Icky Twerp: The Electronic Babysitter.

I stumbled across this blast from the past by complete accident.

If you were a kid growing up in North Texas during the 60's you know who Icky Twerp was. Bill Camfield was the host of KTVT's Slam Bang Theater. It was live local TV slapstick gold and aired twice a day, before and after school.

In it's early days it even featured a semi-notorious local stripper in a live sketch. Pretty ballsy stuff for the times even if it went over the heads of all the kids watching. SBT was not without controversy. Many mothers felt the show was too violent for small children. "Moms worried that if you watched Icky, you'd wind up hitting your brother over the head."

C'mon, Mom... The 3 Stooges violent? Why I oughta....

Now this was back in the Epipaleolithic ages when we had minimal options for a TV signal. But Channel 11 was a goldmine. Being an independent station with a strong signal, they had to create a lot of original programming. Bill played multiple roles to fill that airtime. Besides his role as slapstick Icky Twerp, Camfield also played late night horror movie host Gorgon. Not only did he host The 3 Stooges on Slam Bang Theater, he co-starred in The 3 Stooges film "They Went Thataway and Thataway!"

He was a very talented, yet troubled man.

One of my fondest childhood memories is running home from school as fast as my Track Kings could carry me so I could catch the start of Slam Bang Theater with Icky Twerp. As a latchkey kid of a working single mom, he WAS my Electronic Babysitter every afternoon. I can still hear the theme song playing in my head. SBT not only featured The Stooges, it was cartoon central with Icky, Delphinium and Ajax as the segue.

Next month, Sept. 24-26, Dallas' local cable-access iMedia Network will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Slam Bang Theater's premiere with Dallas filmmaker Richard Allen Kent's new documentary "Icky Twerp: The Electronic Babysitter".

Organized by Dallas' local cable-access iMedia Network, the three-day fest will include documentary screenings, '60s music, fan forums with Camfield contemporaries, slapstick workshops and a marathon TV screening of classic SBT episodes.

For those of you fortunate enough to watch this I highly recommend setting your DVR. Hopefully for us hicks out here in the sticks this will be released on DVD at a later date so the rest of Icky's fans can relive our childhood and enjoy the one of a kind talent of Bill Camfield one more time. Here is a link to the schedule of live events.

"He was an idea man."