There is no research showing that the program helps babies learn to talk. What's worrisome about Teletubbies is that, to date, there is no evidence to support its producers' claims that the program is educational for one-year-olds. Unfort unately, Falwell's preposterous, homophobic attack fuels the wrong controversy. Teletubbies recently achieved brief notoriety when the Reverend Jerry Falwell insisted that Tinky Winky, the purple Tubby with a triangle-shaped antenna who frequently carries a purse, is damaging children's morals by modeling a gay life style. Publicity materials for the program claim that it stimulates toddlers' imaginations and facilitates their motor development. Providers are encouraged to show PBS programs to the children in their charge and engage in constructive post-viewing activities related to each program.Д¬reated by a speech pathologist and a former schoolteacher turned television producer, Teletubbies is supposed to, among other things, help preverbal children develop language and become comfortable with technology. The Ready to Learn service works with day care providers to enhance the educational value of its programs. PBS imported Teletubbies from the BBC last year and is aggressively marketing the program as educational for 'children as young as one.' Teletubbies took a slot in the PBS Ready to Learn service, a block of programming created to help preschool children acquire skills that will enable them to get ready for school. The program is extremely popular among both children and parents. The combination of space twaddle, endless repetition, and toddler antics gives the show a kind of fey, otherworldly aura, but it's a mistake to dismiss Teletubbies as a weird, frivolous bit of entertainment. The Teletubbies' TV-tummies show films of real toddlers and caring adults playing games or fixing bicycles.

One of the program's main characters is a vacuum cleaner. Under the watch ful eyes of a blue-eyed, giggling baby ensconced in a glowing sun, they interact with things of great interest to young children-a butterfly, a giant ball, or a toaster. As the Teletubbies babble in a language sounding a lot like toddler talk, they frolic in a lush, fairy taleвЂ“like landscape. Their heads are topped by antennae conveniently sized to fit in a baby's grasp-kind of like plush rattles. Teletubbies features a huggable band of four alien toddlers who have televisions in their tummies. But the slogan took on ironic overtones last year when it appeared on advertisements heralding the arrival of Teletubbies, the first television program ever broadcast in the United States for a target audience of children as young as 12 months. Public television's pithy tag line is meant to have positive connotations-innovating, filling a void, performing a vital public service. 'If Public Television doesn't do it, who will?' -PBS motto

Warner home video teletubbies