GUMBY DAD CLOKEY DEAD

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The creator of kid vid classic Gumby, stop-motion animator Art Clokey, dead at 88.

The bendable green character was first created by Clokey after supervised medical usage of LSD in the 1950s, his son told the NY Times.

The green, spikey cow-licked phenom along with his horse pal Pokey, first appeared on pioneer puppet kid show The Howdy Doody Show in 1956.

Gumby was so popular he spawned his own TV show in 1957 and his own manipulative figure toy line.  Though the 1950s show run was brief, Gumby reappeared in new shows during the 1960s that were constant syndication.

In the 1960s and 1970s Clokey and his wife also produced Davey & Goliath another claymation series for the burgeoning early morning religious market. 

The show, the bane of many a boomer early riser, was a money maker and Clokey said he only did it so he’d have the funds to  produce more Gumby shows.

Sadly, Clokey’s early years were no picnic.  After his parents were divorced, he was rejected by his mother’s new husband and placed in a children’s home. 

After years of struggling financially, a series of spoofs on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s featuring Eddie Murphy as a cigar chomping green reprobate, cussing "I’m Gumby – dammit!" and suddenly Gumby was EVERYWHERE.

Reportedly, Clokey loved Murphy’s reinvention of his gentle green creation – but was grateful SNL aired late at night when no child was awake to see it.