Monday, September 10, 2007

Winko! The amazing internet!

Once again the Internet astounds me. The following tv show was one of my earliest memories. Winky Dink was this little guy with a star on his head. He got into adventures and you, as an active participant, would help plan those adventures.You had to send away for a piece of colored plastic that would fit over your tv screen. My plastic sheet was a salmon color and very thick and had a strong chemical smell. It transformed your tv into a magic window. You then had to draw with crayons on the plastic to help winky dink solve problems. It was interactive TV. I remember sitting by with my nose on the tv trying to draw trees and houses. There was never enough time. There was always broken crayon bits in fromt of the TV . I used to break the damn crayons by pressing too hard on the TV.
I don't recall the station that was re-running this show when I was a child but they were pretty damn irresponsible.
I bet many a set were ruined by this show.

I was sure I'd never see it again but... Winko!
YouTube serves it up.

The show ran from 1953-1957.
The show was revived in syndication for 65 episodes beginning in 1969 and ending in 1973. However, the show's production was halted despite its modest popularity due to concerns about radiation in television sets affecting children and because of parents' complaints about children drawing on the screen.

2 comments:

LadrĂ³n de Basura (a.k.a. Junk Thief) said...

This is vaguely familiar. I would love to see someone post my favorite, local kiddie show "Miss Fran in Story Land". For your birthday, your mom could write Fran and on your birthday Fran would tell you on the air where your gift was hidden in your house. I always wondered how many other kids named Gregg shared my birthday and were looking under the bed in vain.

Gavin Elster said...

Hey that was a Tulsa show.