The 70s: The end of host-selling & my personal memories
As television distances itself from its "radio style" past and fewer shows have exclusive sponsors, the style of shows and advertising will change. TV shows now entirely use spot advertising similar to what we use today and products are not promoted during shows. This does not mean that commercials with characters from the adjacent programming were not promoting products in those commercials.
In a 1974 policy statement, the FCC stated that host-selling "took unfair advantage" of children by interweaving programming and commercial material in a way where children can't distinguish the two. Also, the FCC felt that host-selling took unfair advantage of the trust which children place in program characters (Campbell 465).
In the 1970s, there were kid shows that were done locally at the TV station. One I remember as a kid in the early 70s was Skip n Woofer from KCOP in Los Angeles. This show featured a man and a dog puppet character. Shows like this were interstitial features between the presentation of cartoon shorts. They would feature contests where kids can win prizes by writing to the show and having their postcard drawn.
In the late 70s, I remember a show on KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles called TV POWWW. This show was very cutting edge at the time as this was the time when cartridge video game consoles like the Atari Video Computer System (later to be called the Atari 2600) and Mattel's Intellivision were first coming out. The concept was simple, the show would call a child at home and they would play some kind of a simple target game. The child would control the game by yelling "POW!" into the phone. The video shown is an example of TV POWWW from a local station in Raleigh-Durham, NC who was licensed to run the format in their market.
Like the kid shows, TV POWWW was done as an interstitial between cartoons while in some markets like Los Angeles, it was its own 30-minute show.
The 80s:
Living in the Phoenix area in 1981 and 1982 allowed me to experience Arizona legends Wallace and Ladmo. This was a local show for Phoenix that would have kids in the studio and feature local organizations such as the Arizona Humane Society. Kids would play games for a "Ladmo Bag", a bag of candy and coupons from sponsors. It was definitely one of the last great kid shows in America. Here are two clips from Wallace and Ladmo featuring KTAR and AZTV's Pat McMahon playing the roles of "Gerald" and "Captain Super":
With easier methods of delivering syndicated programs and increasing costs, the local kid shows would become a thing of the past. Children's programming in this decade would mainly consist of TV shows based around various products, mostly toys. Two of Hasbro's major properties, G.I. Joe and My Little Pony. Notice in the second opening for My Little Pony and Friends, it also features another Hasbro toy property, Mr. Potato Head:
NEXT: The Children's Television Act of 1990 changes everything..
Campbell, Angela. "Restricting the Marketing of Junk Food to Children by Product Placement and Character Selling". Federal Trade Commission, 2006.
