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It's too soon to know if one- and two-year olds will be tuning in Teletubbies in droves, but it's safe to say that Newt Gingrich, Jesse Helms and other conservative foes of federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will be closely watching this merchandising vehicle for its educational content and royalty flow.
In the beginning, PBS wrote checks to production companies like Children's Television Workshop and no one much minded if CTW's Sesame Street brought in millions in toy, book and pajama royalties for CTW without a penny for PBS. Sesame Street and other CTW shows were considered the only healthy choices in a wasteland of kids TV programming, and we all knew that, like the taxpayersupported PBS, the not-for-profit CTW was acting in the best interests of society and our children.
Then came Barney the (Cloyingly Sweet and Purple) Dinosaur. Although Barney and his show were (and still are) filled with ethical goodness, PBS felt snookered when the private, for-profit company producing Barney walked away with a huge haul of licensed product royalties, even though PBS had funded the production...