Mr. Mustache: Remembering Bruce Lewis and Rockford's Forgotten Children's Television Show

By Thomas L. Vaultonburg

There was a time when children's television wasn't something produced in Hollywood or streamed from a server halfway around the world. It was something made right here in Rockford, Illinois, by people who lived in the same neighborhoods, shopped in the same stores, and sometimes recognized the children watching them on television. Before cable television offered hundreds of channels, before YouTube, and long before children carried their entertainment around in their pockets, local television stations produced their own programs for young audiences. And for a generation of Rockford children, one of the most memorable personalities to emerge from that era was a man named Mr. Mustache.

Mr. Mustache

His real name was Bruce Lewis, and from 1967 until 1982, he was a familiar presence on Channel 23, the Rockford television station now known as WIFR. During those fifteen years, Lewis entertained local children with drawings, puppets, humor, and personal appearances on his weekly television program. He belonged to an almost vanished tradition of local children's entertainers, men and women who became celebrities within a relatively small geographic area while remaining virtually unknown everywhere else. If you grew up in Rockford during those years, Mr. Mustache might have been as familiar to you as Captain Kangaroo or Mister Rogers. If you grew up somewhere else, chances are you never heard of him.

Who Was Mr. Mustache?

Bruce Lewis was born around 1942 and became one of the most recognizable local television personalities in Rockford during the late 1960s and 1970s. His program began in 1967, a period when local television stations still had considerable freedom to develop their own programming. Channel 23 was then known as WCEE-TV, and the station provided a home for Lewis and his particular combination of artistic talent and children's entertainment.

Unlike television personalities who simply introduced cartoons between commercial breaks, Lewis was himself a creative performer. He drew pictures, worked with puppets, and interacted directly with children who attended his programs. His artistic abilities were an important part of his appeal. Drawing wasn't merely something he did away from the camera. It was part of what made Mr. Mustache Mr. Mustache.

When Lewis died in November 2009, a Channel 23 remembrance described him as Rockford's own version of Mister Rogers. The comparison was particularly revealing. Fred Rogers became a national institution by treating children as people worthy of attention, kindness, and respect. Bruce Lewis, working on a much smaller stage, seems to have inspired similar affection among the children who watched him.

A Television Star Who Belonged to Rockford

One of the most remarkable things about the history of Mr. Mustache is how thoroughly local the entire enterprise was. In researching the program, I discovered that the name Mr. Mustache was actually registered as a trademark by a Rockford company called Tri-Arts Productions. The trademark application was filed on January 5, 1968, and listed September 27, 1967, as the date of first use. The registration was approved on October 29, 1968.

Even more interesting is the address associated with the trademark: 831 North Church Street, Rockford, Illinois. This wasn't a character developed by a national television network and distributed to stations around the country. The documentary trail leads directly back to Rockford, where the name was being used and commercially protected by a local production company. The registration eventually expired in 1992, but its surviving record provides an unusually precise historical marker for the beginnings of Mr. Mustache.

There is something appealing about the idea of a children's television personality being developed in Rockford during the same period that national television was becoming increasingly centralized. While the big networks were building national entertainment franchises, somebody on North Church Street was making sure the name Mr. Mustache belonged to a local production enterprise. It suggests an ambition to make something recognizable and enduring, even if its primary audience consisted of children living within range of a northern Illinois television transmitter.

The Children Who Became Part of the Show

One of the features that distinguished Mr. Mustache from nationally syndicated children's programming was the opportunity for local children to participate. Bruce Lewis didn't simply perform for an invisible audience on the other side of the television screen. Children attended his programs and interacted with him, creating memories that remained important to them decades later.

That participation is central to understanding the appeal of early local television. For a child growing up in Rockford in the 1970s, appearing on television was a genuine event. There were no smartphones, no social media accounts, and no easy way to broadcast yourself to the world. Being invited into a television studio and appearing on a program watched by other children around town could be an extraordinary experience. You might go to school the following week knowing that your classmates had seen you on Channel 23.

The show's combination of puppetry, drawing, and direct interaction also placed it within a long tradition of children's entertainment that valued imagination over expensive production. A talented artist with a drawing surface, a few puppets, and the ability to communicate with children could create an entire world. There was no need for elaborate digital effects or an army of animators. The magic came from watching something happen in front of you.

And because Lewis was a local personality, the boundary between the television studio and the community was unusually thin. Mr. Mustache wasn't a distant celebrity whose appearances were carefully managed by a national publicity department. He was Bruce Lewis, a working artist and entertainer who lived in the community he served.

