If you are a member of the Baby Boomers generation and you grew up in the Valley of the Sun, you were probably feeling a bit sad last week.

Bill Thompson, a true Arizona legend, passed away last Wednesday at the age of 82.

If you grew up somewhere else you are probably asking, “Who’s Bill Thompson?”

Well, he was better known by his television name of Wallace.

As a child, my brother and I couldn’t wait for 4 p.m. every week day. That’s when the “Wallace and Ladmo Show” came on.

We got out of school at 3:30 p.m. and it was a 20-minute walk home, so we made sure we were back home in time.

Our parents were aware of this time and in the summer months, they made sure that we would always get our shopping done at the neighborhood Bashas’ on Mondays and Fridays in time to get home and see the first Popeye cartoon. That was the first cartoon shown every day.

I understand that Thompson took on the role of Wallace Snead, the nephew of ”Goldust Charlie,” which was Channel 5’s original kids show. “It’s Wallace” debuted in January 1955.

Within a few months , he added a station cameraman he had become friends with to make it a two-man show. That’s when Ladimir Kwiatkowski, a former ASU baseball player, became Ladmo.

Another member of the cast, Pat McMahon, joined the show in 1960.

McMahon, the only survivor of the three, was working as a weatherman at the station. Thompson created such characters as Captain Super, Marshal Good, Aunt Maude, Boffo the Clown and Gerald.

McMahon made them come to life.

Gerald supposedly was the nephew of the station general manager. He could also be described as the ultimate spoiled brat.

Characters kept pace with the times. In the hippie era, he created Nuru the Guru. During the 1970s motorcycle craze, he introduced Bobby Jo Trouble, a biker who had an affection for bunnies.

The rock and roll era prompted Thompson to create Hub Kapp and the Wheels. With McMahon as the rock star lead of the group, they signed a recording contract with Capitol Records and had a hit song, ‘Work is a Dirty Word.” They even made an appearance on Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show.”

The band leader was Mike Condello, who became a studio guitarist in Los Angeles. He wrote the show’s theme song that featured the familiar ho ho, ha ha, hee hee, ha ha.

The show’s scripts frequently featured topical political satire that sailed over the heads of most kids. But its skits appealed to many from small kids to adults watch the show.

You never knew what famous celebrities would be on the show. Some of them were Don Rickles, Liberace, Art LInkletter, George Carlin and Muhammed Ali.

Steven Spielberg, who grew up in Phoenix, wrote Thompson a letter after his success in Hollywood as a director and producer, saying “your show inspired me, made me laugh, made me think and even raised my level of expectations whenever I looked around at things that could make me laugh.”

It was said that Thompson came to the desert from his native New York with a dream of making people laugh.

I would say he accomplished his goal and then some. Thanks, Wallace.