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Winky Dink

Winky Dink and You was an early interactive children's television show that encouraged viewer participation using a "magic drawing screen" vinyl sheet. The show would pause at key points for viewers to complete connect-the-dot pictures or decode messages by tracing lines on their screen at home. This helped advance the story and encouraged families to purchase the interactive kits. The original 1950s series was popular but concerns over radiation from early color TVs led to its cancellation, though it was revived in syndication in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

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62 views1 page

Winky Dink

Winky Dink and You was an early interactive children's television show that encouraged viewer participation using a "magic drawing screen" vinyl sheet. The show would pause at key points for viewers to complete connect-the-dot pictures or decode messages by tracing lines on their screen at home. This helped advance the story and encouraged families to purchase the interactive kits. The original 1950s series was popular but concerns over radiation from early color TVs led to its cancellation, though it was revived in syndication in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

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© © All Rights Reserved
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The central gimmick of the show, praised by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates as "the

first interactive TV show,[1] was the use of a "magic drawing screen," a piece of
vinyl plastic that stuck to the television screen via static electricity. A kit
containing the screen and various Winky Dink crayons could be purchased for 50
cents. At a climactic scene in every Winky Dink short film, Winky would arrive on a
scene that contained a connect-the-dots picture that could be navigated only with
the help of viewers. Winky Dink then would prompt the children at home to complete
the picture, and the finished result would help him continue the story. Examples
included drawing a bridge to cross a river, using an axe to chop down a tree, or
creating a cage to trap a dangerous lion.

Another use of the interactive screen was to decode messages. An image would be
displayed, showing only the vertical lines of the letters of the secret message.
Viewers would then quickly trace onto their magic screen, and a second image would
display the horizontal lines, completing the text.

A final use of the screen was to create the outline of a character with whom Jack
Barry would have a conversation. It would seem meaningless to viewers without the
screen, further encouraging its purchase.
Origin

Harry Prichett came up with the core idea in the 1950s of drawing on the screen
when working as a graphic designer for an advertising agency that had the account
for Benrus Watches, a principal sponsor of Your Show of Shows, NBC's Saturday
evening variety show starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Benrus reported that a
number of its dealers had to deal with viewers who were angry to find that the
expensive wristwatch on one of the commercials could not be bought for $39.95.
(This is roughly equivalent to $380 in 2018, but was considered a modest price for
a fine watch at that time.) The agency was concerned that viewers were not seeing
the "and up" after the "$39.95" because early TV sets varied in overscan by which
they "cut off" the edges of the picture. Agency staffers were asked to watch the
show and report back what was visible on their screens. Prichett decided to put a
piece of cellulose acetate film, a standard tool in graphic arts at the time, over
the screen so he could use a grease pencil to sketch exactly which parts of the
commercial were visible. As he waited, he started to add drawings to the images on
the screen, then erase them and add new ones. It seemed obvious to him that
children would enjoy working this way with their television sets.
Cancellation and revival

The program was successful because of its pioneering interactive marketing scheme,
and Winky Dink became one of television's most popular characters of the 1950s.
However, its production was halted despite its popularity, because of concerns
about x-rays from TV picture tubes. This was particularly true for early color
television sets. CBS also was concerned about parents' complaints, that children
who did not possess the interactive screen were drawing directly on the TV screen.

The show was revived in syndication for 65 episodes, beginning in 1969 and ending
in 1973. In the 1990s, a new "Winky Dink Kit" was sold, containing a screen,
crayons, and all-new digitized Winky Dink and You episodes.[2]

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