The Write Channel facts for kids
The Write Channel was a TV show made for children. It taught kids how to write better. The show was created in 1977 by Mississippi ETV. It was shared with PBS and other educational TV stations by the Agency for Instructional Television.
Meet the Characters and Story
The show was about a character named R.B. Bugg. He was an insect who acted like a human. R.B. Bugg worked as a young TV reporter for WORD-TV, Channel 85. This TV station was in a made-up place called Egg City, Calistonia. In real life, the building used for WORD-TV is where Mississippi Public Broadcasting is located in Jackson, Mississippi.
Even though R.B. Bugg was a reporter, his writing skills were not very good. He often wrote in short, choppy sentences. His boss was the news director, Red Green. She was played by Beverly Todd. Red Green helped R.B. Bugg learn how to make his writing better. She showed him how to combine sentences and fix mistakes in capitalization and punctuation.
The show used animation to help viewers understand. A gloved hand would appear on screen. It would move words around, combine them, and make corrections. This helped R.B. Bugg, and the viewers, see how to improve writing.
Later in each episode, R.B. Bugg would write another story. This time, he would do it by himself at home. The show would still display the corrections on screen. This helped viewers remember what Red Green had taught him earlier.
Most episodes ended with R.B. Bugg falling asleep while watching TV. WORD-TV would then sign off for the night. They would play the beginning and end of The Star-Spangled Banner, which is the US national anthem.
The Club Segment
Each episode of The Write Channel had a special part at the end called The Club. The slogan for The Club was Palabra jot, palabra jot. This phrase was meant to sound like Latin. It means "write words." "Palabra" is the Spanish word for "word." "Jot" is an English word that means to write something down quickly.
In The Club, R.B. Bugg would ask viewers to write their own stories. He would give them ideas to help them start. Kids could then mail their stories to Mississippi ETV. The Write Channel was one of the few school TV shows that let viewers participate by sending things through the mail.
What Each Episode Taught
Here is a list of some of the writing skills taught in the show:
- 1. How to use "and," capital letters, and periods.
- 2. Understanding adjectives, capital letters, and periods.
- 3. Using "and" and "but," and commas.
- 4. How to use "when," "where," and "how," along with capital letters and commas.
- 5. Learning about adjective clauses, question marks, and exclamation points.
- 6. Using prepositional phrases and commas.
- 7. More practice with prepositional phrases and commas.
- 8. A review of what was learned.
- 9. Understanding subordinate conjunctions and capitalization.
- 10. Using subordinate conjunctions and apostrophes.
- 11. Learning about infinitives, participial phrases, and apostrophes.
- 12. Using appositives and commas.
- 13. How to write a series of phrases and clauses.
- 14. Understanding noun clauses and capitalization.
- 15. Another review of the writing skills.