Fifteen Years of Rockford Television History

The years between 1967 and 1982 were a remarkable period of change in American television. When Mr. Mustache first appeared, television was still dominated by the three major commercial networks, and local stations filled portions of their schedules with locally produced programs. By the time his run ended, cable television was beginning to transform viewing habits, and the economic incentives for producing original local children's programming were changing.

Mr. Mustache survived through much of that transition. Fifteen years is an impressive run for any local television personality, particularly one working in a market the size of Rockford. It meant that children who first encountered the program in the late 1960s could have younger brothers and sisters who were still watching it in the early 1980s.

The show's longevity also explains why it occupies such a distinctive place in Rockford nostalgia. Mr. Mustache wasn't simply a program that happened to be on television for a season or two. He was part of the everyday cultural environment of the city for a substantial portion of an entire generation's childhood.

And yet, like so much early local television, the program has largely disappeared from the accessible historical record. We can document the years it aired, identify its creator, and establish some of its activities, but the surviving online information is surprisingly limited. The precise episode count, complete broadcast schedule, detailed production history, and extent of any surviving recordings remain questions worth investigating.

The Artist Behind the Mustache

Bruce Lewis's artistic talents extended beyond his television character. When Channel 23 reported his death in 2009, the station specifically remembered his drawings and artistic impressions, noting that both his older artwork and more recent creations continued to attract interest. The remembrance also described him as someone who contributed his creativity to numerous local projects.

That part of Lewis's story deserves particular attention. It suggests that Mr. Mustache was not simply a television job performed by a man whose real interests lay elsewhere. Lewis was an artist who found a way to bring his creative abilities into children's lives through the medium of television.

Local broadcaster Andy Gannon remembered Lewis as a friendly and generous individual who made time for other people. It's a small detail, but an important one. Television can manufacture the appearance of warmth and sincerity, but the memories people leave behind among their colleagues and neighbors often reveal more about them than the characters they performed.

Lewis appears to have been remembered not only for what he did on television but for the kind of person he was away from the cameras.

The End of an Era

Mr. Mustache's regular television run ended in 1982. The available historical record doesn't establish exactly why the program concluded, and it would be misleading to attribute its cancellation to any single cause without additional documentation. What can be said is that its departure came during a period when locally produced children's television was becoming increasingly uncommon.

There was a time when virtually every television market had its own children's personalities. Some were clowns, some were cowboys, some were magicians, and others were simply friendly adults who introduced cartoons and invited children to become part of the show. These performers were often deeply embedded in their communities, appearing at schools, shopping centers, charity events, and local celebrations.

Many of these programs were produced live or under circumstances in which recordings were not routinely preserved. Videotape was expensive, storage was limited, and few stations anticipated that people would someday want to study their children's programming as an important part of local cultural history.

Consequently, the history of local television is full of missing programs, forgotten performers, and memories that exist primarily in the minds of the people who watched them. Mr. Mustache belongs to that larger story, but he also represents something specifically Rockford's own.

Remembering Bruce Lewis

Bruce Lewis died of cancer in November 2009 at the age of 67. His death prompted a remembrance from Channel 23, the station where he had spent so many years entertaining local children. The station recalled his drawings, puppets, and the generations of children who had appeared on his program. For many of those former young viewers, visiting Mr. Mustache was still a cherished memory decades after the television show ended.

There is something particularly poignant about the disappearance of local children's television. Unlike a national program, which might survive indefinitely through syndication, streaming services, and commercial releases, a locally produced program can vanish almost completely once it leaves the air. Its host grows older, the children who watched it become adults, and eventually the entire experience becomes a story that one generation tells another.

But that doesn't mean it was unimportant. Quite the opposite. For thousands of children, local television personalities were among their earliest encounters with art, performance, humor, and the possibility that an ordinary person living in their own community could create something wonderful.

Bruce Lewis spent fifteen years doing precisely that.

Today, Mr. Mustache is part of Rockford's collective memory, a reminder of a time when a local artist could become a television star simply by being imaginative, generous with his talents, and willing to entertain the children of his hometown.

And perhaps that's the part of the story most worth remembering. Rockford didn't need Hollywood to give its children Mr. Mustache. Rockford had Bruce Lewis.

Do you remember watching Mr. Mustache on Channel 23? Were you ever a guest on the program? Does your family have photographs, drawings, memorabilia, or recordings from the show? I'd especially like to hear from people who knew Bruce Lewis or remember visiting the television studio. Local history is often preserved not in official archives but in family photo albums, boxes in attics, and the memories of people who were there. If you have a Mr. Mustache story, please share it in the comments so this remarkable piece of Rockford television history doesn't disappear.