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Hilley
Assistant Chief
Registered: May 2002
Location: East Elmhurst, NY
USA
1523 Posts |
 Posted - 07/29/2006 : 22:21:41
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The following is kind of satirical, although it makes you think.
For many years I have felt that the Workshop has been involved in or is harboring a conspiracy to disassociate itself from Square One TV. Yes, it aired the shows on Noggin, and it gets a good sentence or two in their press info, but read on:
http://www.gotricounty.biz/cabletv-description-abc.htm provides the following description for Noggin.
quote:
The first-ever thinking network for kids 2–12, Noggin is a unique interactive network on TV and online from Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop (formerly Children’s Television Workshop). Noggin’s mission is to serve kids’ natural desires to learn by creating a place on television and online where learning is driven by them. In turn, their interests help shape the network’s agenda and steer its content. On TV, Noggin’s schedule features the best educational programming from the libraries of Nick and Sesame Workshop, including such favorites as Blue’s Clues, Allegra’s Window, Eureeka’s Castle, and Nick News from Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street, The Electric Company, CRO, 3-2-1 Contact, and Ghostwriter from Sesame Workshop. Noggin also features original series developed with educational media specialists. Noggin is commercial-free and boasts the longest preschool block available on television and a block for older kids (6–12) in the afternoon and evening. After hours, Noggin airs a lineup of classic educational programs.
http://referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/M-Z/Sesame-Workshop.html offers a nearly complete company biography, mentioning efforts such as Big Bag, Kid City magazine, and Follow That Bird, but it omits one that was, at the time, the program with the largest initial funding package ever assembled for a children's show.
Joe Howard has attested here on the Forum that pretty much once David Britt or others took control of the Workshop, they were no longer interested in Square One -- to the extent that they turned down potential broadcasts that would have been no cost to them.
3-2-1 Contact magazine relabeled its math puzzles section in June 1993 even though the show was still on.
Here's one I just found. Jim Jinkins, the graphics director for Square One, is now making a new preschool show for the Workshop, Pinky Dinky Doo. Rita Weisskoff worked on Ghostwriter. Here's how the Pinky Dinky Doo online press kit tells it:
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Next, all the times he got sent to stand in the corner for drawing in school paid off with a job as Graphics Director for Children's Television Workshop's Square One TV on PBS.
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Dr. Weisskoff was the content director for Ghostwriter, Sesame Workshop's TV-based literacy project, where for eight years she directed the development and implementation of curriculum for the PBS series, as well as ancillary materials, licensed print and interactive products, and outreach activities.
Poor copy editing? Or are they simply not admitting that they are in fact the same organization that produced Square One?
Square One should not be ignored. It should not be one of the Workshop's lesser known shows. Adapting well in its final years, it showed no signs of age. It must have been remarkably difficult, but Seasons 4 and 5 were up-to-date with the times. Studies showed that it really met its curriculum goals with success. It was also the final show they developed using their tested and reliable magazine format. If the Workshop really uses past shows for research, then the way that Ghostwriter, Cro, New Ghostwriter Mysteries, and the new format Sesame Street were implemented, not to mention the new focus on early childhood, likely indicates that Square One was judged as a complete failure or completely ignored. Funding does not explain why the Mathnet ABC deal collapsed (thank you Joe Howard) and yet within two years the network was granted CRO in a much more expensive production scenario.
This is all I'm going to say on the matter right now. Maybe some of you have more examples.
"I almost wrote a letter to my congressman, but I'm not very good at writing... he's not very good at reading."
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It feels good to bring a little common sense into the world,
and, now, I'll go back to watering my plastic flowers. |
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Jill the Pill
Undercover Agent
Registered: July 2002
Location: Washington State
USA
Posts: 2268 |
Posted - 07/29/2006 : 22:59:42
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Well, you see, this is further proof that we're doing the right thing by calling attention to something that DID help a lot of people, and continues to do so. And would continue even MORE, if only they'd re-release the material. They'd make OODLES of money...so why the hestitation!?!!? WHY!??! 
It won awards, for goodness sake!
Let's keep up the fight...until the day they tell us we're violating their copyrights and tell us to take the site down!  (Which of course is what they did prior to re-releasing The Electric Company.)
Too bad I don't have the money and know-how to "revive" a television show... I'm sure it could have been done back in the day, not by us, but you know what I mean.  |
Afresh anon? Whaddya a-mean, a-man? - Miles Reed, The Case of the Mystery Weekend
Poke your nose? No. G. Gordon and I never fight. - Cynthia Gooch, The Case of the Poconos Paradise
Find Me on Facebook! | Online Journal Thingy
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Hilley
Assistant Chief
Registered: May 2002
Location: East Elmhurst, NY
USA
Posts: 1523 |
Posted - 07/29/2006 : 23:29:08
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One more thing,
I believe Square One TV is the best show in the history of television. Why make such a claim? Well, Square One taught viewers how to be smart. It taught people how to use creative logic and common sense in solving everyday problems. No other show has provided that type of a public service. What other show attempts to teach the average viewer to think better? I don't just mean suggesting broader perspectives on issues or merely relating concepts, but actually improving, by example, our basic powers of deduction. Math is such a powerful tool. |
It feels good to bring a little common sense into the world,
and, now, I'll go back to watering my plastic flowers. |
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Res4cue
Herr Capitan
Registered: August 2004
Location: DA BRONX NY
USA
Posts: 1661 |
Posted - 08/24/2006 : 00:27:45
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I think this topic should be revived, I regret that I did not have a chance to bat around what was said here. I think that Square One was judged, unfairly, by the CTW Execs to be a complete failure for one reason alone:MONEY.
