Miles from Home

The historical figure of the town gossip often gives people a good chuckle. But the fact of the matter is the word of mouth method is something that cannot be duplicated.  It is a priceless tool in advertising. Parents acting out the role of town gossip, so to speak, have proven to be extremely effective. Getting the parental stamp of approval can make all the difference for any product including a children's television show.  Just like hearing words like engaging, funny, and thoughtful can be words that make a parent tune in to a show, hearing a show "is the most frighteningly disturbing show on television" can make them tune out. Words like weird and pointless can cause irreparable damage.

Creators Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport thought the preschool world and parents needed Teletubbies. So they pitched the show in the 90s to BBC. The story behind the concept is just as disjointed as the show and gives credibility to other children's educational show creators who were more calculated in their research.  Unlike shows where extensive research had been done on how children learn, Teletubbies was a farcical idea based on a trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and the observation of astronauts looking like toddlers in diapers or nappies as they are called in the U.K. Huh? That was only the beginning of the disconnect. The 4 main characters were first drawn up in a book and were given the name technological babies. The characters would not be animated though. They would be people dressed in costume. It worked with Big Bird. Hundreds of people would audition. Once chosen the actors would develop their character's unique style. Exploration in learning to appeal to children but recalling how they spoke as children was the target for how the creators wanted the creatures to behave. All throughout Teletubbies the ridiculous would continue even to the rabbits who were dying because their enlarged hearts from the inbreeding that had been done.

Anne Wood saw this all as glorious silliness but knowing that Andrew Davenport was inspired by Benny Hill, an actor and comedian best known for his risque' comedy television show makes Teletubbies look a little less innocent.

 One parent observed that all the Teletubbies were named after slang names for genitalia. Tinky Winky, LaLa, Po, and Dipsy were not just cute, funny sounding names that a baby might be mispronouncing. This lends to another big issue many parents had. The Teletubbies didn't actually speak words. It was some form of gibberish that each character developed to include Mandarin because the woman who played Po spoke Mandarin better than English. A parent wanting help in teaching a child does not gain anything by allowing the child to hear what they already do naturally. Hearing gibberish does not help a child to formulate words and develop language skills. In so many instances Teletubbies was exactly what a parent did not want in a children's show.


The show opens with bright colors and a fat cheeked baby face as the face of the sun. A narrator is speaking of the landscape and introduces the little alien creatures dressed in their bright suits. From the beginning the issue with speech is clear. Even when the characters count they are unintelligible. Children repeat what they hear and they mispronounce words all the time. They need to hear what it is supposed to sound like not what it shouldn't sound like. If it weren't for the narrations there would be very few distinguishable words and certainly no full sentences. For a preschooler, the show would appeal to their most basic senses. Funny sounds emitting from creatures and machines, the bright   colors of the countryside where the Teletubbies play and occasionally familiar actions or sounds that all babies learn like uh-oh or big hug are there but there is no depth. It is shallow and there is no real flow to the show to even give you a sense of the expected or predictable that children learn from except for the opening scenes, Objects or themes are sporadic like an umbrella being introduced and then a cloud that comes out but nothing actually connecting to draw conclusions for a child who is picking up on so much at this age.

Teletubbies was popular and sold millions of dollars in merchandise. Parents who allowed their children to watch the show reported how much their children loved the show. If we introduce the education versus entertainment argument here children will watch anything. One man who was at the dinner party that brought forth the Sesame Street concept said he had found his daughter watching those stripes that used to indicate off the air for television back when television went off the air. Children's educational television is supposed to link education with entertainment not substitute one for the other. If children aren't learning anything or if parents are concerned with digression this probably isn't the education you are looking for. The argument that we are learning all the time could make Teletubbies a choice for a parent who is just desperate for a moment of peace.

They had a Clue!

Its slogan was "to empower, to challenge, and build the self esteem of preschoolers all while making them laugh!" Targeted at a younger audience but enjoyed by everyone this educational show was colorful and full of fun. The popularity of Blues Clues grew like wildfire and soon found itself mentioned with the legend of educational children's television Sesame Street.

