In the early 1950's, NBC was planning a network TV show hosted by Dave Garroway. The show would be a radical departure from the TV industry's accepted programming; a news, features, special events program that would run in the early morning. Garroway's charm, easy conversational style and and a chimpanzee side-kick named J. Fred Muggs quickly became NBC's answer to wake up even the grouchiest of viewers to the concept of morning television. On January 14, 1952, the soft-spoken gentleman with a bow tie who could talk for hours about anything from gadgets, vintage cars to jazz, greeted televisions viewers across the country for the first time on a new show called "Today."

Yes it looks like Freds had an image problem even back in the early 1950's.

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