Childrens TV On Trial 1950s Part One

[Sheri451]

Did the BBC show Lassie to their children? How about Howdy Doody? Mickey mouse Club? Captain Kangaroo?

[jrg135]

@Sheri451 Until 1955 there was only 1 tv channel, BBC1, there was only 1 hour of children tv on Mon thru Fr & nothing at the Weekends, on Sundays tv was only broadcast from 6 to 10.30 pm.

[Sheri451]

@jrg135 It was the same way here. I had a book on Television, It said the test pattern stayed on until 4PM. There weren't that many childrens programming on at first, Just Howdy Doody and I believe Captain Video. Then TV signed back off at 11PM and Sundays were the same here like on the BBC. I have a book about a boy who's brother bought a TV in 1950, his other brother told him. "All that's on there is singing and dancing, Junk like that."

[alcockell]

@Sheri451 Lassie was run quite frequently. However, we had our own homegrown formats.. the cartoons would be aired independent of linking material. Howdy Doody and Capt Kangaroo never came across the pond.

[Sheri451]

@alcockell Yes I saw some of them here on YT.

[143AC]

What a lot of nonsense! Lying with your head on your hands is going to ruin your

jaws and teeth? This is just another unfair knock towards fun kids tv..even in England.

[pg2nd]

Ha ha ha, i love that! They talk about how much important kids TV is to the BBC and then show a clip of Saturday night prime time programme 'Doctor Who' as an example. Could it be that the Beeb do not, in fact, invest much money in children's programming today? I think they see it much more as filler now than ever before.

[UKSazzy67]

Dr Who is a load of crap, and this is presented as prime-time Adult entertainment on a Sat night. It's a kids show, they must be having a laugh!

[andyee2]

thanks for uploading! do you happen to have a widescreen version as well?

[alcockell]

@andyee2 Considering that this programme was made in 4:3 - as was the source material used... I'd prefer to see less stretching to 16:9 for the sake of it.