Curiosity Shop is an American children's educational television program produced by ABC . The show was executive produced by Chuck Jones , sponsored by the Kellogg's cereal company and created as a commercial rival to the public television series Sesame Street . Curiosity Shop was broadcast from September 11, 1971 to September 2, 1973. The program featured three inquisitive children (two boys and a girl) who each week visited a shop populated with various puppets and gadgets, discovering interesting things about science, nature and history. Each hour-long show covered a specific theme: clothing, music, dance, weather, the five senses, space, time, rules, flight, dolls, etc.
33-554: After NET (soon to become PBS ) premiered Sesame Street in November 1969, the show proved to be successful and gained high ratings; its success gained attention from Michael Eisner , ABC’s Vice President. He asked animator Chuck Jones to create a series to rival its success and be the executive producer. Kellogg’s signed on to be the show’s sponsor. Unlike Sesame Street , the show is geared more towards young adolescents. Jones and Eisner tapped puppeteer Bob Baker (cofounder of
66-492: A charitable organization or public college . Money can be accepted if there is no on-air mention of the sponsor. NCE stations may also not mention prices or qualities of commercial products or services in any situation which would be construed as promoting or endorsing any company, regardless of whether it sponsors the station. Underwriting spots are brief and to-the-point, as they must not be disruptive to programming. Additionally, underwriting spots on public TV are at
99-545: A few examples of this); most of those stations now broadcast as affiliates of commercially owned networks. This is also rare in Mexico, though XEIMT-TV , a cultural channel in Mexico City, and XEWH-TV , the main station of the state network of Sonora, operate under commercial concessions and not permits. A number of new low power FM ( LPFM ) NCE stations operating in the non-reserved part of the spectrum have been licensed by
132-556: A lesson in dancing as she sings "Walking Happy". The computer tells the kids about the history of the dance. Pam, Ralph and Gerard visit the Curiosity Shop to ask Mr. Jones if you can "love" a pair of old sneakers. Miss Peach and her wacky pupils come to life in a cartoon about emotions. The Committee, an improvisational comedy group described as the First Slapstick Dramatic Quartet, demonstrates
165-1011: A process that would ensure that non-commercial applicants would have a chance against those who could afford to bid at spectrum auctions . Two such stations are WGPB FM in Rome, Georgia and WNGH-FM in Chatsworth, Georgia , former commercial stations purchased in 2007 and 2008 and operated by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), serving the mountains northwest of Atlanta which previously had no GPB radio service. In addition, there were at least four stations with commercial licenses that formerly operated as PBS member stations ( WNYC-TV in New York City , WMHX in Albany, New York , KAUT-TV in Oklahoma City , and KCPQ-TV in Seattle are
198-476: A song. Ralph plays a trumpet while Gerard dances, and Pam and Cindy mock them. Ralph and Gerard are unsure if they were playing music and dancing, so the kids enter the Curiosity Shop and find Shirley Jones instead of Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones' expert answering service points them to Professor S. I. Trivia, who defines "music" and "trumpet" before Monsieur Cou Cou tries to catch him. The kids are shown clips of birds dancing by Oliver, then Miss Jones returns to give Gerard
231-569: A week. Most NETRC network programs were produced by the affiliate stations because the NETRC had no production staff or facilities of its own. NETRC also contracted programs from independent producers and acquired foreign material from countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Yugoslavia, the USSR, France, Italy, and West Germany. Starting from 1962, the federal government took over
264-679: The Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles ), the show's puppets included: Other characters Guests Guests on the program included: Shirley Jones appeared on the show's pilot, "The Curiosity Shop Special," which featured all four children. It was on this pilot that the first song from Multiplication Rock , " Three Is a Magic Number ," would make its debut. (The pilot aired in prime time, Thursday, September 2, 1971, pre-empting Alias Smith and Jones .) The Curiosity Shop puppets introduce themselves with
297-461: The Bob Baker Marionette Theater ) to create the show’s puppets and its setting. Baker was reluctant at first, though he later agreed. Irving Phillips provided some scripts and animation art, including an animation of his syndicated comic strip The Strange World of Mr. Mum . Animations of Mell Lazarus 's comic strip Miss Peach , Johnny Hart 's comic strip The Wizard of Id , Virgil Partch 's cartoon Big George and Hank Ketcham 's Dennis
330-668: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that distributes supporting funds provided by Congress to support public radio. On the FM broadcast band , the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reserved the lowest 20 channels, 201~220 (88.1~91.9 MHz ) for NCE stations only. This is known as the reserved band , sometimes known by the term "left of the dial" (taken from the Replacements' song of