For children it has been proved that repetition is the key to learning.  Part of repitition is creating an environment that is familiar and habits that are consistent.  In September 1996 audiences were invited into the home of a host and his animated dog for the first time on Nickolodeon.  The mixture between real and animated characters was once again shown to be a formula that was full proof.

 The show with Steve and his cute dog Blue would welcome thousands of visitors and many awards to include the 2001 Peabody Award  which honors the most powerful, enlightening and invigorating stories in television, radio, and online media. If viewership and awards were how you gauge success producers Angela Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson had succeeded.

Tuning into the charming show and walking through the familiar door into the color full living room was the start of the familiar consistency that would grow into the perfect earning environment.  "It's me, Steve! Have you seen Blue? My puppy." was the catch phrase that signaled the beginning of the 30 minute episode.

 The show was structured with repetitive segments children would soon recognize easily but didn't feel like repetition.  The segment most recognizable in the show was the game the show revolved around. The game was a guessing game in which Blue would leave clues with her paw prints

 for Steve to find and then piece together the answer to the question that had been asked at the opening few minutes of the show. After all the clues were gathered and the game was done Steve would sing the song "We just figured out Blues Clues." During the game children were interacting and being introduced to the other characters in the house and situations that were a part of Steve's life in the house. There was a family that lived in the kitchen. Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, and their daughter Paprika were animated.  Side Table Drawer was a part of every episode because it held the "handy dandy notebook" which is important to the game. The "handy dandy notebook" is how Steve kept up with the clues he was collecting for the game.

The interaction on the show made for a very real experience especially with the cut to the children's voices as they announced to Steve "a clue, a clue, when he seemed to miss a clue and the technique of breaking the 4th wall. Steve talks directly to his audience drawing them into the space. The songs are also part of the repetitious flow of the show which alert you to a segment's beginning or end.


 Mail time is sung when Mailbox box announced his arrival and is another part of the animation.

 Mail time is also the only other time human characters are introduced other than Steve, The animated envelope opens to reveal human children talking to Steve, as they break the 4th wall, about whatever the topic of the day's show. This gives children the opportunity to learn from other children. The game was ended with the very catchy Blues Clues Song sung only after Steve spent time thinking in his thinking chair "to think, think, think" that he sand along with Blue,  From start to finish Blues Clues gave children a full load of preschool learning. With his green striped shirt and crayon to match made Steve a child approved and parent approved celebrity,

Today you can find any number of products from the show or branded from the show because they are still popular and being remembered by the generation that loved to visit Steve and Blue everyday. Blues Clues filled preschoolers brains with all the knowledge they could in just 30 minutes. Vibrant learning that utilized the time a child would be in front of the television is a great way to characterize this educational children's program. And for every "so long" Steven had made a point to give each child a little dose of esteem with the affirmation 'because you're really smart"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h1IFMkjJ04     What a wonderful message for every child to hear as they start their learning journey.

The Sesame Street Formula

"By the time our program goes on the air it will be the most thoroughly researched show in the history of the medium" creator Joan Ganz Cooney spoke of the show at it's onset. Doesn't sound like the most exciting way to describe a children's television show. This show so beloved to so many was deemed "the once and for all experiment  to demonstrate if, in fact,  television could do something other than entertain children. The rest is history.

Tride and True

Shea Moisture is a company that started in Harlem, New York in 1991. Its origins reach across the ocean to the continent of Africa to the country of Sierra Leone. The founder Richelieu Dennis after leaving the country because of the civil war started the company using recipes that had been passed down from his grandmother. Shea Moisture provides products for personal care using all natural often organic ingredients including its signature shea butter. The new recipes are made by his sister who still reaches back to their grandmothers recipes as the base for what she creates. Shea Moisture has a lengthy list of products to include many shampoos and conditioners all the way to bubble bath and soaps. Shea moisture has done a great job for the most part with it's advertising efforts. You can find ads for Shea Moisture in many magazines these days. They may be advertising for the hair products specifically or their body care or both. These days they seem to be doing a lot of inclusive ads to show their versatility. In the May 2018 edition of Marie Claire the first page after the cover opens with the an extensive ad from Shea Moisture which reads Beauty Unites The World. The first thing that stands out about this particular ad is the face of Shea Moisture is a black female with natural hair. Marie Claire magazine has not been much different from many magazines in its readership. And looking through the magazine you would not expect that Shea Moisture would be how they chose to start an issue. Marie Claire appears to be focusing on what they call Global Beauty in opposition to what has been considered for a long time main stream. Shea Moisture has a base of black women that have supported them. They continue to focus on that community but have been attempting to draw in new customers that don't necessarily look like their faithful base. In trying to expand their customer base they ran into trouble with a hair care ad for television that included one too many white women in the opinion of their faithful followers.

