Winky-Dink and You

August 30, 2006 8:51 AM

Winky-Dink and You is considered to be the world's first interactive television show. Originally broadcast from 1953 to 1957, show watchers drew items directly on the TV screen to help Winky-Dink out of jams. The show also introduced us to Mr. Bungle (but not this Mr. Bungle, who gave us this Mr. Bungle).
posted by Otis (9 comments total)

I have always loved that lunchroom video.
posted by caddis at 9:00 AM on August 30, 2006

Actually kids were supposed to draw on special plastic sheets taped to the tv but most didn't, i hear. (it was before my time)
posted by amberglow at 9:01 AM on August 30, 2006

... Of course, it goes without saying that scores of kids without the kits drew on the television screen itself, ruining many a family's first television set. "I remember that my Mother didn't want to buy me a Winky Dink screen," Charlie Jamison writes, "That was not going to stop me from helping my old pal Winky Dink, I just used a permanent marker! The next week, I had a Winky Dink screen." ...

And TVs were really expensive back then.
posted by amberglow at 9:03 AM on August 30, 2006

I remember seeing this show on TV in the late 60's, too. Probably re-runs.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:03 AM on August 30, 2006

TV POW was interactive (even if it was a guy hitting the space bar on an Atari). Winky-Dink was drawing.
posted by m@ at 9:27 AM on August 30, 2006

andy kaufman used the same trick for his tv pilot (i think it was broadcast on midnight special years later), inviting the audience to put saran wrap on the tv screen and draw him stairs to climb and later a boat to help him escape an island (sorry couldn't find a youtube link).
It's always great to see people's sources of inspiration.
posted by ambulance blues at 9:29 AM on August 30, 2006

My brother and I watched this show until we drew on the TV screen without the plastic sheet. I think that was the end of it for us.
posted by gfrobe at 9:35 AM on August 30, 2006

"I used to watch Winky Dink on WBBM in Chicago when I was a kid in the 50s. I had the kit, but I would intentionally draw the wrong things. When Winky needed a ladder to get out of a hole, I would draw a cover on the hole. When he needed a parachute, I would draw an anvil to pull him down, etc.

"I would tease my younger sister and tell her that I was making Winky die! Whenever she left the room crying, I would laugh and laugh. Winky was cool."

Heh. I'll bet this guy's a MeFi member now. Come on, fess up—it was you, quonsar, wasn't it?
posted by languagehat at 11:17 AM on August 30, 2006

This was also on tv in New Jersey in the mid-1960s; at least, I assume that's what it was, because I remember the kit and drawing on the television screen.
posted by JanetLand at 12:38 PM on August 30, 2006