Action for Children's Television
Founded | 1968[1] |
---|---|
Founders | Peggy Charren, Lillian Ambrosino, Evelyn Kaye Sarson and Judy Chalfen[2][3] |
Dissolved | 1992[4] |
Type | Advocacy group |
Focus | Children's television programming ("kidvid") |
Location | |
Area served | United States |
Product | None |
Method | Media attention, direct-appeal campaigns |
Key people | Peggy Charren, Judith Chalfen |
Volunteers | 20,000 maximum |
Website | None |
Action for Children's Television (ACT) was an American
The ACT was founded by Peggy Charren, Lillian Ambrosino, Evelyn Kaye Sarson and Judy Chalfen in Newton, Massachusetts in 1968. It had up to 20,000 volunteer members, eight staff members, and an operational budget of $225,000 by the mid-1980s, but declined financially and to four staff members before disbanding in 1992.[6][7] About 70% of funds came from the group's membership, while the rest came from foundation grants (e.g. Markle Foundation) and fees from lectures and book sales.[7]
History
The 1960s
ACT's initial focus was the Boston edition of the syndicated Romper Room, a children's show which promoted toys tied into or branded with the program to its viewers.
In the late 1960s, ACT also targeted Saturday-morning cartoons that featured superheroes and violence, including
The 1970s
In 1970, ACT first petitioned the FCC to ban
On October 16 and 17, 1970, ACT co-sponsored the First National Symposium on Children and Television. The Symposium's theme was "Facts for Action," which invited guests to discuss the content of television for children at the time.
In 1973, responding to concerns raised by ACT, the National Association of Broadcasters adopted a revised code limiting commercial time in children's programming to twelve minutes per hour. Additionally, the hosts of children's television programs were prohibited from appearing in commercials aimed at children. This latter measure led to the near-disappearance of locally produced children's shows on American stations by the mid-1970s, as longtime advertisers on those programs saw no point in continuing if hosts beloved by a young audience could not pitch the companies' products themselves, instead of the station using pre-recorded commercials, which they felt would be more likely ignored by viewers. However, that part of the code had little or no effect upon networks, as few of their shows had formal masters of ceremonies.
In 1977, ACT, together with the
The 1980s and the 1990s
In 1981, then-President
Throughout the 1980s, ACT criticized television programs that featured popular toys such as G. I. Joe and He-Man, maintaining that they "blur(red) the distinction between program content and commercial speech," and successfully barred one program, Garbage Pail Kids, from the air. It also opposed the proposed introduction of Channel One News, a television news show designed for children featuring advertiser-based programming, into public schools, an effort which met with only limited success, due to lucrative inducements the company made to financially-strapped school boards of that time.
ACT brought many cases before the courts, including
ACT's efforts culminated in the passage of the
Co-founder Peggy Charren commented in 1995, after the organization's dissolution, "Too often, we try to protect children by doing in free speech."[14]
See also
Notes
- ^ Lawson, Carol (24 January 1991). "Guarding the Children's Hour on TV". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ O'Connor, John J. (20 February 1990). "Critic's Notebook; Insidious Elements in Television Cartoons". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ a b Gloria Negri (9 June 2011). "Judith Chalfen, 85; took action to help reform children's TV". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2012-02-12.
- Patricia McCormack (4 July 1971). "Teach Tots To Discriminate". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 19 April 2014. - ^ "Watchdog Group for Children's TV to Disband". The New York Times. 9 January 1992. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ Loree Gerdes Bykerk & Ardith Maney, U.S. Consumer Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995), 2.
- ISBN 9780313288036. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
judy chalfen action for children's television.
- ^ a b Loree Gerdes Bykerk & Ardith Maney, U.S. Consumer Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995), 2–3.
- ISBN 1578063965.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
- ^ "ACT Newsletter Vol.1 No.3". Summer 1970.
- ^ "ACT Newsletter Vol.1 No.4". Fall 1970.
- ^ "COURT ORDERS F.C.C. REVIEW OF POLICY ON CHILDREN'S TV". The New York Times. AP. 27 June 1987. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- ^ Andrews, Edmund L. (10 April 1991). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; F.C.C. Adopts Limits on TV Ads Aimed at Children". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- Nash, Nathaniel C. (2 October 1990). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; White House Gets Bill Reducing Ads on Children's TV Programs". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
- Andrews, Edmund L. (10 April 1991). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; F.C.C. Adopts Limits on TV Ads Aimed at Children". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010. - ^ Andrews, Edmund L. (1 July 1995). "Court Upholds a Ban on 'Indecent' Broadcast Programming". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
References
- C. Alperowicz & R. Krock. Rocking the Boat: Celebrating 15 Years of Action for Children's Television. Newtonville, Mass.: Action for Children's Television, 1983.
- Loree Gerdes Bykerk & Ardith Maney. U.S. Consumer Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995, pp. 2–5.
- Barry G. Cole & Mal Oettinger. Reluctant Regulators: The FCC and the Broadcast Audience. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978.
- Roger Dean Duncan. “Rhetoric of the Kidvid Movement: Ideology, Strategies, and Tactics”, Central States Speech Journal 27, no. 2 (Summer 1976): 129–135.
- Laurie A. Trotta. “Children's Advocacy Groups: A History and Analysis”, ch. 35 of Handbook of Children and the Media, 2nd edn. Eds. Dorothy G. Singer & Jerome L. Singer. LA-NY-London: SAGE, 2012, pp. 697–713.