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- Norman Michie: Back in 1952, the regions 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 training function. 

- Director: All right, now Lin, would you change to a six-inch lens? 

- Boy!

- Director: And you got much closer again-

- Just like Dragnet, whoo! [chuckles]

- 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, blast off.  [Mozart song]  [footsteps approaching]

- Hi, I'm Kathy Bissen. 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. [orchestra music] 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 Homme went on to play the giant for many years in Canada. 

- Here we are inside. Here's one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in.  And here's the book we're going to read. Oh, but that's too small, isn't it?  That's we need one that's giant size. So look up, look up.  I think Rusty has a bigger book in the book bag. Should we ask him? Rusty? Rusty??

- Yes, Homme.

- 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?

- Okay, yeah.

- And the kittens are coming tonight, too, aren't they?

- Rusty: Oh.

- Are the kittens coming tonight? This is a book they like. Here, I'll help you. Rusty?

- Yeah.

- Are the kittens coming?

- Oh, I don't know. They were supposed to be here, weren't they?

- Well, I don't know, are they?

- Well, they're not coming.

- I don't know.

- Well, it's too bad because I know this is a book that kittens like.  Do you know the kittens? Miol and Miatu. Two nice kittens, and they like picture books like this.  But if-- oh, hello, Miol and hello Miatu.  Oh, 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. Fannie M. Steve, health and physical education specialist, is your TV teacher. 

- Now, I want you to be elves, little and jolly and bright and full of life and fun.  Now see, here they come here. Here come the elves, show me, lightly. [playing keyboard]  Well, here's the shop.  Let's look in the windows. What, who's in, who's in here anyhow?  Peek in the window, peek! [playing piano keys]  Try the door. I wonder if we can get in.  Nope, gotta climb up toward the big window, way up high.  And up goes the window,  and in they climb, and, oh, lot of fun. Come on, let's dance. It is a nice place.  It's nice and warm in here.  [playing piano] 

- Narrator: 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 the sheet of paper, oh, any sort of a shape. Suppose I start out here and draw a circle then 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 bald-headed man, too. Now I don't want you to copy my drawing. So, what we're gonna do now, is have your papers all ready and 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. Are 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.

- Narrator: "Let's Ask Ranger Mac," a nature study program for boys and girls. We're going to visit with Wakelin McNeel, former State 4-H Club Leader, and Supervisor of the Upham Woods Project. Many of you know Ranger Mac 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, Sheriff Myron.

- Well, perhaps the first question I should ask you, Ranger Mac, 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 Mac? It looks as if it's made of mud, but it doesn't feel like mud?

- Well, it looks a little, it has the color of mud and that, but that's a little deceiving. This is made out of wood pulp.

- Wood pulp. You mean--

- Wood pulp.

- Myron: It's paper?

- It's paper. It's the first paper, and the wasps were 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.

- Was that so?

- The fact is most of our improvements, the great things in our lives, the inventions, the discovery come directly from nature.

- Narrator: The Wisconsin School of the Air presents 'Exploring the News,' a program around information on current events especially 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 in the space ourselves. And we're fearful of the possible military meaning of the world's first step into 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 set up to destroy a moving target. This is the Nike in operation

- Narrator: On the bridge of the plotting room, Artillery Control Officer set in motion 'Operation Intercept.' 

- Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Fire. [rocket fires]  I will now announce time to intercept. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four,  three, two, one, intercept.  [loud bang] 

- Narrator: Some early attempts at adult programming in the '50s focused on dispensing practical advice. One frequently broadcast program was "Today's Home." 

- Louise Young: 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. 

- Narrator: On this segment of "Today's Farm," Professor R.C. Swanson demonstrated a hazard to avoid on Wisconsin 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 [tractor thuds] tip over.

- In order to develop-

- Narrator: Longtime Radio Host Aline Hazard was also a frequent television contributor.

- Family. This evening I'd like to talk with you just briefly about the cookery of a product that's really very homely. It isn't the 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 it as 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 

- Narrator: 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 Lester Seifert, 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 Arndt will repeat it twice. Each time leaving a little pause in which you may speak the German too. And be sure to speak aloud in those pauses. Let's do that drill now. Guten morgen! Good morning. 