Joan Ganz Cooney said in an interview that funding was cut. If Square One wasn't making the big bucks even if "it was putting asses in the seats", someone at CTW must have decided that it's the end. I think it's more proof if any were needed that CTW has just turned into a corporate money grubber.
And also, i don't really see as much of an educational and entertaining value in Ghostwriter or CRO. Ghostwriter was TOO entertaining; I don't think I learned a darn thing from it (admittedly, I was 13 when watching, but, I still feel a sense of accomplishment when watching Square One, I never felt it with CRO). Square One struck the right balance; CTW decided to kill it. "Yet every man kills the thing he loves..." The problem also was; we still have an aversion to Math as a society. Square One actually made Math fun, but on both sides there was opposition. Some said (see inter alia the In Print Section of this site) that it was too entertaining, others just were prejudiced against Math.
Mathnet would have made a great show oriented to the 12 to 45 audience. Obviously, adaptations would have had to be made, but the message could still be there. Star Trek sucessfully dealt with the issues of the 60's; it's all about the writing staff, and SQTV had a good one.
I don't know if I completely support Hilley's contention that SQTV was the greatest show in history; but, Hilley makes an outstanding point that SQTV gave people critical reasoning and mathematical skills in a format they could understand.
"I'm going to talk the language that you can understand"- Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia
The thing is, unlike Star Trek, which, like SQTV, elucidated issues in a way people could understand, there isn't the same fan base and there's an ingrown prejudice because of the Mathematical factor. However, like Star Trek, SQTV has survived and I think its continued survival is important, perhaps, fundamental to our new generation. Let's keep Square One alive!
-Joe |
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sadler76
Sergeant
Registered: March 2003
Location: Birmingham
USA
Posts: 400 |
Posted - 08/24/2006 : 02:15:00
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I take your opinion very equally, Res4cue, I do believe Square One TV has the perfect balance. (IMO)In my Opinion, I think they should keep the show on another year. Why ruin a good thing?
Steve |
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slai
Herr Capitan
Registered: August 2002
Location: dx*dp ~ h
USA
Posts: 2223 |
Posted - 08/24/2006 : 13:54:21
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Hi Joe/Res4cue,
I don't think Cro was that bad, especially considering it's an animated show trying to teach physics, a not too wonderfully engaging subject to teach  . I think it did a pretty good job of making physics entertaining at least and at a level for even kids can understand (i.e. below 3-2-1 Contact pre-teen level that is).
Sonia  |
My mundane existence --; |
Edited by - slai on 08/24/2006 13:56:23 |
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Res4cue
Herr Capitan
Registered: August 2004
Location: DA BRONX NY
USA
Posts: 1661 |
Posted - 08/24/2006 : 20:50:49
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Hi Sonia. Sorry; I made an untoward statement there. Truth be told, I never saw CRO. I think CRO just became a stationary target for me because it was mentioned earlier in the thread. Sorry. e
I remain committed to my point about Ghostwriter though. But I regret the confusion.
-Joe |
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slai
Herr Capitan
Registered: August 2002
Location: dx*dp ~ h
USA
Posts: 2223 |
Posted - 08/25/2006 : 15:20:51
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Hi Joe/Res4cue,
That's okay  ! Cro was one of CTW's/SW's first attempts at an animated series, and, like I said, I don't think it did too badly as far as teaching physics is concerned. You have to give CTW/SW credit for the fact that at least they didn't put dinosaurs with humans, a big no-no time wise, even though kids probably like dinosaurs better than mammoths!
Sonia |
My mundane existence --; |
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Hilley
Assistant Chief
Registered: May 2002
Location: East Elmhurst, NY
USA
Posts: 1523 |
Posted - 08/25/2006 : 15:50:01
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I think the big letdown with Cro was the format. Ghostwriter and Cro were the first major CTW programs not to use the tested and popular magazine format of live-action cast skits interspersed with short films, skits and cartoons. Square One is still their last new one, and Sesame Street has been straying further and further.
I vaguely remember in the first grade when the proto-Ghostwriter was announced and my teacher was so excited that "The Electric Company is coming back." People expected more of the old format, and were let down. Now, animated fare is normal for the Workshop, but at the time it was the "nail in the coffin" for the CTW tradition. That's why everyone has a distaste for Cro, regardless of the actual content.
As for me saying "Square One TV is the best show in the history of television," well, I was a bit overexcited after watching a few episodes that day. I feel it is still a contender, though both Sesame Street and The Electric Company are more serious contenders with their unique reasons. The comedy writing and its flawlessness in including the more complicated subject matter are stronger arguments supporting Square One. |
It feels good to bring a little common sense into the world,
and, now, I'll go back to watering my plastic flowers. |
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slai
Herr Capitan
Registered: August 2002
Location: dx*dp ~ h
USA
Posts: 2223 |
Posted - 08/28/2006 : 18:01:28
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Hi Brian,
What about Between the Lions? It sort of still has the old mix format of skits, animation, short films, etc.?
Sonia  |
My mundane existence --; |
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It's a conspiracy, I tell ya!
