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Back in 1952, the Regents of the University of Wisconsin
called for the establishment of a television laboratory.
They recognized a two-fold responsibility.
They wanted to provide facilities and opportunities
for students preparing for professional careers in the
expanding field of television.
That is the train of function.
All right, now Leanne, would you change to a six-inch lens?
Boy! Just like drag, man.
[Laughter]
And next, they wanted to find out how television can be of
service as an educational tool.
That involves the adaptation of the state's educational and
service resources to television.
Let's call that experimentation.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Let's go!
[Music]
Hi, I'm Kathy Beeson.
When public television began in Wisconsin, there were
only three other educational stations in the country.
No one knew the best way to use this new medium
to serve the public.
There were no rules to follow, so basically the
producers had to make it up as they went along.
In this program, we'll look back on some of those early
experiments back to the days of the television laboratory.
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One of the first programs broadcast was The Friendly
Giant, a nightly bedtime program for children.
This pioneering effort eventually reached a nationwide
audience, and Bob Hummy went on to play the giant
for many years in Canada.
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Here we are inside.
There's one little chair for one of it, and a bigger chair
for two more to curl up them.
And here's the book we'll learn to read.
Oh, but that's too small, isn't it?
Yes, we need one giant size.
So look up.
Look up.
I think Rusty has a bigger book in the book bag.
Do we ask him?
Rusty. Rusty?
Yes, I'm.
Hi, Rusty.
Hi. This is the book we're going
to read tonight, and I wonder if you have a giant
size copy in the book bag.
Oh, yes.
I keep that book there.
All right, will you get it, please?
Yes. And the kittens are coming
tonight, too, aren't they?
Oh. Are the kittens coming tonight?
This is a book they like.
Here, I'll help them.
Rusty? Yes.
Are the kittens coming?
They were supposed to be here, weren't they?
Well, I don't know.
How do they?
They're not coming.
I don't know.
Well, it's too bad because I know this is a book
they're kittens like.
Do you know the kittens?
Me all, and me all too?
Do nice kittens, and they like a picture books like this.
But if they're...
Oh, hello, me all.
And hello, me all, too.
Rusty, they came.
So now we're all here.
All right, you ready?
Once upon a time.
Many early programs were television versions of
educational radio broadcasts.
Familiar teachers from the Wisconsin School of the Air
were now seen by school children for the first time.
Mrs. Fanny M.
Steve's Health and Physical Education
Specialist is your TV teacher.
Now I want you to be L.
Little and jolly and bright and full of life and fun.
Now see.
Here they come.
Here come the elves.
Show me.
Light it.
Well, here's the shop.
Let's look in the window.
What are the food in the food room here anyhow?
Here's the window.
Let's try the door.
Where do we get in?
Nope, got a climb up towards the big window.
Way up high.
And up goes the window.
And in the climb.
And oh, lots of fun.
Come on, let's dance.
This is a nice place.
Nice warm in here.
The Wisconsin School of the Air presents.
Let's draw with James A.
Schwalbach Extension Specialist in Art and Design
of the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture.
Let's take a sheet of paper here.
And we're going to do it a little bit differently now.
Now I'm going to draw on a sheet of paper or
any sort of a shape.
Suppose I start out here and draw a circle.
And I'm going to look at that circle quickly and see
what I can make out of it.
Well, the first thing I can see in that is I can
see a man's face in here.
It's sort of a ball headed man too.
Now I don't want you to copy my drawing.
So what we're going to do now is you have your papers
already in your crayons.
And I'm going to draw another shape on here.
You quickly copy the shape and see if you can
turn it into something.
You ready?
All right.
I'll put it on here.
And let's bring it in like this.
We'll fool you a little bit on that.
Now when you put that shape on your drawing right away
and see if you can turn it into something.
Let's ask Ranger Mack, a nature study program
for boys and girls.
We're going to visit with Wakeland McNeil, former
state 4-H club leader and supervisor of the
Up and Woods project.
Many of you know Ranger Mack through his radio series.
Now you'll meet him in person with Myron Curry.
Now let's see what it was you found out in the woods, sir.
Myron? Well perhaps the first question I should ask you
Ranger Mack is what is it?
Is it a bee's nest or a hornet's nest or just what?
This is a wasp's nest.
Or a you could call it a hornet's nest because the
terms are used interchangeably.
I see.
Well now tell me what is this made of Ranger Mack?
It looks as if it's made of mud but it doesn't feel like mud.
Well it looks a little as it has the color of mud
and that's a little deceiving.
This is made out of wood pulp.
Wood pulp?
You need a...
Wood pulp.
It's paper?
It's paper.
It's the first paper and the wasps with
the first paper makers.
Long before man appeared on this earth, millions of years ago
the wasps were making paper.
And it isn't until recent times that man learned how to do it.
And the interesting thing is they learned how to
make paper from the wasps.
The fact is most of our improvements, the great
things in our lives, the inventions, the discovery,
come directly from nature.
The Wisconsin School of the Air presents exploring the news.
A program crowned information on current events, a specialist
prepared for the upper grades.
Boys and girls will be guided by State Station
News Director Roy Vogelman.
Scientific advance fills us with two different sensations,
excitement and fear.
We're wondering how soon we'll be adventuring
out into space ourselves and we're fearful of
the possible military meaning of the world's
first step in the space.
So there are two sides to the story.
The excitement of exploring the unknown and the concern
about the security of our nation in a restless world.
There are two big questions in the news.
Which nation will be first to reach the moon?
And the more serious question also based on
international rivalry.
Which nation will be able to produce the
more powerful weapons?
And the most effective defense against those weapons.