- Guten morgen! Guten morgen! Guten morgen, Herr Arndt!

- Lester: Good morning, Mr. Arndt.

- Frau Brown: Guten morgen, Herr Arndt. Guten morgen, Herr Arndt. 

- Narrator: "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 prejudice 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.  It's rather tantalizing just to see a portion of a film. And perhaps therefore, we'll have to do some guessing on what's back in the, a background of this particular boy. Certainly I think we could agree that there are some obvious difficulties that he has. Don't you think?

- I think so, Mrs. Barton. And, of course, one of these it's 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. 

- Narrator: "Twelfth Night" in rehearsal. The second in a series of program experiments in the teaching of dramatic literature. Our Director and commentator is Eric Salmon, Drama Advisor of Shropshire County, England

- Narrator: "In Rehearsal" took the television audience backstage to follow the progress of a Shakespearean play.

- Rehearsals. And I think perhaps we all to explain this to the viewers as well, bear in mind that what we're 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 a long time, we want to stretch our legs.

- Man: Of course, we do.

- You do? [chuckles] 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 that they've done it.

- Let me try that again.

- I'd like to.

- Here's the other postscript. Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou entertains my love, let it appear in thy smiling,  thy smiles become the well,  therefore, in my presence, still smile. My dear sweet, I pray thee show I thank thee.  I will smile. I will do everything that thou wilt have me.  [all laughing hysterically] 

- Narrator: When public television began. There was already a statewide network of public radio stations. In 1963, the university bought a secondhand 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.

- Wisconsin, 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 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 Les Salon Re Katra in Paris. [choir singing]  [speaking in French] 

- You are interested in modern music there. And you can talk to us a little bit about the singers and the modern music that interests you. 

- Modern music?  Well, I am a Beatle fan. [both laugh] 

- Well, I am a Beatle fan and I hope that you are a lot of Beatle fans there. From time to time, I like to play the guitar, electric guitar, of course, beside of the lectures and courses because I am a very serious student. [audience laughing]  [speaking in French] 

- We don't like them in the same way as you do. For instance, [audience laughing] I saw a lot of girls. I saw the Beatles in the United States, in forest Hills last year. And I saw a lot of girls. You see, when they saw the Beatles, "Ah!" like that. [audience laughing] And, I couldn't listen to any of their songs.  You see, so I don't like that kind of mania. You see, what you call the Beatle mania. When I saw the Beatles, we just said, quietly for instance, slapping our hands or snapping like this, but not cheering, and shouting and yelling as you do, something I never could understand. If you can explain to me, I will very glad to understand. 

- When, a girl screams, she doesn't know why she screams. She just is excited [audience laughs] and is glad to see them. 

- Narrator: In 1968, Wisconsin Public Radio and Television joined forces to produce a week of public service programming about the problems of Milwaukee's inner city residents.  "Pretty Soon Runs Out" was a documentary produced to trigger discussion about housing discrimination. 

- Narrator: In the inner city, every time they tear down more houses for an expressway or an urban renewal project, that means less houses for people who have to move. Since the 60's, the city and the county. between them, have torn down 7,500 homes. The K-3 urban renewal area is uprooting 1,200 families. Most of these are Black and can't move out of the core. Most of them have a lot of children. No one wants them anywhere. That's why the Black community sees the city as a white establishment that doesn't care. That's why you hear angry voices.

- Miss Ocean, really. 

- I got to be by the house today.  I mean business today. I have been put off long enough.

- Man: So we're here for what?

- They promised me this house for Friday, the fifth, 

- The fifth--

- I wish you would. The fifth, that's when I supposed to get this house.  And I would like to see it today.  I got to have a house one way or the other.

- We don't own the house where you're living yet, I understand.

- Mrs. Taylor: Yes, the city they do have too. Yes, the city they do have.

- Oh, that's right. Yes, that one we own. I was thinking of the other one, now.

- Mrs. Taylor: You got the wrong thing.  The city had that house ever since September.

- Yeah.

- Mrs. Taylor: And they've been promised me my house ever since September.

- Who promised you the house for Friday?

- Mr, I guess it was you. You Mr. Osheim, right?

