, recorded all the voices and came up with the storylines.  Once videotape arrived at channel 5, some characters were also seen as well as heard.  

     Following the show's cancellation in 1966, Lee embarked on an around the world voyage which ended in the Red Sea when his boat sank in a storm.  He returned to Washington and broadcasting in 1968 as the voice of WETA-TV and retired from there in 1991.  He celebrated his 83rd birthday last week and is still asked about his days as Cap'n Tugg.   He is quoted on the KaptainKidshow website:  "Unfortunately, I don't think children's programming as it existed in those days will ever come back . . . Whenever people ask 'What happened to Cap'n Tugg',  my answer depends on my mood, sometimes I say he drowned in the Red Sea, when I'm in a more pleasant mood I simply say 'He retired from sea duty."