This add was great for the visual media that television is but for that same reason it was too visual in all the wrong ways for the fans of Shea Moisture that didn't see themselves represented in this commercial. It was highly visual and that made the response overwhelmingly fast. The problem is the response wasn't a good one.  In trying to get back into the good graces Shea Moisture, by resorting to the stereotypical version of black people dancing and rapping missed the mark. Those who disagreed with the original ad were not amused by the follow up of Back 2 Old School. This was to be an ad mixed with PR to assure customers who loved Shea Moisture that they were still who they had grown to love. It didn't work. It might have been better to keep their brand off of this ad they chose to make a look like a 90s CD cover with the title Shea Moisture and their recognizable signature.

Shea Moisture now very aware of the delicate balance of making "new friends but keeping the old" has had to come up with PR to place in the ads so as to continue to court those that have been with them all along. The company in this ad wants you to know they are conscious, aware of the global issues like poverty and also sustainable entrepreneurship to include fair trade opportunities. Shea Moisture's target audience is women;women of all shapes, sizes and colors but there is a but. As seen in this ad they have a duty to always put black women front and center and to keep her from looking the way she has seen herself through the lens of those who didn't value her beauty. Part of that campaign promise is to make sure the women they choose to put front and center have enough melanin in their skin so we know they are indeed black. Shea Moisture ads always show their brand somewhere on the ad with their signature heart with the words community commerce encrypted in it.This is because they want you to equate using their products with the bigger picture. This full spread ad that reads like it's own section is in glossy print with lots of messages that Shea Moisture wants you to read. All that fine print is the proof that they care about women and women's issues,,, everywhere. They are marketing the new thought of being globally conscious and that beauty isn't blond haired and blue eyed all the time. Also since Marie Claire is for the progressive working woman they are aware of what is going and so Shea Moisture is also marketing to young, white, working women but not in the way where it can be taken as they are more important.

I think Shea Moisture has learned a valuable lesson. They have kept their promise to be more thoughtful about how they approach their targets the new and the old and using magazines and television commercials to remind their customers that they are a thoughtful and faithful company that can be relied on to never forget where they came from. They same way they always mention Sofi Tucker started selling Shea Nuts at the village market. 

Game Craze

"If it ain't broke don't fix it"

hangman on chalkboard 

Hangman the video game was released in 1980. The game is  a guessing game. The word or phrase to be guessed is represented by a row of dashes that represents each letter in the word of phrase. The word or phrase is determined by one player and the other player does the guessing. The goal is to guess the word or phrase one letter at a time, ideally picking the correct letter and then inserting it where it belongs.

Picking the right letter gets you closer to solving the "puzzle". Picking the wrong letter gets you an element of the hanged man starting with the head. The hanged man consist of head, torso, two arms added separately and two legs added separately giving you a total of 6 tries to strike out. At any point if you think you know what the puzzle is you are able to guess, if you don't you are penalized with another portion of the hanged man. Hangman is based on the game many remember playing on the blackboard in schools or just with friends on paper. It is still a guessing word game. That being said Hangman probably could have been a cool hand held game when you didn't have someone to play with. There are controls where pens and pencils or chalk would normally be. They did try to add some exciting elements by naming your wrong choices with words that sound more like video game vernacular. ZONK is your wrong choices and BROKE is your loss. It does making bleeping sounds and it does have graphics so in that way it is a video game but honestly this is one of those great examples of" it ain't broke don't fix it."

