Distinctly Montana Magazine

61 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m McAllister still remembers the anguish caused by the disappearance and destruction of his TV part- ner. "It was kind of traumatic for me at the time. It was a serious thing that happened, when they destroyed him and I had to rebuild him and all that kind of thing. To me it wasn't a big joke at all. It's still not." McAllister was able to reassemble and repair Froggy Doo, and the puppet, apparently recovered from the trauma, re- sumed his place on the TV show, which ran until 1977. In 2007, a feature film was produced based on a screenplay written by T.J. Lynch, a Billings native who, like many, had the Froggy Doo kidnapping seared into his childhood memories. A Plumm Summer starred Henry Winkler as Happy Herb, and was shot mostly in Livingston and Bozeman. The largely fictional- ized movie has its moments, but it left Happy Herb and Janet underwhelmed. In particular, Herb was disappointed with Win- kler's milquetoast depiction of the energetic kids' show host. "Man, I was alive!" he says. "I was always very animated and, man, I loved to work. I loved the magic. I loved the puppets, loved everything. And I loved the kids. When he portrayed me, I thought, wait a minute, that isn't the way I acted. It kind of disappointed us." Froggy Doo and Happy Herb was back in the regional news as the movie was getting un- derway, and the renewed attention produced an unexpected development. Bill McColley of Billings went public with a secret he'd been sit- ting on for 40 years—he knew the identities of Froggy Doo's kidnappers. His brother, Harold "Butch" McColley and cohort, Jerry "Parakeet" Pearl, he claimed, were the ones who broke into the TV studio and took the frog, along with a pile of electronic gear. "This is the real story, I guarantee you," McColley told a Billings reporter in 2006. According to McColley, Parakeet and Butch, both in their early 20s, were pounding back a few one night when Parakeet suggested they steal the famous frog. Butch went along, and once they'd taken Froggy Doo from the studio they brought him straight to Bill McColley's house and woke him up to show off their prize. "There's my brother with the frog," McColley said. In the days after the crime, the reckless pair took the frog redrobin.com (406) 248-7778 1595 Grand Avenue Suite 210, Billings VOT E F O R U S ! 2024 of B E ST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F

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