Teletubbies: Nursery Rhymes

When our Kitsap Regional Library held its 4th annual "Trivia Challenge" (a great fundraising idea, incidentally) this spring, I watched 14 teams shake their puzzled heads when asked to name a single Teletubbie. Citing the most famous knitter in literary history (Dickens' Madame DeFarge) was no problem for these fact-retaining brainiacs, but the names of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po occupied no space on their mental trivia hard drives. And, frankly, I don't blame them. Although phenomenally popular with children and the bane of frantic parents last Christmas searching the shopping aisles for the pricey little plush toys based on the characters, the Teletubbies are actually--if you can imagine this--a distinct notch down from Barney on the children's programming evolutionary scale. Rather than trying to engage a toddler's mind, the Teletubbies attempt to mimic it--all four of the roly poly furball creatures babble in the baby talk of half sentences and garbled syllables. In Teletubbies: Nursery Rhymes, the foursome walk around their buried-in-a-mound spaceship or outside in a flower-filled landscape of perfect hillocks regularly interrupted by slightly ominous looking kind-of phone heads which erupt out of the ground and recite nursery rhymes in a semi-ethereal, disembodied tone which reminds one of old-time radio. Occasionally, the program breaks away for "live action" bits through--follow the scientific logic here closely--the television screens in the Teletubbies' tummies which receive signals from a big twirling pinwheel on a hill. Sporting distinctly non-musical rhyme and no reason whatsoever, Teletubbies: Nursery Rhymes is sure to be quite popular, but that's the only reason to consider purchase. Aud: K, P. (R. Pitman)