For Quality TV, Mad Scientist Returns

FOR QUALITY TV, MAD SCIENTIST RETURNS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Jensen]
On Tuesday the Federal Communications Commission updated rules to increase the amount of educational and informational children’s programming that broadcast TV stations need to show as they move into the digital era and split their signal into many different program streams. And once again, it’s “Beakman’s World” to the rescue, but this time in reruns. Stations’ demand for so-called E/I, or educational and informational, programming is growing, but programming executives say the supply isn't, as producers find it more lucrative to make new shows tied to merchandise. While the FCC hopes that the new rules will increase quality programs for children, Sony Pictures Television decided there was also a market for old episodes of “Beakman’s World,” a show that first appeared in syndication in 1992. The FCC lets stations monitor whether they are in compliance, which children’s advocates have complained allows some stations to skirt the requirements. “If you start watching what is labeled E/I, very little is ‘Beakman’s World,’” said Gloria Tristani, a former FCC commissioner who is now president of the Benton Foundation, which works on public interest issues as they relate to communications. “I would pose that maybe half of it wouldn't pass the test, if anyone were monitoring it,” she said, adding that there had been no recent studies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/arts/television/30beak.html
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