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Bob March, who rose to fame during the early years of television broadcasting in the Bay Area as “Captain Satellite,” has died at home near Sacramento.
He was 93, according to Louise Pennella-March, his daughter-in-law, and died Thursday morning.
“He was such an icon for a lot of people my age, in my age group. We all came home from school and would turn on the TV and watched Captain Satellite,” the 67-year-old Pennella-March told this news organization Saturday. “He was just a really nice, likable person.”
In 1958, March starred in the title role of “Captain Satellite” on KTVU in Oakland. Almost immediately, he became easily identifiable to a generation of kids growing up in the Bay Area and Northern California throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s, all of whom watched his afternoon kiddie show every afternoon after school — including Pennella-March’s own brother.
Before Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker – even the Robinson family and their Robot from “Lost in Space” – there was Captain Satellite, who, courtesy of KTVU, flew in from outer space each weekday afternoon and into the living rooms of Bay Area children for more than a decade.
When “Captain Satellite” debuted on KTVU, it aired live for one hour every weekday afternoon beginning at 3:30 p.m.
The show soon became a smash hit with Bay Area children, fresh home from a day at school. March’s signature outfit on the air was a helmet and a dark uniform under a light-colored triangular vest, with artwork featuring a thunderbolt passing through a globe. The show’s set was a cutaway rocket ship that “blasted off” each afternoon.
To the tens of thousands of children who watched Captain Satellite each weekday afternoon, the popular afternoon show was a welcoming answer for kids of all ages after a long day of sitting in a classroom.
Some of those kids — now all grown up — took to social media to remember Captain Satellite, thanking March for introducing them to outer space and the scientific world.
“I remember watching him many times as a child and dreaming about space travel to the moon,” wrote one Facebook user in response to Pennella-March’s post about his death. “All these years later, look how far technology has taken us! Thanks for inspiring a whole generation of kids, Captain Satellite!”
“I also was a NASA (Department) of Education volunteer influenced by his show,” wrote another.
Born Robert Monkman in Racine, Wisconsin, March was immediately drafted into the Army right out of high school, Pennella-March said. She said that he knew that when he got out, he wanted to pursue his dream of being on the radio. That is when he decided to adopt March as his stage name.
He broke into radio and television in Racine and Milwaukee, respectively, before moving to California to work in Bakersfield and, eventually, at KTVU. His goal was always to educate children on the topics he himself loved, Pennella-March said, making frequent appearances at spots like the Santa Cruz boardwalk and McDonald’s fun houses.
March’s children’s show on KTVU lasted 11 years, ending in 1972. He remained with the station through the 1970s as one of its announcers; in later years, he taught television at San Francisco State University.
He was also a dedicated opera and art lover, Pennella-March said, and was friends with film director and actor Clint Eastwood.
“He had a sense of social grace about him,” she added.
In 1990, the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences inducted March into its distinguished Silver Circle for his more than 25 years of contributions to Bay Area television.
He had been living with his wife, Alice, in the Sacramento area in recent years, and is survived by two sons, one grandchild and two great-grandchildren.