363-642: The Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting . It operated from May 16, 1954, to October 4, 1970, and was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which has memberships with many television stations that were formerly part of NET. The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) provided funds for cataloging the NET collection, and as part of an on-going preservation effort with
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#1732794144071396-599: The Library of Congress , over 10,000 digitized television programs from the non-commercial TV stations and producers spanning 20 years from 1952 to 1972 have been contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting . The network was founded as the Educational Television and Radio Center ( ETRC ) in November 1952 by a grant from the Ford Foundation 's Fund for Adult Education (FAE). It
429-491: The CPB threatened to cut NET's funding unless NET merged its operations with New York City-area affiliate WNDT . NET agreed to do so. WNDT's call sign was changed to WNET on October 1, 1970, as the station and NET's merger was completed. On October 5, PBS began network broadcasting. NET ceased to operate as a network from that point, although some NET-branded programming, such as NET Journal and NET Playhouse remained part of
462-685: The FAE's grants-in-aid program through the Education Television Facilities Act. In November 1963 NETRC changed its name to National Educational Television , and spun off its radio assets. Under the centerpiece program NET Journal , which began airing in the fall of 1966, NET began to air controversial, hard-hitting documentaries that explored numerous social issues of the day such as poverty and racism . While praised by critics, some affiliates, especially those in politically and culturally conservative markets, objected to
495-529: The FCC since the Local Community Radio Act was enacted in 2010. The FCC defines several different activities as being commercial in nature. Sponsorship of NCE stations is called underwriting , and stations may make announcements of these grants on-air. However, they may not accept money for such mentions, only goods and services , unless the sponsor itself is a non-profit , such as
528-455: The Menace were also presented on the show. Abe Levitow animated most of these short segments. Ray Bradbury is also credited as one of the show's writers. Henry Mancini created the bossa nova theme music for the show's title sequence (animated by Jones). Dean Elliott wrote additional music for the show. John Levin and Kerry McLane played Gerard and Ralph, the two boys. Alternating in
561-487: The PBS schedule (now produced by WNET) until the brand was retired 2 years later. Some of the programs that began their runs on NET, such as Washington Week and Sesame Street , continue to air on PBS today. Non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station ( NCE station ) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements ( TV ads or radio ads ), as defined in
594-471: The U.S. NCE band as noncommercial or with limited advertising based on each individual licence, but there are exceptions, such as CIXL , a fully commercial station that operates on 91.7.) NCE stations may also operate on a non-reserved channel. However this was rare in the United States due to the high cost of buying a commercial broadcasting station, and because for years the FCC failed to maintain
627-556: The United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was originally intended to offer educational programming as part, or whole, of its programming. NCE stations do not pay broadcast license fees for their non-profit uses of the radio spectrum . Stations which are almost always operated as NCE include public broadcasting , community radio , and college radio , as well as many religious broadcasting stations. Nearly all non-commercial radio stations derive their support from listener support, grants and endowments, such as
660-692: The United States, such as with broadcasting in the San Diego/Tijuana metropolitan area . Additionally, neither the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission nor Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Institute have such a reserved band. (In Mexico, individual stations belonging to state and federal governments, educational institutions, and non-profit groups are licensed under permits or permisos , which are non-commercial, non-profit licenses that do not permit advertising. Canada, in practice, generally keeps most of
693-423: The affiliated stations by mail. By 1956, ETRC had 22 affiliated stations, expected to grow to 26 by March 1957. The programming was noted for treating subjects in depth, including hour-long interviews with people of literary and historical importance. The programming was also noted for being dry and academic, with little consideration given to entertainment value, a marked contrast to commercial television . Many of
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#1732794144071726-732: The beginning or end of the TV show rather than in the middle, as they have increasingly become on commercial stations. Retransmission consent has often been chosen over must-carry by the major commercial television networks. Under the present rules, a new agreement is negotiated every three years, and stations must choose must-carry or retransmission consent for each cable system they wish their signal to be carried on. Non-commercial stations (such as local PBS stations) may not seek retransmission consent and may only invoke must-carry status. Like commercial stations, NCE stations are allowed to lease subcarriers in exchange for money , essentially making
