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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm FaithLapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Today we bring you a history of children'stelevision in the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

HowdyDoody and BobSmith

Television became popular afterWorld War Two in the nineteen-forties. Successful radio programsbecame early television shows. "Howdy Doody" was one of the firstshows for children. The television show began on N.B.C., theNational Broadcasting Company, in nineteen-forty-seven. Soon, itexpanded to five days a week.

Howdy Doody looked like an average American boy. Only he was madeof wood and controlled with strings from above. He had red hair,although he appeared in black-and-white, like everything else inearly television. And he had a permanent smile.

An actor named Bob Smith, known as Buffalo Bob Smith, started theshow each time with the same words.

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In the early days, local television stations all over the countryproduced programs for children. Local actors, artists and musiciansperformed live. Often they played movies or animated cartoons like"Bugs Bunny" or "Popeye the Sailor."

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But Popeye the Sailor and Bugs Bunny were movie stars, really. Intime, cartoons made especially for television replaced them.

Hanna-Barbera Studios created cartoons like "Huckleberry Hound"and "Yogi Bear."

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Shows like "Yogi Bear" were syndicated. That means local stationspaid for the rights to broadcast the program in different cities.

Tim Hollis is an expert on the history of children's television.He says that by the nineteen sixties, many shows were franchised. Alocal station would pay to use the idea for a show, but then produceit with local actors.

Two popular franchised shows during the nineteen-sixties were"Romper Room" and "Bozo the Clown." Tim Hollis estimates that at onetime, the United States had more than two-hundred local Bozo theClowns.

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Television presented a new way for businesses to market tochildren through advertising. However, in the nineteen-sixties, manyparents grew concerned. They thought their children were seeing toomany commercials for products.

As a result, the Federal Communications Commission limited theamount of commercial time in children's programs. The governmentalso barred local children's actors from reading commercials. Thiswas meant as another way to reduce the influence on children. Butthese actions also reduced the amount of money that stations earned.

By the early nineteen-seventies, most local television stationsstopped producing their own shows for children. Many replaced themwith syndicated programs like "I Love Lucy" and "Gilligan's Island."

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In addition to syndicated programs, local stations used nationalnetwork shows to fill their broadcast day.

C.B.S., the Columbia Broadcasting System, launched a children'sshow in nineteen-fifty-five. Each day, the star wore a red coat withpockets on the sides. The pockets were big -- big enough maybe evenfor a mother kangaroo to carry her baby. So an actor named BobKeeshan became known as Captain Kangaroo.

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VOICE ONE:

C.B.S. aired "Captain Kangaroo" for twenty-nine years. Innineteen-eighty-four, the show moved to public television. There, itappeared for six more years.

SesameStreet

Another popular children's show onthe public broadcasting system is "Sesame Street." This show beganin nineteen-sixty-nine. Today, different versions of "Sesame Street"can been seen in more than one-hundred-twenty countries.

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VOICE TWO:

FredRogers

Public television also broughtyoung children an educational show called "Mister Rogers'Neighborhood."

It always started the same way. "Mister Rogers" -- Fred Rogers inreal life -- walked through the front door into his televisionhouse, put on a sweater and changed his shoes.

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VOICE ONE:

Fred Rogers began the show in nineteen-sixty-eight. "MisterRogers' Neighborhood" aired for more than thirty years.

Today, the shows on educational television for young childreninclude imports like "Teletubbies" from Britain. In general, though,the programs on American television aimed at children are mainly forentertainment.

Cable television became popular in the United States in thenineteen-eighties. There are children's programs twenty-four hours aday, seven days a week.

VOICE TWO:

One of the most popular cartoons on cable is about a squareyellow sea sponge. He lives deep in the Pacific Ocean, in a citycalled Bikini Bottom. His name is SpongeBob SquarePants.

A former marine-biology teacher named Steven Hillenburg created"SpongeBob SquarePants" in nineteen-ninety-six. The show began onthe Nickelodeon cable channel three years later.

Children consider SpongeBob an honest person -- I mean, creature-- who always sees the brighter, happier side of life. The show isalso aimed at adults, a lot of whom do find it funny.

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VOICE ONE:

These days, there are hundreds of channels of broadcast, cableand satellite television to choose from. Plus there are countlessvideos and video games. Children can see all sorts of things, andtheir parents do not always supervise.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry sayschildren in the United States watch TV an average of three to fourhours a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children underthe age of two should not watch any television at all. And it saysolder children should watch no more than one to two hours a day.

Many scientists believe that too much television can causeattention problems for children later in life. Studies have alsolinked a lot of television with children becoming too fat and tooaggressive.

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There are also concerns about the limited number of female heroeson television for girls to identify with. And critics say children'stelevision is too often simply a method to sell things to youngconsumers.

Product marketing tied to shows is a major business. SpongeBobSquarePants, for example, appears not just on television. He is alsoon clothes, bedding, books, school supplies and toys.

Experts urge parents to watch shows with their children anddiscuss them. Some of what they see might make them wish for thedays of that puppet with a big smile on his face.

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver.I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.