Cold War Children's Television

Vibiana Cvetkovic examines Philadelphia hosted children's cartoon shows which were broadcast in the industry's earliest days. This book explores the figure of the host with regard to Cold War notions of race, gender, and class and how the host challenged or reified these constructs.

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Cold War Children's Television: Philadelphia as a Case Study examines a culturally significant phenomenon of the Cold War—the locally produced hosted children's show. The Cold War era and the coming of age of commercial television were entwined not only chronologically but societally. 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. Through the lens of cultural and historical analysis, this book reveals that beyond that nostalgia lies a vital visual form that thrived in the Cold War era; one that reflected the ideals of childhood, media, and nation of a societal terrain from which the American children's television host emerged.