759-458: The emotions of fear, sadness, joy and love. The trio discuss how colors indicate one's emotions, such as red for anger, green for jealousy and yellow for fear. Gittle joyously sings "Applause" and Ole Factory mournfully sings "Nobody". Baron Balthazar's animated short is "Arts and Flowers." National Educational Television National Educational Television ( NET ) is a former American educational broadcast television network owned by
792-454: The girl's role were Pamelyn Ferdin as Pam and Jerelyn Fields as Cindy. Barbara Minkus made a regular appearance as Gittle, a witch who magically appeared whenever someone said a phrase that included "which". Chuck Jones contributed two new animated characters to the show: Mel Blanc , June Foray , Bob Holt , Don Messick and Les Tremayne provided the voices of the puppets. Puppet characters Created by Bob Baker (co-founder of
825-456: The government. Eventually, Ford and the CPB decided to shut NET down, to be replaced by PBS as the network distributing programming to stations, but, unlike NET, it was not directly involved in production matters, which had been perceived as the main source of the controversies surrounding NET. Instead, local stations and outside suppliers would provide programming for the system, a model that endures to this day with PBS. In early 1970, both Ford and
858-417: The nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting (a corporation established by the federal government ) and receive funding from the government and other sources. Under this plan, funds were to be distributed to individual stations and independent production centers – which is what NET would have been reduced to. The Ford Foundation, interested Educational Television Stations , and President Johnson supported
891-540: The organization became known as the National Educational Television and Radio Center ( NETRC ). The center became more aggressive at this time, aiming to ascend to the role of the U.S.' fourth television network . Among its efforts, the network began importing programs from the BBC into the United States, starting with An Age of Kings in 1961. It increased its programming output to ten hours
924-622: The perceived liberal slant of the programming. Another NET produced program begun in 1967, Public Broadcast Laboratory , produced similar complaints. In 1966, NET's position as a combined network and production center came into question when President Lyndon Johnson arranged for the Carnegie Foundation to conduct a study on the future of educational television. The Carnegie Commission released its report in 1967, recommending educational television be transformed into " public television ". The new organization would be controlled by
957-574: The recommendations of the Carnegie Commission in the Public Broadcasting Act, which was signed into law on November 7, 1967. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS ) began as an entity in November 1969, with NET continuing to produce several programs and to be the name of the network. NET's production of NET Journal and Public Broadcast Laboratory continued to be liabilities amid accusations of partisanship funded by
990-413: The same name ), which refers to the college and other non-commercial stations that broadcast from those frequencies. It also includes channel 200 (87.9 MHz), but only for class D NCE stations unable to find another frequency; the frequency has been unused for its intended purpose in the United States since KSFH shut down in 2021. Many of the reserved-band channels are used by stations bordering
1023-496: The shows were designed as adult education, and ETRC was nicknamed the "University of the Air" (or, less kindly, "The Bicycle Network", both for its low budget and for the way NET supposedly sent programs to its affiliates, by distributing its program films and videotapes via non-electronic means such as by mail, termed in the television industry as "bicycling"). The center's headquarters moved from Ann Arbor to New York City in 1958, and
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1056-504: The station a common carrier . This may be for a commercial audio , video , or data service, or a non-commercial one like a radio reading service for the blind . NCE stations broadcasting in digital TV or HD Radio may lease part of their bandwidth (actually bitrate ) in a similar manner, however, the commercial use is limited. The main program must always be non-commercial, and must not have its quality diminished excessively by increased lossy compression done in order to fit
1089-461: Was originally a limited service for exchanging and distributing educational television programs produced by local television stations to other stations; it did not produce any material by itself. In the spring of 1954, ETRC moved its operations to Ann Arbor , Michigan , and on May 16 of that year, it began operating as a "network". It put together a weekly five-hour package of television programs , distributing them primarily on kinescope film to
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