Gator Tales

Gator Tales was a local children's television show produced in St. Louis, Missouri by local CBS affiliate KMOV. The show aired on Saturdays and Sundays in key states throughout the Midwest from 1988 to 1999, including Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois. The 30-minute show, which stressed the development of good character values and self-esteem, featured a mischievous puppet alligator named "Grouchie Gator" and his puppet friends, a visiting storyteller friend, and an occasional walk-on guest star. The storylines revolved around "Grouchie's Place" and usually involved Grouchie getting into some sort of trouble through a never-ending variety of crazy schemes, only to be gently shown the error of his ways by his storyteller friends, via their recitation of an appealing folk tale, related to the situation at hand. "Gator Tales" was produced by Al Frank, and was directed by Skip Goodrum. Doug Kincaid, in addition to co-creating and performing Grouchie Gator and the other "Kincaid Karacter" puppet characters, also designed and created the set and props for the show, as well as writing the scripts for all the episodes. It was hosted by Bobby Norfolk.