Crush Roller

  

PacMan

Crush Roller as it was known in Japan or Make Trax is a video game from 1981. It is a maze game. The player is supposed to paint the entire landscape. There are two fish pursuing while you paint. If you are caught by the fish you then lose a life. You have three chances to progress and get to the next level. You must keep the roller away from the fish. Crush Roller is fast! You have to be thinking on your feet or you will die. It uses the joy stick so your hand eye coordination will tested and no doubt improved to keep up with the pace. Once you have painted the entire area you move on to a different screen so you have to be flexible in your thinking and how you strategize. The change in screens keeps this from being just something you master because once you figure out how to accomplish the one screen you don't continue to do the same and the game doesn't end there. The graphics are basic but you can clearly see the paintbrush and the fish. The audio and layout out of the game is very similar to PacMan even playing the theme song that plays at the beginning of each round.This game makes you understand the video game frenzy and you can't just play it once!

  Mr. Do was released in 1982. It is a strategy game where the main character tries to escape the little red monster creatures all while trying to dig through green stuff and collect cherry bonuses along the way. Being able to go quickly and steer clear of the enemy is the main goal but there are barrels that you can release in order to smash the monster type creatures that are quickly approaching and multiplying all originating in the middle of the board which is something else to consider while you are maneuvering through the what has now become a maze. The points come in the form of how many tunnels you have created as you stay away from monsters and the cherries are also worth extra points. If you destroy all the monsters or are able to snag a diamond you move on to the next level shich will not look at all like the previous level you just overcame. You can play alone or have a two-player game where you not only are challenged by the game but try to beat someone else. This early form of what is known to be dig dug is a fun game filled with intensity. For what video games were known to be on the onset of the era Mr. Do shows you that this was a game of thought that happened to be a lot of fun. You have to think quickly and use hand eye coordination in order to avoid these monsters. Playing the game multiple to time allows you time to discover what strategies work best which is how these games can become addictive. Also having to adapt as you get promoted because the fields of play do not look the same means you are constantly having to rethink your strategy to some level. The allowing of the player game where you can do a head to head gives you the added element of competition. That feeling is already present though because you all playing against the computer which is the challenge no matter how many play.

Citizen...?

In 1995 the film Braveheart was released in theaters. Mel Gibson played the lead character, William Wallace, and also produced and directed the film. Critics described Gibson's performance as strong and said his direction was exciting. Braveheart was action packed with camera shots like close ups, long shots and direct shots. These shots increased the intensity of the epic war movie. It also followed, pretty well, the points of a story arc which for some is a sure fire way to structure a story making for the best possible recipe to engage an audience. Braveheart was a great movie by that held your attention from beginning to end. As great as Braveheart was it is really important to think about all that had already happened in the land of film making. Films like JAWS and Star Wars had given movie goers thrills above and beyond their imaginations. Mel Gibson had all the pioneers behind him in that their work was there for him to study and learn from.

 But if a film, along the lines of Braveheart had come out in 1941, a full 50 years before Braveheart, how much more impressive would it be? Insert here the movie that has been described as "the world's most famous and highly rated film with its many remarkable scenes and performances, cinematic and narrative techniques, and experimental innovations":Citizen Kane. Consider that there was a young twenty something year old man who wrote, directed, produced and starred in a film that included some of the same exciting elements of a story arc and scene shots in 1941 when film was still in its age of discovery according to some. Citizen Kane might have been the equivalent of the great leap for mankind in the history of movie making. In 1895 employees were leaving and exiting the factory in Louis Lumiere's movie, a very basic scene more voyeuristic in nature and lacking depth and scope and sound. There were no characters to grab hold of or identify with, just employees in general. That would be the perspective of movies for quite some time and one that audiences would also get bored with watching. Some advances were indeed happening but then Orson Welles in his own ignorance as he describes himself in an interview doesn't realize the limitations that he is bound by and blows all of the boundaries that have been set along with his cinematographer Greg Toland and they put together a movie using everything that has been tried and then some. Citizen Kane is relevant then and now. It is timeless which lends to its brilliance. Brian Truitt of USA Today titles an article "Citizen Kane is the greatest movie you've probably never seen" because many have heard but never actually watched. The fame of the movie has even transcended the need to watch it. It is just become a given for those who claim to "know" film. For those who take time to watch it will find that all the hype is true. The narration style which puts it technically in the film noir category, element of mystery, character depth, story line and innovations like deep focus and chiaroscuro lend to a film that was ahead of its time. The real reminder of the age of the movie is the fashion and then of course it is in black and white. The worse part of the film although understanding the choice is the loud voice over narration which is simpler a matter of personal choice.

