____________________________ ..:::::::::::::.... __________________________ ..::::::::::::::::::::::::.. TELETUBBIES FAQ v. 0.2 ..over the hills and .::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::. 25th of August 1997 far away.. .::::::::::;;;:::::::::::::::::::::::::. Maintained by ..::::::::::::###:::::::::::::::::::::::::::. Moose 2000 _______________.:::::::---;::;;###;;;:::::::::::::::::::::::::::._____________ .::::::::/####\:#######:;---;::::::::::::::::::::::::. .::###;::|######\::###::;/###|/=\::;;;:::::::::::::::::. ,,, ::::!###;:|##::##|;:###::/###//##|:;###::::::::;--;::::::.,##| ####;:___:!###;|####//-\;###;/###//###/;###!:::;--;:/##\:::::::###\___ #####!/####\!###:\#######|####|###U###|:###!:::/###|:\##/:;;---\#######\ ,####!:/######|!###;|!###!::\==/:######/;######;:|###|::--::/#####-\######| ######::|##::#/__!###|:::::::::::::!###/;###"####/####L;::#;:|##!###::|####/ #########:|!###//##\--/::::::::::::::::::|###::###|;######\;###|##;##:::\###/ ###/-\####;\###!###:::::::::' '::::::\########/#######;|###|!##:;##::--' -- ::\#####\!####:::::::' .:::::. '::::-\#####/####!:##:|####\#####!:::. :::\#####\:::::::::' .:::::::::. ':::::---::####;###!|####|::!!::::::: ::::\####|:::::::' .:::::::::::. ':::::::::#######::\###/::::::::::' '::::\!!/::::::' ::::::::::::: ':::::::::::!!!:::::--::::::::::' '::::::::::'' ::::::::::::: ':::::::::::::::::::::::::::'' '''' ':::::::::::' '':::::::::::::::::''''' ':::::::::' '''' ':::::' _,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-., -.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`' Eh-oh, and welcome to the Unofficial Teletubbies FAQ, the definitive guide to Teletubbieland and its inhabitants. This document is intended as a repository of TRUTH, a noble undertaking indeed. If you spot anything in here which is misleading,missing or just plain rubbish, feel free to send your additions and corrections to: tub-faq@mitt.demon.co.uk The latest version of this document should always be locatable at Moose's Teletubbies website - http://moose.spesh.com/teletubbies/tub-faq.txt Failing that, you can probably browse to it from Moose's Demon Internet homepage - http://www.mitt.demon.co.uk Please feel free to copy this FAQ far and wide, mail it to friends, put it up on your own website, link to it, post it to Usenet... just distribute it, basically. The only proviso is that you should keep the whole lot intact,or if that's not reasonable, at least provide a pointer to where the full FAQ can be found. If there's a mess of weird characters all over the place when you're reading this, that's probably because you're not using a proportional font.Try reading this FAQ using Courier or Lucida console. I've dotted bits and bobs of ASCII 'art' throughout,partly because this is the first FAQ I've instigated and it's the sort of thing you get in FAQs, and partly because there's nothing the BBC legal department can do about ASCII art. Um,probably. Well,let's just wait and see. ______________________________________________________________________________ TELETUBBIES FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS SECTION 1 - TELETUBBIELAND QUESTIONS 1.0 - Overview 1.0.1 - What are the Teletubbies supposed to be? 1.0.2 - What's that windmill doing? 1.0.3 - What are those shower attachment thingies? 1.0.4 - So, which one is which? 1.0.5 - What sex are the Teletubbies? 1.0.6 - But... Tinky Winky carries a handbag... 1.0.7 - What's the story behind that vacuum cleaner? 1.0.8 - SECTION 2 - THE TUBBIEFILMS AND ANIMATIONS 2.0 - Overview 2.1 - Again! Again again! 2.2 - 'Funny Lady' 2.3 - King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys 2.4 - Noah's Ark 2.5 - Three Ships 2.6 - Tree 2.7 - Doll House Opera 2.8 - The Bear With Brown Fuzzy Hair SECTION 3 - BEHIND THE SCENES 3.0 - Overview 3.1 - Teletubbieland 3.2 - The Flowers 3.3 - The Tubbiecostumes 3.4 - The Rabbits 3.5 - The Tubbietronic Superdome 3.6 - The Cast 3.6.1 - Dave Thompson 3.6.2 - John Simmit 3.6.3 - Nikky Smedley 3.6.4 - Pui Fan Lee 3.6.5 - Toyah Wilcox 3.6.6 - Eric Sykes 3.6.7 - Penelope Keith . '/\' ,, SECTION 4 - TELETUBBIES AND THE COPYRIGHT LAW\\, .^.'/ \' '/|, 4.0 - Overview .\ \, ./ \/ |''/ |. . 4.1 - The Clampdown .\ -..| \/ //|._. 4.2 - What's Left . . \ - _____ - . / _ . ,\- ../ ,--::::::-, - / /, SECTION 5 - SO, ARE THERE ANY WEBSITES? ,\ - ,:::::::..::, /, 5.0 - Unofficial .\ /:::::::.. .::\ |. . 5.1 - Official . ___/ |:::::::::..:::; \____. .\_ .:::::::::::::::|| /'. . SECTION 6 - CONTRIBUTERS AND CREDITS '.\ | |:::--::::--:::\/ /'. . ,__/ \|::<.0>:::<0>::| \__ , \___ ':::::.'_`.::::; /-' . . / \:::......-::/ \' . ,/___ '::.`---'.:/ /-- ' _,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-., -.