- Mr. Osheim: Right.

- Right, you, because you talked to Ms. Price. I was in her office.

- Yeah, well, I understand that, Mrs. Taylor, but we had offered you another home. Had we not, that was better?

- And you didn't have an offer to agree on, did you have? So have, yes you're, right. Two, three 'em and I ain't got none. So yeah. But see I know it's a lot of houses in Milwaukee.  it's for sale and it city ain't got nothing to do about a solar house, a duplex. That's what I mean now. A duplex, you understand?

- Yeah.

- Then put me in it.

- Well, this is what we intend to do, and this is what we will do.

- What I'm intend to see to him doing it too, right away.

- Man: We're waiting for nothing.

- Narrator: A soul searching discussion of the housing problem moderated by University Extension Chancellor Donald McNeil followed the documentary.

- - Vel Phillips: Well, Alderman Neil, would you be willing to vote for a strong, fair housing law. [crowd clapping] 

- If you'll be willing to vote for you a, you are the chairman of the judiciary committee. Am I correct?

- Yes.

- Now, would you be willing to vote for a stronger fair housing law than that proposed by the mayor that that says will go only so far as a federal government will go. Would you be willing to vote for something stronger than that that would have meaning to all these people who have been sitting here?

- without will.

- Vel Phillips: Now, I'm asking a question. [people mattering]

- Crowd: Yes or no.

- Not this time, no.

- Crowd: Why?

- You see all this talk is for naught, all this talk is for naught and--

- Right racism.

- Vel Phillips: Mr. McNeil, this is why people get sick and fed up with coming to these kinda meetings. It's just a lot of hog wash because this gentlemen after all this outpour, this outpour of feeling  and of truth and of honesty and of sincerity from all of these Black community, all of these people who came here from Larry's mother, from this gentleman who said, from this gentleman who said that Larry's mother had to move out of a condemned house, where she had lived for several months into another condemned house. All of these things. Then I ask him, would he be willing to vote for something more meaningful? And he said, "No." There is your problem, that let George --.

- Alderman, would you like to, just a moment, just a moment.  Mr. Alderman, would you like to state why-

- Man: He's stating what is his--

- He would like to state why.

- Reasons for--

- Maybe he's gonna have a second change of heart. Maybe he really will vote.

- This community as much as is ready for this type of a housing ordinance that Vel is proposing is not ready for it yet. [crowd chattering] And

- Judge for the Black man, again.

- Nobody's ready.

- Why ain't you ready, why?

- Mr.--

- Got this, this is a very good question. Why aren't we ready? Maybe it's cause of the fact that our parents and our godfathers and our churches.

- Godfather, my foot! You tell the men in Vietnam that is gonna come out here this summer and the nine minutes gonna come back, Milwaukee this summer and Michigan, Detroit. You tell them that, okay? Look, I ain't got, I'm gone, man. You tell the Black brothers in Vietnam, what you just said. And I like to have, I would like to have some of 'em around this table right here. That the Black men went to service. Go there for justice, equal opportunities. You tell this man, not this man. You tell these men this year, if they ever get back here this summer.

- Right, If you get--

- You tell them that, I want Mayor [inaudible] to tell 'em. I want Mayor [inaudible] to tell 'em. I want Johnson to tell 'em

- That's right.

- You tell these Black men fighting for your freedom so-called America

- That you ain't ready for an open house. This is it.

- Narrator: For the program Pretty Soon Runs Out, WHA-TV received an Emmy Award, the first ever awarded to a public television station. The next year PBS the Public Broadcasting Service was formed and public television as we now know it began. Today we continue to build on and take inspiration from the pioneering efforts of the early years. When public television itself was an experiment, a laboratory of ideas. 

- Whooh! You ready?

- I'm tired, Friendly, [playing flute]  [giraffe yawns] [flute continues playing]  [orchestra music]

- Good night to you.

- Good night Friendly.  It is late.  This little chair will be waiting for one of them and the rocking chair for another, and the big arm chair for two more to curl up in. When you come again to our castle. Now I'll close the big front doors, and pull up the drawbridge after you're gone.  And you watch near the moon.

- Good night.

- Good night. [orchestra music]