Citizen Kane is a story with a clear plot. It's characters develop and change. There is an amazing back story as the movie opens with the death of Charles Foster Kane. With flashback scenes that follow as the movie pieces together the grandeur of this dead man's life you might forget that he is dead. As the reporters attempt to put humanity to a news story by researching Kane's last words "Rosebud", there are scenes ranging from his childhood with his parents and his failed marriages. The attempt to understand who this larger than life force is the driving force in the film. "Citizen Kane with its brilliant cast and crew forever changed American film" hailed the Old Hollywood Films blogger Amanda Garrett. Braveheart will never get to boast that claim.

Freedom in my Pocket

The transistor radio could have been good for so many things. People have been know to learn a whole other language just by listening. But in 1954 when the transistor radio had its debut there was something slightly less academic waiting for those most poised to be listening. The first of the baby boomers were soon to be entering their teen age years and this would make a difference in how the radio was used to spread what was playing. Rock and Roll had been slowly swimming to the surface of the music scene since Crudup recorded his song, "That's All Right, Mama"in 1947.

 With each new invention, mass media was spreading its chosen message faster. Speed wasn't the only issue to be considered as this genre started to make its leap into the main stream. Marshall McLuhan was credited with saying "the medium is the message" and a extremely clear example of this fact is the discussion of radio and rock and roll. McLuhan was saying the form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. So this new thing, the transistor radio, gave the feeling of freedom from 'being confined to the family's console radio in the living room" says, Wesley Kinney. If we take that one step further we can safely assume that the freedom wasn't just from the console but included freedom from parents and the house in general.

 The theme songs for this perceived freedom would have been the rock and roll songs of the 50s; all out of the earshot of mom and dad. It is the beginning of the rebellion that comes to be associated with much of the era. The family up to this point had been pretty inseparable. Where rock and roll was not main stream, at first it was spreading rapidly almost secretly. The first radio show known to play rock and roll was fitting that it broadcast late at night. Starting in Cleveland, Ohio in 1951 and first became popular among teens who were already spreading the word. The arrival of the transistor radio would throw fuel on the fire. Teens anticipating listening to the late night music on a device of their own alone or just with other teens but not with mom and dad because you no longer had to or as Robert Palmer from Rolling Stone described it, "For some of us, it began late at night: huddled under bedroom covers with our ears glued to a radio pulling in black voices charged with intense emotion and propelled by a wildly kinetic rhythm through the after-midnight static. Growing up in the white-bread America of the Fifties, we had never heard anything like it, but we reacted, or remember reacting, instantaneously and were converted.We were believers before we knew what it was that had so spectacularly ripped the dull, familiar fabric of our lives."

 "Yeah Daddy, Let's rock and roll"/www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqKRYJS60Rc   was Moondog's handle and now there was a language that was different from their parents. For something to be considered a civilization it must have a language. The transistor radio was teaching these kids how to talk and to live a life unattached to the complexities of the more traditional and conservative music and their world. Rock and roll was described in an article in the New Yorker by Louis Menand as having a "learning curve for performing the stuff is short; the learning curve for appreciating it is non existent". In this way teens were moving away from what they viewed as their parents life via the radio that fit into a pocket. Rock and roll was wild and free and broke the rules with songs like 'Tutti Frutti" and "Wake Up Little Susie". It was open minded about new ideas.

Even the song "Splish, Splash", sent the message about teens just wanting to have a good time not sit at home and be bored on a Saturday night. Inside the transistor radio rock and roll shared the message of all life had to offer in the hopeful decade of the present and what was to come in the future right in the palm of your hand. "Rock and roll was much more than new music for us. It was obsession, and a way of life.", says Robert Palmer. The transistor radio was the messenger of what everyone needed to hear.