Winky Dink and You - Origin

Origin

Harry Prichett came up with the core idea of drawing on the screen when working as a graphic designer for an advertising agency in the early '50s. The agency had the account for Benrus Watches, a principal sponsor of Your Show of Shows, NBC's Saturday evening variety show starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Benrus reported that a number of its dealers had to deal with viewers who were angry to find that the expensive wristwatch on one of the commercials could not be bought for $39.95. (This is about $325 in 2010 dollars but was considered a modest price for a watch at that time.) The agency was concerned that viewers were not seeing the "and up" after the "$39.95" because early TV sets varied in the extent to which they would "cut off" the edges of the picture. Agency staffers were asked to watch the show and report back what was visible on their screens. Prichett decided to put a piece of Cellulose acetate film (which was a standard tool in graphic arts at the time) over the screen so that he could use a Grease pencil to sketch exactly which parts of the commercial were visible. As he waited, he started to add drawings to the images on the screen, then erase them and add new ones. It seemed obvious that children would enjoy working with television this way.