On January 24, 1965—46 years ago today—"Gallegher" made its debut "in living color" on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. This multi-episode comedy-adventure about the go-getting boy reporter was a hit the moment it hit the airwaves in early 1965. The other two episodes of that first batch of "Gallegher"s aired on January 31 and February 7, and led to three more sets of sequels, including the Emmy-nominated "The Further Adventures of Gallegher," which premiered in September 1965. The debut of the nonstop exploits of the copy boy who always followed his newsworthy nose tracking down headlines was in itself big news, as evidenced by Gallegher's prominence in the 1964 Walt Disney Productions Annual Report. As you can see in this detail from the "Television" portion of the 1964 Annual Report (click on the image for a larger view), which touted "Gallegher" as part of the "bright array of stellar programming" resulting from "the public response to more fully developed stories such as last season's three-parter 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.'" Unfortunately the Gallegher photo is flopped, as you can see from the part in star Roger Mobley's hair, which is actually on his left. (Even odder is the flopped image of NBC's trademark peacock. One wonders why it was necessary to have even the very symbol of Disney's then-home network facing the wrong way.) Ready to read more about Walt Disney's "Gallegher" as so ably portrayed by Roger Mobley? Then be sure and check out "Walt Disney's Forgotten TV Classic" at the D23 website (it's free), written by me. P.S. "Gallegher"'s January 24 premiere came just eight days after star Roger Mobley's birthday. Happy belated birthday, Roger!
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