Saturday, May 6, 2017

TV Guided: And Now...Saturday Morning Public Service Announcements!


Martinex1: As we have discussed before, Saturday morning television was a weekly event for many Bronze Agers.   Network cartoons and kid shows along with a big bowl of cereal probably brings back nostalgic memories for many in our age group.

One aspect of cartoon television watching that evolved in the mid 1970s was the advent of the Public Service Announcement.   Following pressure that kids' programming was not educational, healthy, or socially aware, the television landscape started to change.  There was less violence allowed in cartoons and additional shorts were added between shows to share a "message."  Some of these PSAs were indeed informative while also often being highly entertaining.   The major networks, CBS, NBC, and ABC took specific approaches to the problem of educating while maintaining a grip on the audience.  

Shorts like the various Schoolhouse Rock offerings were hits and would have us at full attention and even singing along.  CBS opted for the more serious In the News which were sporadically interesting depending on the current event or topic.  ABC offered some cartoons that highlighted healthy eating, diet, and exercise.

I have to say that these PSAs were probably successful.  Anecdotally I know I was more successful in my grammar studies having learned about the conjunctions "and, but, and or" on the "Conjunction Junction." I definitely learned about Apollo Missions from In The News.   The downfall is I still "hanker for a hunka cheese" which may not help me as I age.

Below are some examples to trigger some memories.  Perhaps you have a favorite or can relate a tale.  Are our kids missing out because they were not exposed to "Mother Necessity" or "I'm Just a Bill"?









These short programs were so widely popular in the States that there was actually a long running stage show based on Schoolhouse Rock where the various stories were reenacted and sung live. 

For your enjoyment, we have a few PSA for you, including a classic history song about innovation from Schoolhouse Rock, an August 1976 episode of In The News, and my favorite Time with Timer from ABC.   Take a gander at these samples and then share your comments on the Saturday AM PSAs!  Cheers!






9 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had lots of public information films on UK television in the '70s on all kinds of subjects. One of the most memorable was "Protect & Survive" which was a series of short films telling the public what to do in the event of nuclear war. They are on YouTube and they seem utterly absurd now - we were told to whitewash the windows in order to deflect the flash from the nuclear explosion and hide under a table. If a family member died we were supposed to wrap the body in sheets and leave it outside to be picked up by an ambulance. And we were told to keep listening to local radio to hear the latest information - yep, in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust there'd still be ambulances driving around and radio stations broadcasting !!

Martinex1 said...

Wow Colin, we had nothing even remotely like what you described. Either the UK's perception of the immediacy of the threat was extremely heightened or we were overly sheltered. We were busy learning about how a bill becomes a law from a musical cartoon and you were learning how to wrap up corpses during a nuclear holocaust. The powers here worried Bugs Bunny was too violent for children; you were on a whole different level! Schoolhouse Rock could have been extremely bizarre and subversive if they mixed the two mindsets - I can only imagine the song about the cute atom bomb.

Steve Does Comics said...

The ones I remember almost always seemed to be about drowning. There was one with the Grim Reaper hanging around a lake, talking about a boy who'd just drowned. The Reaper would helpfully inform us that, "You can drown in six inches of water." I have to say, in all my life, I have never heard anything on the news about anyone drowning in six inches of water. There were also numerous ones about what to do if you saw someone drowning out at sea.

There was also one that warned us that, if we smelled a gas leak, we shouldn't light a match to go looking for it. I can't believe there's anyone who's ever lit a match in an attempt to find a gas leak.

There was also one that warned us not to climb power pylons in an attempt to get a kite back.

And then there were the ones on road safety, done by Dave Prowse as The Green Cross Code Man who'd stop a child from carelessly walking into the road and then tell us that he might have saved that kid but he wouldn't be there to prevent the rest of us getting run over, so we'd better take care when crossing the road. Why he saved that one kid but wasn't willing to save the rest of us was never explained. Dave Prowse, of course, later went on to play Darth Vader, something that caused much amusement and satire at the time.

For some reason, every Saturday morning, there'd be short information films about British history, which always seemed to be about monks being slaughtered by Normans/Saxons/Vikings/Roundheads/Cavaliers/Whoever at Tintagel Castle. All I can say is that those monks clearly knew how to make enemies.

Redartz said...

Boy do those bring back Saturday morning memories! Those, and the Eggo waffle commercial...

Wow, we were indeed sheltered over here! No Grim Reaper on our tvs. The powers that be were more concerned that we might be influenced by Spider-man to engage in violent fisticuffs. At any rate, I found "In the News" interesting (and did admire the authoritative voice-over); and I loved those "Schoolhouse Rock" shorts. "Iiiiiinterjection!!!!!!!!"

Martinex1 said...

Steve until you mentioned it I had never heard of the Green Cross Code Man and had to look it up. So Prowse goes from body builder to traffic guidance superhero to a Clockwork Orange role to Darth Vader - quite a career path.

And having the Grim Reaper give safety advice seems so wonderfully bizarre.

I do seem to remember a few odd ones here though, like a group of chimpanzees riding bikes incorrectly and falling into open manholes or getting smashed by steamrollers.

There also of course was the Native American seeing all of the pollution and garbage with a tear rolling down his cheek. And there were numerous "don't smoke" and "give a hoot, don't pollute" ads, but alas no Grim Reaper!

Steve Does Comics said...

I've just discovered the Grim Reaper ones were voiced by Donald Pleasance. They really were determined to scare us. Anyway, if you're willing to risk the terror of it all, here's the ad in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb00H6mCTM8

And here's Dave Prowse as the Green Cross Code Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUBMBi_lp4 . As with Darth Vader, he had to endure the indignity of being redubbed.

And here's one of the Protect and Survive nuclear information films that Colin mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziFOX6HPr24 . As you can tell, it's from one of these films that the spoken warning at the beginning of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's, "Two Tribes," originates.

Martinex1 said...

Some of those are truly creepy. The drowning one was particularly so, and I have to imagine it freaked some little ones out. The nuclear fallout guidance programs astound me; I had no idea that was communicated so broadly in the U.K. I don't recall anything even remotely like that here. I am not even sure I recall even a mention of that type of thing in grade school. There was a made for TV movie (I think it was called "The Day After") that got some attention but that was brief. Very interesting. In general I would say that you had much more serious PSA / PIF over there.

I kind of chuckled when in one of the green cross episodes, the hero calls a kid "dumbo" for not paying attention when crossing the road. That too would never happen now.

Anonymous said...

I think The Day After was shown here too - I definitely remember hearing about it on the news as it was quite a sensation. According to Wikipedia The Day After got an audience of 100 million on American TV so that's a bit more than "some attention", Martinex lol. In 1984 the BBC made its' own nuclear film called "Threads" which was as bleak and hopeless as could possibly be imagined with society collapsing into a new dark age.

I loved the information films Steve mentioned about British history which always featured a ruined castle or ruined abbey. Everytime I hear "Fantasia On Greensleeves" by Ralph Vaughan Williams I'm instantly transported back to watching those little films so I can only assume that particular piece of music was used a lot on those films.

Another run of information films that Steve will remember were the "Charlie Says..." films which were cartoons about a boy and his wise cat called Charlie. The boy would always be saved from doing something stupid by Charlie who would start frantically meeowing and the boy would translate it as "Charlie says..." followed by wise advice from Charlie the cat.

And I've seen that one with the Native American weeping about pollution - I can't think where or how I've seen it but I've definitely seen it.

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