With your host BOB SMiTH
September 3, 2022 11:48 PM   Subscribe

AIT, the Agency for Instructional Television (WIKIPEDIA), was one of a number of organizations who made programs that PBS stations would air midday, for teachers to record for later use. One of these was the inexplicable Wordsmith, that explored the roots of words. Host Bob Smith, standing on a gameshow-like set with his 70s attire and mustache, takes foam balls with syllables on them out of a machine, opens them up to show inside is printed their meaning, then puts them back into the machine, which makes a sci-fi noise. Then Sesame Street-like short clips demonstrate its meaning. While it moves slow, it's still kind of interesting! A number of episodes survive, as well as some other programs from AIT, in the Indiana University Moving Image Archive.

Another show that was aired midday for teachers, made by TV Ontario, was Read All About It. I linked to it previously.
posted by JHarris (14 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
this is the one with the ping pong balls, er, that's how I remembered them -- with words/parts of words on them. I have been looking for this forever!
posted by oonh at 2:13 AM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


There's a lot of blank space at the end of at least some of the episodes, once the closing finished that's all there is.
posted by JHarris at 3:55 AM on September 4, 2022


That AIT logo is *chef’s kiss* so perfectly, deliciously 70s. I’d rock a tshirt with it all day long.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:18 AM on September 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


Never saw the show, but when I was in high school, i took a class called Word Clues, that basically did the same thing. Taught lots of Latin and Greek roots as tools to deconstruct words and figure out what they meant. It was one of my favorite classes.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:24 AM on September 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


A while ago I went on a hunt for a 1970s-80s math show of this type -I found out it was produced by WCET Cincinnati and didn't get any further since I didn't know what to do with that information. It sounds like this may be a place that would take the archive if WCET wanted to off load it. Hmm...
posted by cobaltnine at 12:31 PM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


Huh - I THOUGHT I remembered this show, but when I looked at one of the episodes, it doesn't seem familiar.

But it IS really cool! I wonder how many people learned to understand word roots from watching this show.

The Indiana University Moving Image Archive has some other fascinating-looking stuff, like several episodes of Thinkabout, "a series of sixty programs to help students in 5th and 6th grade become independent learners and problem solvers by strengthening their reasoning skills and reviewing and reinforcing their language arts, mathematics and study skills". Here's an episode on A Challenge: Design a Language.

People who like this stuff as much as I do can still see a lot of great educational programs at the Annenberg/CPB Foundation site, including gems like American Cinema, The Constitution: That Delicate Balance, and Art Through Time: A Global View and the oft-recommended Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish and French in Action.

I am delighted to know about this - the archive, and the show, and all the other shows at that archive, and the other stuff AIT put out. Thank you so much for posting this, JHarris!
posted by kristi at 12:34 PM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


Nebraska Department of Education put out a bunch of these in the 70s and 80s, which predominantly aired in the midwest -- this intro sparked deep memories in me -- which were largely created by Omaha educators and the cast were regular school teachers.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:54 PM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


Oh thank you! I have been looking for AIT shows for YEARS and come up short. I loved all of John Robbins' shows, he fostered my love of reading throughout my childhood. And I totally remember this guy's sweater tunic.
posted by evilcupcakes at 5:04 PM on September 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


I wonder who Bob Smith was? Is he still around? He seems to be having fun with the show.
posted by JHarris at 6:49 PM on September 4, 2022


My god, I remember seeing this exactly once as a very young kid, maybe five. He was talking about how the tril in nostril is the same as drill or thrill, and it was really the moment I started to love etymology. I don’t remember ever seeing it again, but the foam balls stuck in my mind.
posted by condour75 at 6:37 AM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


That is one of the videos in the archive, I watched it just last night! It's the episode titled Cutting.
posted by JHarris at 7:24 AM on September 5, 2022


This is outstanding. I learned something that helps me remember a Spanish word (the root ambi means both). I'm a sucker for stuff like this.
posted by kathrynm at 12:39 PM on September 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


Bob Smith's obituary from early 2020 and an interview from 2012. Quite an educator. I remember these shows from when I was a kid -- the sound when the foam ball drops immediately brought it back.
posted by Kikkoman at 8:26 AM on September 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


That interview contained the information that AIT was not actually the beginning of the show! It originated (and aired like five seasons) on KQED, in black and white! I left a request on their contact form to perhaps upload them somewhere, maybe on Youtube, to help preserve them and so we can see them. I hope they're receptive!
posted by JHarris at 8:47 PM on September 6, 2022


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