TV REVIEWS : Kids Get Answers to Money Questions

Is there really a tiny owl hiding on the $1 bill? What’s with that mystical pyramid and eye on the back? And just how does an ATM work? Kids get the answers in a fluffy two-part special today and next Saturday, “Money Made Easy: The ABC Kids’ Guide to Dollars and Sense.”

Hosted by likable young “Step by Step” star Christopher Castile, each segment includes real kids’ wise and/or inventive comments on money matters, periodic talking head spots with some rather pedantic experts, clips from old black-and-white movies and cartoons, and whimsical new animation.

Within this “education lite” style, the first half hour concentrates on money history, from the use of salt, stones and shells as currency to the invention of paper money and the prevention of counterfeiting.

The second show skims over banking procedures, with a visit to a bank vault and an ATM, a check-writing demonstration and an explanation of how to open a savings account.

Meanwhile, the kids on the show have their own ideas: One says he prefers to save his money in his smelly socks as a deterrent to theft, others think that the “Mona Lisa” or maybe Christie Brinkley should be on the $100 bill. One, however, expresses moral indignation. “They give these little pieces of paper so much power,” he complains.

* “Money Made Easy: The ABC Kids’ Guide to Dollars and Sense” airs today and next Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).