THE PBS PARADIGM

As I have begun to consider a career in the film industry, I have found myself drawn to the fascinating  paradigm of the programming that gets done on Public Access/Public Broadcasting Service Channels in the United States. I have always been amazed at shows like Arthur, for example, which have been able to both appeal to a young audience with messages like this....

And this....

As well as appeal to the adult audience who sits with their kids to watch the show with things like this...

Which is a reference to Citizen Kane and it's titular sled Rosebud, something that no kid would understand but an adult watching would be able to peg down as a reference to pop culture, and this... 

Which is a reference to to the Charlie Brown Christmas special, something that has become quite a fixture in the popular culture zeitgeist, and something that most older viewers would be easily able to identify with, and this.....

In which this character is talking about something that has become a fixture in our generation: blogging. 

Additionally, this show has referenced adult-topics and pop culture references, including, but not limited to, "South Park,Jeopardy!, The Sopranos, Beavis and Butt-head, the Indiana Jones adventures, the James Bond series of films, The Adventures of Tintin, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Jerry Springer Show, Oprah, Law & Order, Charlie Rose, Antiques Roadshow, Mystery!, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Macbeth, and That '70s Show" (Arthur [TV Series], Wikipedia, 8/31/14). Some specific examples of these moments in episodes are....

1. Desert Island Dish: One of the characters holds up a cage containing a swallow and then holds up a coconut saying that the swallow had the coconut in mouth. This is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

2. Buster Baxer and the Letter from the Sea: One of the characters writes a message to what he believes is an Atlantean civilization and one of the questions that he poses to them is, do octopus really have gardens? This is a reference to The Beatles 

3. Meet Binky: In this episode one of the characters finds out that a band that another character likes is composed of holograms because the members of the band are not attractive enough to be seen onstage. This is a reference to the Milli Vanilli scandal from the early nineties.  

All of these pop culture references would be only likely to be picked up on by the audience of older viewers.

Ultimately, this kind of clever and subtle reference makes this kind of program both interesting and compelling to a multi-generational audience. One of the reasons that I would love to end up as a program director for PBS is because of the level of sophistication and skill that it requires to create content for both adults and children simultaneously.