Figure 1.--Here is a BBC press release about 1994 children's programming, including 'Our William' and Little Lord Fauntleroy. It was issued January 9, 1994. The 'Our" expression is how British parents refer to their sons. It is less commonly used or daughters. The caption read, "Children's BBC presenters Zoe Bail (left) 'Live & Kicking' and Juliet Morris (right), 'Newsround', with two stars in the new BBC children's season line-up, in London today Thursday), 10-year-old Oliver Rokison (top) as William Brown , Richmal Crompton's schoolboy rascalm brough to life again in a new series of 'Just William' and 11-year-old Michael Benz, who plays the title in a new acaptation of Francis Hodgson Burnett's 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'.

Programming and viewing hours were at first very limited. A lot of American programs were broadcast in Britain. One British reader in particular remembers: 'Rin Tin Tin', 'The Lone Ranger', 'Wagon Train', 'I Love Lucy', 'Dragnet', 'Highway Patrol', 'My Friend Flicka', 'Hanna Barbara Cartoons', 'Top Cat', 'Popeye Cartoons', 'Lassie', among others. Even in the 1960s. There were no late night broadcasts and even during the day there were scheduled breaks. Unfortunately most of England's early television programing is completely lost. At the time few producers realized the potential commercial value of rebroadcasting programs in the future. Most programs were broadcast live and not recorded. At the time, the only way of recording a program in a quality that could be rebroadcast was film. But this was prohibitively expensive to both do and archive. As a result, not only has the commercial value of early television lost, but also a potentially valiable source of cultural and historic value. Video taping was not introduced until the mid-1960s, but was also at first expensive. Often only samples or excerpts were archived and tapes reused for other episodes and programs. Programs were not routienly taped and archived until well into the 1970s. This is about the time tahr British programming begana appearing on American television. We do ot see British program on commercial net works, but rather they were carried on the Public Boadcasting Ststem (PBS). British progamming was seen as too 'highbrow' for Americans. That coninues to be the case, although Briish contemprary programming seems more like American pogramming. PBS ha a special reputation for childen's programming. For whatever reason, PBS picked on adult Britosh programming, but raely British children's programmin. 'Narnia' is a rare exception. We have some information on English program series.

Created: 3:54 AM 4/21/2019
Last updated: 3:54 AM 4/21/2019