John Gallos

A generation of youngsters knew him as “Clancy the Cop,” but for more than forty years John Gallos was one of the region’s most versatile and best known television personalities.

After serving in the US Army during World War II, he began his broadcasting career as an announcer with Armed Forces Radio in Vienna. He graduated from Macalester College and then returned to radio at KYSM Mankato and WDGY Minneapolis/Saint Paul before moving to WCCO TV Minneapolis/Saint Paul in 1950. Besides his news, weather, sports, and announcing duties, he also hosted News and Personalities and the musical quiz show Play or Pay. In 1957, he began twenty years of popular children’s shows, appearing first as the submarine captain “Commodore Cappy” and “Clancy the Keystone Cop,” and then as the modern-day policeman “Clancy the Cop” from 1961 to 1977. He also produced and hosted The John Gallos Comedy Hour, featuring Laurel and Hardy films, from 1970 to 1985, and the nationally acclaimed Sunday Morning With John Gallos, the nation’s longest-running local religious talk show, from 1963 to 1994.

On November 15, 2005, John Gallos died, at the age of 82, from complications of diabetes.