The Old Sourdough and Watchikanoka were two salesmen from MMM Carpets in San Jose, dressed as an old prospector and his Indian companion.

They would open with a bit of tape of The Old Sourdough walking up to a rustic cabin, and then cut to him entering a minimally dressed interior set where his pal Watchikanoka sat waiting. The two characters would engage in comedic banter during breaks in the airing of battered, scratchy prints of ancient PRC westerns. Eventually, they switched to doing a half-hour of comedy at the head of the broadcast, so their fans wouldn't have to wait through the film to catch their bits.

These guys were hysterically funny, and in the short time they were on, were easily the coolest thing on local TV. I'd give anything to see tapes of their show.

The absolute poverty of the show, plus the assurance that not many people were watching (certainly not the FCC, judging by some of what they got away with) gave them a liberty they were shrewd enough to fully use. I recall one night when they started discussing their "favorite Greek myths," which was a set-up for one of them to go on and on about his fondness for "the myth of Eat-a-puss Rex."

Another bit was an inexplicable running gag. At odd moments, The Old Sourdough would stare off into space and say "CHINESE!" as though setting up some vaudeville schtick. Either I missed the show where this gag was set up, or it was the result of some on-set in-joke too dirty to share with the audience.

They also had a fan who wrote them letters week after week in the persona of a cowboy-worshipping kid who believed the Old Sourdough and Watchikanoka were real people. I don't recall any of the letters, except that they were always laugh-out-loud funny.

For their final show on KEMO-TV, the guys broke the set and let the camera follow them outside into the sunshine (the show was taped in the daytime) of the parking lot of what must have been the KEMO-TV studios at 2500 Marin Street in San Francisco. We always knew the show was taped, but at that hour it felt live, and it was still a bit of a shock to see the sunlight onscreen while it was midnight outside.

KICU's web site, states that The Old Sourdough was also once on KGSC-TV 36, but I never saw them there until the Race Street & Bascom Avenue days. KGSC-TV was not carried on Novato's cable system at what would have been the time of transition, which must be why I missed them.