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theses

This dissertation is both a history and a critical analysis of a culturally significant phenomenon of the Cold War—the locally produced hosted children’s show. The hosted children’s show utilized a format that was ubiquitous throughout the United States during this era. Using Philadelphia as a case study I examine the specific elements of performance that the hosts used to create a parasocial bond with the child viewer that was simultaneously non-threatening and non-conforming. Situating the performances of these hosts within the framework of narrative theory and television studies, I analyze how hosts pushed boundaries of gender, race, class, and sexuality in their shows, while presenting material that embedded stereotypes. While simultaneously pioneering and conservative in their messages, the hosts carefully navigated cultural anxieties in the Cold War’s approach to addressing and raising children.

The Cold War era and the coming of age of commercial television were entwined not only chronologically but culturally. Cultural and media historians like Sammond, Spigel, Englehardt, and Slotkin have examined how national anxieties and the debates over what it meant to be “American” were represented in popular culture and particularly the new mass media of television. The scholars noted above posited that the storylines and characterizations of early commercial television shows were sites of mediation for the American viewer serving as visual representations of evolving concepts: a prosperous suburban class, manhood, womanhood and childhood. The children who watched the enormously popular hosted cartoon shows were part of this national conversation and the hosts of these shows were a nexus of this mediation of American identity. The era of the locally produced hosted show closed in the wake of Sesame Street due to shifts in social policy, industry economics, and rising expectations for children programming. A cloak of nostalgia now surrounds these shows in the memories of the former viewers and industry participants. However, this project’s study reveals that beyond that nostalgia lies a vital cultural form that thrived in the Cold War era; one that reflected the ideals of childhood, media, and nation of a cultural terrain from which the children’s television host emerged.

ETD_9878

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

Includes vita

doi:10.7282/t3-pfpe-t749

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.