Now let's see what happens when an anti-missile missile is sent
up to destroy a moving target.
This is the Nike in operation.
On the bridge of the plotting room, artillery
control officer set in motion, operation intercept.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 3, bye!
I will now and now time to intercept.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, intercept!
Some early attempts at adult programming in the 50s focused
on dispensing practical advice.
One frequently broadcast program was today's home.
Organizing the family business is one of the important
parts of a home and one that can reduce a lot of clutter.
Whether you have a desk or whether you just have a file
box, having good headings such as we have here, home, personal,
and then either farm or business depending upon your
situation will be very helpful.
On this segment of today's farm, Professor RC Swanson
demonstrated a hazard to avoid unwhiskansen farms.
I have just fastened this post to the wheels of this tractor.
And this is a little model tractor, very much like the big
tractors on our Wisconsin farms.
This is one of the hazardous practices, putting a post onto
the wheels, chaining it onto the wheels, and then trying
to pull out of a mud hole.
When this is done with our big tractors on our Wisconsin farms,
one of two things may happen.
It may come out of the mud hole or it may tip over.
Long time radio host Alene Hazard was also a frequent
television contributor.
This evening I'd like to talk with you just briefly about
the cookery of a product that's really very homey.
It isn't a kind of thing we usually have
when we have company.
But nonetheless, there is a lot of meatloaf served
in the United States, both in the homes and at church
suppers and other places where groups eat together.
And sometimes that meatloaf is savory and moist and tasty,
and sometimes it's dry and heavy and is tasteless as paste.
When we look inside, we see that the one which almost filled
the dish has a moist juicy interior, a rather open texture,
as compared to the other one.
With its dry crust, it looks just as dry inside and is heavy
and you may take my word for it will be quite tasteless.
Wisconsin for years has been a leader in extension
education. Education taken to the people where they live.
Now television is opening new fields for extension
teaching and encouraging the development of new techniques.
As an example, here is a glimpse of Professor Leicester
Cypher as he conducts a lesson in conversational German.
Let's do the statements, the complete statements that
were used in the dialogue.
I shall give the statement first in German, then the
English equivalent, and then, Frau Brown and Herr
Arnt will repeat its claim.
Each time leaving a little pause in which you may speak
to the German too, and be sure to speak aloud in those pauses.
Let's do that drill now.
Guten Morgen.
Guten Morgen Herr Arnt.
Guten Morgen, Mr.
Arnt. Guten Morgen Herr Arnt.
Guten Morgen Herr Arnt.
We hold these rights was an early attempt at public
affairs programming.
It got off to a shaky start.
There is a chair for you here.
There is a need for your voice in a field of public opinion.
Wherever people gather, in town meetings, in the General
Assembly of the United Nations, an old question has
come up for a new answer.
Why does one man discriminate against another?
You are invited to a panel discussion of this
problem moderated by Mrs.
Rebecca Barton, Director of the Governor's
Commission on Human Rights.
And now in the discussion area, Mrs.
Barton and her guests are ready to begin.
Mrs. Barton.
We welcome you to a program designed to encourage a
greater understanding and practice of human rights.
We realize that everyone has a sense of fair play and
decency, but we also realize that there are sometimes
obstacles in the way of an expression of this decency.
Certainly, I think all of us would agree that there
is an element of fear at the back of all prejudices
and discrimination.
And perhaps we should stop for a moment and look at
this problem through the eyes of an 11-year-old
boy, his name is Peter.
And I think we will find that he is rather lonely and
rather unsure of himself and certainly very unhappy.
[Music]
He is rather tantalizing just to see a portion of a film.
And perhaps therefore we will have to do some guessing on
what's back in the background of this particular boy.
Certainly, I think we could agree that
there are some obvious difficulties that he has.
I think so, Mrs.
Barton. And of course one of these is
very obvious is that he is thrown into a situation where
he is completely unfamiliar with the people, with the
culture and with the religion.
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Our director and commentator is Eric Salmon, drama adviser
of Shropshire County, England.
In rehearsal took the television audience backstage
to follow the progress of a Shakespearean play.
And I think perhaps we ought to explain this
to the viewers as well.
Bear in mind that what we are now doing is going on to the
stage in a rehearsal in which we begin to move actors about.
Now that isn't because we've been sitting rather long time,
we want to stretch our legs.
It's because you do.
It's because an actor, as he develops his part,
needs to interpret it physically as well as orally.
He needs to use his body as well as his tongue.
And so in this rehearsal we're just beginning that process.
You will observe certain roughnesses in it actually
because this is the first time they've done it.
Let me try to make it.
I like it.
Here's your deposit script.
Now catch not choose but know who I am.
If thou intertaintst my love, let it appear in thy smiling.
Thy smiles become the well.
Therefore in my presence still smile my dear sweet-hype-ritty.
Show thy thank thee.
I will smile.
I will do everything that thou wilt have me.
When public television began, there was already
a statewide network of public radio stations.
In 1963 the university bought a second-hand transmitter
and constructed a tower to boost the television signal,
which until then barely reached half of Madison.
A converted X-ray van created new possibilities in programming
done outside the studio.
An international classroom brought satellite broadcasting
to a West Bend High School.
In 1964 station manager and future Wisconsin
governor Lee Dreyfus introduced the experiment.
I'm standing in a classroom in the high school.
There's nothing unusual about this classroom.
It is a standard classroom in every sense and in 30 minutes.
Some very standard and average American students
who will file in here to begin a class session.
But this is an historic moment for West Bend, for the
television instructional medium, and for the international
aspect of television.
Since this class will be connected via the early
bird satellite with its counterpart class at the
Liseon Riccatra in Paris.
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