Gumby, that adventuresome clay boy, celebrates a big milestone this weekend. It’s been 50 years since animator Art Clokey molded a piece of green clay into a boy shaped like a gingerbread man and used rudimentary stop-motion techniques to animate him. Gumby has had many adventures, such as battling robots, climbing a ladder to the moon, traveling to the Old West, and playing guitar in a rock band.

On Wednesday, Mr. Clokey’s son signed a contract with National Lampoon Networks, a syndicated television network broadcast on about 600 college campuses nationwide, to carry Gumby reruns. “College kids like Gumby because of its surrealistic nature,” Joe Clokey says. “They trip on it.” Getting Gumby back on television, where “children” can enjoy him, is the fulfillment of his father’s perennial goal. “My dad’s ecstatic,” Mr. Clokey said. “He doesn’t use superlatives at all, and when I told him, he said, ‘That’s wonderful!'”

This weekend, the Museum of the Moving Image presents a whirlwind of festivities in celebration of Gumby hitting the half-century mark. The exhibit includes screenings of television episodes and a 1995 Gumby feature film, and daily demonstrations of stop-motion animation techniques on a Gumby set. On opening day, Joe Clokey will introduce a new compilation program of Gumby highlights, including his father’s abstract short “Gumbasia,” which sparked producer Sam Engel to invite Art to use his claymation techniques to create a television show for children.

Gumby made his debut on “The Howdy Doody Show.” Like “The Simpsons” on “The Tracey Ullman Show,” his short segments were such a hit that he was soon given his own spin-off. Gumby eventually starred in three television shows, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1980s. A feature film was released in 1995. Gumby’s look has changed very little over five decades, which is unusual for children’s characters – even the Looney Toons characters have recently been refashioned as the “Loonatics,” complete with anime-influenced looks and crime-fighting powers.

“The thing that never changes is that Gumby’s character remains the same,” Joe Clokey says. “Why would you change Superman or Spider-Man’s character? Spider-Man today is in a different world. [Gumby] might go in and out of the Internet. But his character – he’s never going be the bad guy. The Blockheads are always causing trouble.”

For a relentlessly optimistic blob of clay – out of step with the technology and mood of 21st-century America – Gumby has remarkable staying power. On June 28, Rhino will release a DVD with 24 episodes of the 1980s television show. Rhino is also producing a DVD set with episodes from all three television shows, along with Art Clokey’s early claymation art films. Gumby will soon go Gameboy, too: His first video game, “Gumby vs. the Astrobots,” in which he must rescue his friends and family from marauding Blockheads, will debut in August.

Gumby has had his dry spells. After a few decades’ absence, during which Art Clokey ran into financial trouble, Eddie Murphy’s early-1980s portrayal of a cranky Gumby on “Saturday Night Live” put the character, however twisted, back on television. In a series of popular sketches, he chomps on a cigar, badmouths Raggedy Ann and Frosty the Snowman, and harrumphs, “I’m Gumby, dammit.” The catchphrase was an instant hit.

That irreverence didn’t bother Art Clokey, according to his son. “He understood that it was on late at night and it wasn’t going to affect kids,” Joe Clokey said. “You have to make fun of yourself, and Gumby has to laugh at himself. … You can’t stop parody.” In this case, the parody’s popularity kept Gumby fresh in the public imagination.

Premavision/Clokey Productions, which is based near San Luis Obispo, is owned and run by the Clokey family. Joe took over the company seven years ago at his father’s request. His stepsister, Holly, created sets and provided voices for the 1980s television show and the film. Whenever they’re working on new animation, Joe says, his father stops by the office every day to supervise production.

Joe says that as a child he was sometimes teased when children found out about his father’s occupation. “They’d call me Gumby,” he says, “so I kept it on the down-low.” He’s now proud of his father’s legion of fans, some of whom have followed his work since the beginning. “They don’t come up to my dad and say, ‘I like Gumby,'” Mr. Clokey said. “They say, ‘I love Gumby.'”

Opening screening: Saturday, 2 p.m. Exhibit: Saturday through January 15, 2006, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue at 36th Street, Astoria, Queens, 718-784-0077, $10 general, $7.50 seniors and students, $5 ages 5-18, free for members and children under 5, pay-what-you-wish Fridays after 4 p.m.