NEW ERA IN CHILDREN’S TELEVISION?

A new American Children’s Television Festival with a goal of focusing attention on this often neglected form of programming will debut this fall in Chicago

An awards ceremony will honor outstanding achievements in the field, but one of the organizers said the emphasis of the festival will be on screenings and discussions.

“There is a lot of interest in seeing programs and not just seeing people get awards,” James A. Fellows said. “I think most people feel there is room for improvement in both the quantity and quality of children’s television.”

Fellows is president of the Central Educational Network, a Chicago-based, nonprofit regional program distributor that is organizing the festival in conjunction with Chicago public television station WTTW.

Fellows said he hopes the festival will screen from 20 to 30 children’s programs. “One of the things we hope to learn is what the level of activity is,” he said in an interview.

The program will run Oct. 20-23, and its sponsors hope to hold the festival every two years to establish a continuing opportunity for programmers, producers, educators, children’s advocates and children to screen and discuss American programming for the young.

Fellows said he and others interested in starting a children’s TV festival first began talking about the concept more than a year ago.

Noting that no opportunity for an overall review of children’s TV exists in this country, the festival’s sponsors sought to create a program fashioned after Prix Jeunesse, a successful international children’s TV festival that began 20 years ago in West Germany.

Fellows and William J. McCarter, president of WTTW-TV, said in a joint statement that they hope the Chicago festival “will help bring about a new era of programming for young people of this country by engaging writers, producers, film makers and programmers in constructive dialogue and evaluation--and through recognizing outstanding programs and series.”

The awards competition will be open to commercial and public TV stations, the TV networks, cable companies and independent producers. WTTW-TV will telecast the ceremonies and make the broadcast available to other stations around the country.