Teletubbies

Teletubbies is a British preschool show that aired from 1997 to 2001, created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport. In 2015, a revival premiered, but it went on hiatus in 2018.

Plot
The program takes place in a grassy, floral landscape populated by rabbits with bird calls audible in the background. The main shelter of the four Teletubbies is an earth house known as the "Tubbytronic Superdome" implanted in the ground and accessed through a hole at the top or an especially large semicircular door at the dome's foot. The Teletubbies co-exist with a number of strange contraptions such as the Voice Trumpets and the group's anthropomorphic blue vacuum cleaner ("Noo-Noo"). The show's colourful psychedelic setting was designed specifically to appeal to the attention spans of infants and unlock different sections of the mind while also educating young children of transitions that can be expected in life.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Unlike most other preschool shows from that era, Teletubbies has barely any educational value. While it does try to show kids cooperative play, wonder, and simple joys, it mostly turns down to the Teletubbies just doing random things, that are either stupid, annoying, unfunny and/or boring.
 * 2) *Other preschool shows like Boohbah and Baby Einstein''' also suffer from this issue.
 * 3) While most of the side characters and the narrator speak proper English (or other languages depending on the dub), the Teletubbies just babble nonsense, which can get more annoying and stupid than charming, not to mention it could negatively affect children with them making the inability not to talk properly.
 * 4) * On October 15, 2021, there was no narrator, and the Teletubbies just babble English (which lacks the following other languages and varieties (except for six languages Arabic, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese and Polish)) due to the quartet's new album Ready Steady Go! and onwards for their 25th Anniversary.
 * 5) The show can get uncannily disturbing for younger viewers. Examples include the faces of the Teletubbies, which can look a little creepy and unsettling, the puppet that appears in one episode, the CGI effects used on the Animal Parade, the Magic Tree, the Ships and the Dancing Bear, and the infamous sketch featuring a cut-out bear and a cut-out lion chasing each other, which resulted in any episode containing the sketch getting banned in the UK and internationally. Granted, the sketch was edited later on, but still.
 * 6) The side characters aren't any better either:
 * 7) * The Baby Sun that appears throughout the episodes, along with the opening and closing. She's kind of there and does nothing else but laugh.
 * 8) * The Bunnies in the background are also kind of there.
 * 9) * Noo-Noo (the sentient vacuum cleaner) is just there to clean the mess and serves no other purpose.
 * 10) * The characters that only appear in one sketch are also pretty bland.
 * 11) The show's humour is also unfunny, annoying and cringe-worthy, even inappropriate, such as one scene where Laa-Laa blows a toter to Tinky-Winky's butt, and then Tinky-Winky does it to Dipsy. Other than that, the programme mostly plays it too safe like Baby Einstein.
 * 12) Most of the special effects are poorly made such as the Dancing Bear that appears in one episode, the Animal Parade, the Magic Tree, and the Ships as well that are obviously cheap CGI effects.
 * 13) The music, such as the theme song, can get irritating and tiresome. Not helping is that when the original title appears, a balloon squealing sound effect is heard, which can be too much to handle for some viewers. While this thankfully doesn't happen in the 2015 revival, the theme song there isn't much better.
 * 14) The show can often show kids bad morals:
 * 15) * Wasting food
 * 16) * Annoying each other
 * 17) * Making big messes
 * 18) The segments with the televisions on the Teletubbies’ stomachs serve no purpose at all. When it comes to the jazz band segment, the weirdest part of the singer is that, while he does sing in English (languages vary depending on the dub), it sounds pretty phoned in and it’s hard to even understand what he’s singing. And what's worse is that they play the same segments twice with no differences whatsoever.
 * 19) The new characters introduced in the 2015 revival, The Tiddlytubbies, feel more like an excuse to sell more toys and merchandise.
 * 20) Irritating voice acting and dialogue, especially from Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po.
 * 21) The American dub makes the original British version even worse, making the character voices slightly different.
 * 22) Quantity Over Quality: Despite it's mixed-to-negative feedback, 389 episodes were aired for four years, which is rushed.
 * 23) The program may be seen as creepy and known to hypnotise children. They also treat their young viewers poorly by doing all the things said here.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The sets for the home of the Teletubbies look creative and well done.
 * 2) The show does at least try to show kids about cooperative play.
 * 3) While the Teletubbies babble, most of the other characters (including the Narrator) at least speak proper English (languages vary depending on the dub).
 * 4) The "eh-oh" line can make for unintentional comedy. (However this depends on your point of view).
 * 5) The show can be colourful.

Reception
Despite the programme's popularity, the show garnered mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and several adult viewers, though it did gain a cult following with college students, select older generations, and the nostalgic community.

Common Sense Media's Emily Ashby found that "while the show's examples of cooperative play, wonder, and simple joys are gentle and pleasing, the creatures can still be a little grating to parents watching along." Caryn James of The New York Times stated in her review that the episodes "offer a genuinely appealing combination: cute and slightly surreal."

Upon the show's release, some critics feared that the characters' use of babbling in place of complete sentences would negatively affect young viewers' ability to communicate. The Daily Mirror reported in 1997 that many parents objected to its "goo-goo style" and "said the show was a bad influence on their children." Marina Krcmar, a professor of communication at the Wake Forest University, told interviewers in 2007 that "toddlers learn more from an adult speaker than they do from a programme such as Teletubbies." However, Paul McCann of The Independent defended this aspect of the show, stating that "Teletubbies upsets those who automatically assume that progressive and creative learning is trendy nonsense. Those who believe that education should be strictly disciplined and functional, even when you're 18 months old. Thankfully Teletubbies isn't for them. It's for kids."

On IMDB, the original series has a 3.7/10, while the revival has a 4.8/10.

Tinky Winky Controversy
In 1999, a controversy was made on the character Tinky Winky, as he was believed to be a gay (homosexual) role model for kids, due to the fact that he carried a feminine-looking handbag, and the fact that he was purple (the Gay Pride colour), with his antenna being shaped like a triangle (the Gay Pride symbol).

Ken Viselman of Itsy-Bitsy Entertainment (the company that licensed the show to the US) responded, saying "he is not gay, he is not straight, he is just a character in a children's series."

The Lion and the Bear Controversy
In April 1997, an episode called See-Saw had a sketch featuring a cutout bear and a cutout lion chasing each other. The sketch was panned for its disturbing imagery and upsetting music and voice work. Thus, any episode containing the sequence was pulled from airing internationally.

In 2000, however, an edited version of the sketch was made with toned down voice acting and music, along with several shots being struck off.

Comments
Can you add the Spongebob Squarepants spinoffs (Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years and The Patrick Star Show) to this wiki?

-- Noddy the Beast 17:38, 12 May 2022 (UTC)