It is hard not to get excited and glued to the cathode ray tube televisions of our days to dine on a 10–20 minute lunch of television content, namely, the Teletubbies.
Only the anticipation of this show keeps me and some of my friends patiently indoors without the correct way to time when the show begins. We just keep watching and waiting, even watching the traditional 3:00pm news so we do not miss any episode.
The Teletubbies were exciting and mild, and enticing for young minds! We watched in all awe and innocence, and never wanted anything to come between our Teletubbies binging and us. Let’s talk more about this, my favourite childhood TV show.
The Interest
I really cannot recount the whole details of how my interest grew in this programme. But I can really tell that it appealed greatly to the younger audience. It is quite colourful, which is the bread and butter of a kid’s eyes. The characters are quite gentle and appealing, not threatening in any way, and the set is just fun and futuristic. It seems like they are aliens (which is what some speculate), like these fun characters just do things uniquely and appeal to me in special ways.
From the first day I caught sight of this show, I always looked forward to it, making sure I did not miss any part of it.
Then, this show was a regular feature of a terrestrial state-owned television channel called Rivers State Television (RSTV), and the programme was well-timed and featured just during the hours when kids were back from school and had freshened up and even napped.
No doubt, Teletubbies was an exciting TV show, and even more exciting is that we enjoyed this show without knowledge of what was being done or what was being said.
How well do you know the Teletubbies characters? Allow me to reintroduce them to you.
The Characters
The Teletubbies characters are primarily four kids (at least as they want us to see them), with four different colours, different sizes, and four unique names. Starting from the right to the left:
1. Tinky winky
This is the biggest male Teletubby who is purple in colour and has a triangular antennae on his head.
2. Dipsy
This is the second male Teletubby, and he is slightly smaller than Tinky Winky. Dipsy has a characteristic long antennae on his head. Dipsy has a unique lemon (greenish) colour.
3. Laa-Laa
Laa-laa is the first female Teletubby and has a sparkling yellow colour. She has a unique dual standing antenna. She’s generally a mother-figure among them all and really enjoys singing and dancing.
4. Po
Po has the shortest name among all of them, and is the smallest among the Teletubbies. She has red colour and a round antennae on her head.
There are other supporting characters, such as the baby sunlight, and their vacuum cleaner, noo-noo.
A Little Bit of History & Uniqueness
The Teletubbies show is an old show, dating back as early as 1997. It is also noteworthy that the Teletubbies TV show could not have been televised in black and white (though greyscale could have been manageable), as the Teletubbies looked damn scary in black and white. In fact, it is speculated that an episode in 2015 with some scenes shot in black and white (without the intention of scaring though), freaked children out and led to severe backlash and the temporary suspension of the show's airing for that episode. The Teletubbies’ movement pattern is also said to have been modelled after that of astronauts (you can always observe their bouncy and floating movements).
Final Words
This show about these four interesting beings and their interesting environment involves very basic but entertaining activities, with each episode containing a unique but generally similar piece of content to all episodes. This was a billion-dollar show, and that was evident in the production quality. It was a show that showed the world that content that appeals to children must not only be animated scribbles, but that with good structure and planning, quality child-friendly content can be developed.