What changed kids' TV

By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
teel trolley diners, hula hoops and "Howdy Doody": standard 1950s Americana.
The diners and hula hoops, imbedded in American culture, are still around, albeit newer, modernized versions. But "Howdy Doody" and a throng of locally produced television programs for children have gone the way of the dinosaur.
Today, children's television is far more sophisticated than it was 40 or 50 years ago, the heyday of locally produced kids' TV.
Syndicated educational programs help kids learn everything from the alphabet to foreign language, colors to world cultures. Missing from the mix, however, are local heroes -- the Barney Beans, Susie Sidesaddles, Captain Sailorbirds and Grizzly Petes -- that every kid in town knew in the 1950s and '60s.
"I had a school boy's crush on Susie Sidesaddle," said Mike McKay, who grew up watching local TV programs from an inside-the-station perspective. His aunt and uncle, Lotus and Gene Donahay, both worked at WFMJ Channel 21. Lotus wrote a half-hour program, "Coffee An'...," as well as advertising copy and some of the children's programs. Gene was the station's first film director and later program director.
Perks: Being so well-connected offered McKay plenty of opportunity to become friends with people like Mark Howard, who was host for an after-school program featuring "Laurel and Hardy," and to see first-hand how the station operates. After enjoying his own private screening of a new batch of "Popeye" cartoons, McKay said, "I knew this was the business for me."
He worked as an errand runner at the station during breaks from school in the late '60s and early '70s, then was host for WBBW's radio talk show, "The Electric Magazine" from 1976 to 1987. Today, he is copy director at Farris Marketing.
During the 1950s and '60s, McKay said, local stations bought packages -- "Popeye," "Laurel and Hardy," and other shorts shown in theaters 10, 20 or 30 years earlier -- and hired a host to introduce them, do commercials for sponsors, and between reels, entertain viewers.
When stations bought packages back then, they received reels of film, he explained. Scanty syndicated programming prevented stations from broadcasting a continuous feed of national shows, as is the case today.
Regional celebrities: The hosts of locally produced programs became regional celebrities, McKay said, and were often very talented. Bill Harris, the host of the "Barney Bean" show, which aired on WYTV Channel 33, was a great ventriloquist and had a knack for transforming kids' initials into drawings of faces "that were very cleverly done," McKay continued. "I whiled away many hours in the classroom trying to do the same thing."
The hosts of these programs were also very prolific, coming up with new material for five shows a week.
Of course, there were exceptions. "Romper Room," franchised from Baltimore developers Bert and Nancy Claster, was completely scripted.
Teachers of the TV kindergarten program were not allowed to deviate from the script at all, said Rosemary Nadzam, who was host for the local program from its debut in 1955 on WKBN Channel 27 through 1967.
Nadzam, the mother of five, auditioned for the role on a dare from her husband. The part-time job required that she be at the television station by 10:30 a.m. weekdays to film the next day's show. Six local children ages 4 through 6 would appear on a week's worth of shows. They would sing songs, play games, bounce balls to music and listen to stories. They'd also learn how to behave from Mr. Do Bee, a bright yellow bumblebee and mascot of all the things children should do -- do be a milk drinker, plate cleaner, ear washer.
"Mr. Do Bee, how do you do?
"We're going to play a game with you.
"We'll let you fly.
"We'll let you buzz.
"And catch you while you're sailing by."
Even after more than 30 years, "Miss Rosemary" remembers the jingles she sang every day.
Commercials: In addition to teaching the "Romper Room" class, Nadzam would visit Hills department store, the program's largest sponsor, to choose clothes she would wear on the show and the products she would use in commercials for the store. Unlike the deluge of videotaped advertisements today, most commercials back then were done live.
"Romper Room" flourished through the late 1960s. After that, finding kindergarten-age children to appear on the program became increasingly difficult, and the audience began to shrink, according to "Hi There, Boys and Girls," a book published by the University Press of Mississippi that traces the history of children's television in America.
More women were entering the work force and enrolling their young children in pre-school. Therefore, children were not as readily available to appear in the "Romper Room" class or to watch the program. By the late 1970s, nearly all of the "Romper Room" schools had shut down.
The same was true of the plethora of other locally produced kids' programs. Syndicated programs were easier to acquire, and often less expensive. Local production crews didn't need to be at the studio for shows to air and local talent could be trimmed from the payrolls.
Cable TV: The introduction of cable TV and a wider selection of channels provided around-the-clock children's programming on selected channels, curbing demand for children's programming in the after-school time slot at local stations, said Ed Byers, assignment editor at WYTV News Channel 33. That resulted in the local after-school programs' being replaced by dollar-driven talk shows that capture more lucrative audiences, Byers said. However, he's not certain that argument is valid. "I don't know of any mom who didn't hear 'Susie Sidesaddle' when I was growing up. The kids were watching it, so she couldn't help but to watch too."
The mass-produced children's programs that are on TV today, he continued, don't offer the same experience for young viewers. "I was on the 'Susie Sidesaddle' show when I was a Cub Scout. It was a wonderful thing -- these people were role models and heroes to us." Contemporary children's programs don't provide kids with local heroes and are often designed to fuel demand for toys associated with the programs, he noted.
"It's sad. My kids did not grow up with a local hero," Byers said. "Kids can't go out to the mall to meet their heroes like I did." Instead, he lamented, they covet toys like the line of Transformers that appear in the animated kiddie program.
While children's local TV heroes have disappeared, the quality of children's programming has improved significantly overall, said Connie Jones, project manager at Youngstown's Media Archives.
Action for Children's Television, a committee to improve the quality of children's television programming, was formed in 1968. The Children's Television Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street," was established a year later, and the FCC began pushing for more educational programming in 1974.
In 1990, the children's entertainment act reduced the amount of advertising aired with children's programs and boosted requirements for the amount of educational and informational content.
Although Nadzam has been out of the business for a long time, she enjoys watching children's programs with her 5-year-old granddaughter.
"It's amazing how different they are -- and there's so many of them," she said. "The children are quite interested in the programs, and I'm interested too. The quality is better, there's lots more color and a lot more commercials."
Nadzam quit as "Romper Room" teacher after color television was introduced. Working under the additional lights required for color was very uncomfortable, she said. So, she went back to school, finished her teaching degree and went to work as a special education teacher at St. Christine School, Youngstown. Nadzam retired about 10 years ago.
kubik@vindy.com