What is "harrigan"

Harrigan was a Canadian children's television series in the 1970s and 1980s. The show starred Barry Dale as Harrigan, a leprechaun.

Harrigan was produced by Kingston, Ontario television station CKWS-TV, and aired across Canada in syndication.

Part of the theme song included the words: "H - A - double R - I - G - A - N ... it's Harr-i-gan!"

Portions of the half-hour program would involve the title character viewing hand drawn pictures submitted by his loyal fan-base of children by looking into his magical pot of gold. His co-star for these segments was a young lady named Deb-Lyn.

Another segment would have Harrigan sitting with his good puppet friend Mr. Green as they read a book to the children watching.

The character originated at Ottawa's CJOH-TV where it ran for its first two seasons. The leprechaun originally appeared on a children's show called Sandbox at 7 a.m. on the CTV network.

Dale suggested syndicating the television show, a request that the station manager was not willing to do. Lorne Freed of CKWS-TV invited Dale to syndicate Harrigan at his station. Harrigan taped original shows until 1985 and then ran re-runs until 1992.

The Harrigan series won three CanPro Awards, which are the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy Awards for syndicated programs.

The Harrigan show is no longer running due to a technical issue. The show was recorded on large two-inch tapes that eventually wore out. At the time nobody thought to transfer the media to a longer-lasting media.

At CKWS, Dale was also promotions manager and for a time had a lunchtime variety show, but left in a dispute and started Godfatha Pizzas. Customers who recognized Dale and performed the song or a little jig, received an extra slice or topping.

The Dales moved to Arizona in 2001.

Harrigan may refer to:

• Harrigan (surname)
• Harrigan (TV series), Canadian children's television series
• Hop Harrigan, comic-strip aviator
• "Big John" Harrigan, nurturing pedophile in film L.I.E.
• "Harrigan" (song), by George M. Cohan from Fifty Miles From Boston
• Harrigan and Son, a 1960–1961 ABC situation comedy starring Pat O'Brien and Roger Perry, which used Cohan's song as its theme tune.
• Harrigan, N.Y., part of Ellenburg, New York

"Harrigan" is a song written by George M. Cohan for the 1907 Broadway musical Fifty Miles From Boston. It celebrates, and to some extent mocks, his own Irish heritage. It is also an affectionate homage to Edward Harrigan, a previous great Irish American contributor to American musical theater.

The song was performed by James Cagney and Joan Leslie in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy, a biopic of Cohan's life. In that film it was portrayed as an early work of Cohan's that he was shopping around. In real life, by 1907 he had already scored some major Broadway hits and had little need to try to sell individual songs to producers.

Contemporary Irish-American singer Billy Murray made a popular recording of the song. In his version, the answer "Harrigan!" to each question is shouted by a background group.

Harrigan is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Bill Harrigan, Australian rugby league football referee
• Duncan Harrigan (born 1921), Scottish footballer
• Edward Harrigan (1845–1911), American actor
• David Xavier Harrigan (1948–2000), singer, actor, & painter Tomata du Plenty
• John Harrigan ( fl. 1990s), actor, writer & filmmaker
• William Harrigan (1893–1966), American actor
• Tahesia Harrigan (born 1982), British Virgin Islands sprinter