Howdy Doody is an American children's television program

Children's television series

Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...

 (with circus and frontier/Western themes) that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir

E. Roger Muir

E. Roger Muir was a television producer who created several television programs and game shows. He was the creator and executive producer of children's program The Howdy Doody Show which ran from 1947 until 1960....

 and telecast on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows. One of the first television series produced at NBC in Rockefeller Center, in Studio 3A, it was also a pioneer in early color production as NBC (at the time owned by TV maker RCA) used the show in part to sell color television sets in the 1950s.
Howdy Doody himself is a freckle-faced boy marionette

Marionette

A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...

 with 48 freckles, one for each state of the union (up until January 3, 1959 when Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 was admitted as the 49th state), and was originally voiced by Buffalo Bob Smith

Buffalo Bob Smith

Buffalo Bob Smith was the host of the children's show Howdy Doody.-Biography:...

.