Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Understanding Preschool Television as a Production Ecology Safe at Home: The Origins of Preschool Television as a Public Service Project Growing Up: The Rise of the Global Market in Preschool Programming Broadcaster Perspectives on Preschool Production Players in Rights Management and Production Production Preliminaries - Development and Research Production Checklists, Rules and Assumptions In Production Spinning Off Profits: Ancillary Exploitation and the Power of Retail Policy Interventions and the Crisis in Children's Television (co-written with Alessandro D'Arma) The Bigger Picture: Preschool Television in its Critical and Aesthetic Contexts (co-written with James Walters) Conclusions and Future Outlook Notes Bibliography Index.
Small children are regularly captivated by programmes made especially for them -- ranging from classics like Sesame Street to more recent arrivals such as Blues Clues and Teletubbies. This book examines the industry interests behind preschool television, and how commercial, creative and curricular priorities shape and inform what is produced. -- Around the world small children under six are regularly captivated by programmes produced especially for them by adults who inhabit a distinctive production community. Alongside enduring stalwarts such as Sesame Street, recent arrivals such as Blues Clues, Teletubbies and Bob the Builder have become enduring favourites. The international presence of these series on preschool channels and blocks underlines the phenomenal changes experienced by preschool television in recent years. Focusing on experience in Britain and the US, this book explains how the preschool television sector has shifted from an essentially small localised and economically restricted industry to become a much more complex, commercially-driven global business. Drawing on industry interviews combined with observations, it considers the range of forces that shape the development and creation of contemporary preschool television and examines how those involved in its creation and distribution negotiate the wider commercial, creative and curricular influences that impact production.