Still, when compared with most of the high-energy programs geared to children, little actually happens in Teletubbyland. This odd miniature golf course world also includes periscope-like voice trumpets that provide nursery rhymes and counting help (plus introduce the concept of up and down) a vacuum cleaner named Noo-noo that gobbles up favorite things and pinwheel-like contraptions that signal when magical things are about to begin. Dentons have a flap in front, concealing the television screens in the tummies of the costumed actors (adults Pui Fan Lee, Simon Shelton, John Simmit, Nikki Smedley and Dave Thompson), showing vignettes of real-life children. Underground lies the Teletronic Superdome, home of the four dumpy, bouncing, antennaed characters, wearing what look to be fuzzy hooded pajamas.
Teletubbyland - "over the hills and far away," according to the narrator - is a brightly colored live-action world, where an animated sun with a baby's face smiles down upon lush, green landscape. But unless you notice and understand why they're being done, you'll miss the point." If you don't know what you're looking at, it seems a strange, slightly surreal thing. Parents who watch "Teletubbies," Miller said, "really have to be an educated consumer. She said critics forget what it's like to be a child with rapidly developing thinking, listening and communications skills as well as expanding imagination and wavering confidence. Miller's 2-year-old and 10-month-old sons became avid "Teletubbies" viewers after getting a tape from the WETA screening. No wonder WETA convened two parents' sessions in January to preview and explain the series. Magazine stories report that "Teletubbies" is favored by English teenagers winding down from drug-fueled parties. A PBS official even felt compelled to defend the show from a British education minister and European programmers who contend the show is "dumbing down" content to appeal to 1-year-olds - a demographic not even measured by Nielsen ratings. PBS's newest preschool program already has received a firestorm of publicity, not all of it good. The escapades of Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po and Tinky don't pack the same punch of, say, "Independence Day." Well, maybe "action" is too strong a word. The Oak Hill, Va., mother of two will have her VCR working overtime to record the action. Judy Miller, for one, is sure not to miss it. The newest Fab Four will already be on the shores. By the time you read this, it might be too late.
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