Can TV Teach? Federal Mandate To Boost The Intellectual Nutrition Of Children’s TV Programs Sparks A Debate Over What Qualifies As ‘Educational’

When youngsters curl up with Saturday morning cartoons and other children’s shows on broadcast television this fall, they’re going to be greeted with “kidvid” that has been “vitamin-enriched.”

Beginning Monday, broadcast stations must provide at least three hours a week of educational programming for children. The shows must be “specifically designed to meet the educational needs of children under the age of 16,” according to requirements set by the Federal Communications Commission.

Stations have been required since last January to designate educational children’s programs with an E/I symbol, for educational/informational, but they haven’t been required to meet a minimum amount of such fare until now.

Accordingly, there’s a new crop of children’s shows arriving in the next few weeks that, in industry parlance, is “FCC-friendly.”

On Sept. 6, for example, ABC is premiering a new block of children’s shows that includes an animated series called “Science Court,” a Harvard-educated version of Disney’s “101 Dalmatians,” and two cartoons, “Recess” and “Pepper Ann,” about the emotional lives of children. CBS, meanwhile, has commissioned a new version of a former PBS series, “The Ghostwriter Mysteries,” and an adaptation of “Wheel of Fortune” that includes a virtual-reality Vanna White.

NBC is adding a new sitcom about teenagers, “City Kids,” to “Saved By the Bell” and other teen-oriented sitcoms on Saturday morning. And the WB network in October will introduce an animated show from producer Norman Lear, “Channel Umptee-3,” about kids who take over a TV station.

If some of these programs don’t sound like what your children are studying in school, you can go to the head of the class for what is likely to be the next hot debate in children’s television.

The term “educational” doesn’t necessarily mean related to curriculum. The FCC left the definition broad enough to include programs that serve a child’s intellectual, cognitive, social or emotional needs. At least initially, it is up to broadcasters to decide what qualifies. The commission will monitor the classifications, but it intends to rely on the reaction of the public and academics to help determine whether the new shows fit the bill.

“The FCC’s definition is so broad that virtually anything could be counted,” contends Shelley Hirsch, president of Summit Media, a syndication company that has sold “Mr. Men,” a popular British children’s series, to independent stations seeking to fulfill their educational requirements. (Cable programmers are not subject to the FCC guidelines.)

Network executives, already facing an erosion of their children’s audience to Nickelodeon and other cable outlets, say their efforts to comply with the educational rules were undertaken with the need to keep the shows entertaining enough to be strong in the ratings.

“Each of our shows has an educational objective, but this is a TV program, not a school,” said Lucy Johnson, head of children’s programming for CBS. “It’s still a competition for eyeballs, and we took ‘marquee value’ into consideration in picking our new shows.”

Alice Cahn, director of children’s programming at PBS, is skeptical about counting shows that deliver “pro-social” messages about such matters as the need for children to eat well, do well in school, be honest and respect people of different cultures.

“My definition of ‘educational’ is a show that has an instructional construct, i.e., what do you want kids to know after they’ve seen it?” Cahn said. “‘Brand Spanking New Doug’ (an ABC show about a 12-year-old daydreamer that began on Nickelodeon and will now be one of four educational hours on the network) is a lovely show, but I wouldn’t consider it educational.”

Geraldine Laybourne, the former Nickelodeon president who now oversees ABC’s children’s programming, disagreed, saying “Doug” and the new “Recess” and “Pepper Ann” provide important role models for kids and adolescents.

“All of our educational shows pay attention to learning, whether it’s cognitive, developmental, social or emotional,” said Laybourne, who is also president of the Disney/ABC cable networks.

ABC’s “Science Court,” from Tom Synder, co-creator of Comedy Central’s “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” features the voice of comedian Paula Poundstone as a judge who “tries” cases of condensation and other scientific principles. “Pepper Ann,” about a feisty adolescent girl, used a school of teenage girls to test the veracity of experiences such as getting your first pimple on the eve of class photos.

ABC’s “101 Dalmatians: The Series” teamed the producers of “Doug” with researchers studying intelligence under educator Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. With input from the educators, Laybourne said, “101 Dalmatians” teaches kids “about thinking.” In one episode, for example, the dogs evaluate the pros and cons of taking off in Cruella DeVil’s car.

Margaret Loesch, vice chairwoman of Fox Kids Worldwide, also defends the merits of messages about values and emotions along with more curriculum-based fare.

“Teachers have told us that television needs to provide these messages because many children are not getting them at home,” said Loesch, whose network counts as educational both the pro-social “Life With Louie” and the geography-themed cartoon, “Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”