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`' SECTION 1 - Teletubbieland Questions ______________________________________________________________________________ _1.0________Overview____________________________ Teletubbies is the latest creation of Anne Wood, whose company, Ragdoll, is responsible for pre-school television programmes 'Rosie and Jim' and 'Tots TV'. Aimed, as it is, at a far younger audience than has been previously targetted by a television programme - the one- to four-year-olds, Teletubbies landed on our screens with a resounding splash. The visuals - highly saturated colours, sparse framing, stylised sets; the soundtrack - bouncy music, near-gibberish toddler-speak, parps farts and bells; the structure - tiny set-pieces and constant repetition - these mark the programme out as different. Try telling people that these factors are all the result of extensive research into what will most stimulate such a young target audience, and your words will fall on deaf ears. A vocal segment of Concerned Parents hear only the baby-speak, and criticise the programme for abandoning the Queen's English. Students enjoy the way that the programme's reflection of the experience of being a toddler is also a pretty good reflection of the experience of taking certain proscribed pharmaceuticals. And toddlers? Well, they just watch it uncritically, and enjoy themselves. Each episode follows a standard format - after the opening credits, there is a short scene involving one or all of the Teletubbies getting up to tubbieactivities. Usually involving toast or custard. Then the windmill spins up, and the Teletubbies are called away to a hilltop. One of them is selected as the day's display, and a short film starts playing on its tummy-telly. The film is live action, and involves small children doing something dull. When the film has finished, the Teletubbies shout "Again! Again again!" and the film is repeated in its entirety. After the film, the Teletubbies generally have a longer period of play, rounded off with some computer-generated animation superimposed on their land. Then, all too soon, it's time for tubbie-bye-bye and the end credits. -1.0.1-- What are the Teletubbies supposed to be? This is never established in the programme itself, although the publicity materials declare them 'aliens' while the opening credits place them 'over the hills and far away'. Perhaps they are indeed aliens, and they just happen to live over the hills and far away. -1.0.2-- What's that windmill doing? It's spinning. When it stops spinning, the Teletubbies go to bed. When it spins fast, one of the Teletubbies shows a film on its tummy. Quite why these things happen is anyone's guess. -1.0.3-- What are those shower attachment thingies? See above. That speaker tubes looking like shower attachments pop up out of the ground and order the Teletubbies about, or entertain them, is just something that happens in Teletubbieland. No explanation is given. Teletubbies is aimed at a very young audience. The children watching are familiar with a world where inexplicable events occur for no readily discernable reason. They are told when to get up, when to go to bed and when to eat. They are prevented from doing things that look like fun, and sometimes offered fun things for their entertainment when they were least expecting it. It's only the adults watching who feel there should be a reason for these things to happen. -1.0.4-- So, which one is which? Tinky Winky is the tallest. He is blue, has a triangular antenna, and carries a handbag. Dipsy is the second tallest. He is green, has a straight antenna, and wears a floppy top hat decorated with a Rorsharch inkblot test which looks to me like the open skull of a crushed dog. Laa Laa is not much smaller than Dipsy. She is yellow, has a squiggly antenna, and likes to play with a big orange ball. Po is the shortest. She is red, has a circular antenna, and rides around on a scooter. -1.0.5-- What sex are the Teletubbies? Tinky Winky and Dipsy are male, Laa Laa and Po are female. The voice-over makes this clear when it refers to them individually. -1.0.6-- But... Tinky Winky carries a handbag... Yes. Your point being? Remember, the Teletubbies are aimed at, and in many respects are, pre-school children. It's a bit early to start imposing gender roles on them. -1.0.7-- What's the story behind that vacuum cleaner? -1.0.8-- SECTION 2 - The Tubbiefilms and animations ______________________________________________________________________________ _2.0________Overview____________________________ _2.1________Again!_Again_again!_________________ _2.2________'Funny_Lady'________________________ _2.3________King_Pleasure_and_the_Biscuit_Boys__ _2.4________Noah's_Ark__________________________ _2.5________Three_Ships_________________________ _2.6________Tree________________________________ _2.7________Doll_House_Opera____________________ _2.8________The_Bear_With_Brown_Fuzzy_Hair______ _,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-., -.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-'`¯`'-.,_,.-.,_,.-'`¯`' SECTION 3 - Behind The Scenes ______________________________________________________________________________ _3.0________Overview____________________________ One of the most remarkable aspects to Teletubbies is the rich splendour with which it is presented. Its trademark expansive sweeping crane shots swoop and spin around the Teletubbies with a glorious disregard for such mundane concerns as avoiding filming the edge of the set. The reason the world the Teletubbies inhabit is so believably real - psychedelic furs, improbable flowers and saturated colours notwithstanding - is that it is real. The set has no firm edges (although the moment you wander over the hills, you'll find yourself far away). _3.1________Teletubbieland______________________ Teletubbieland is located on Wimpstone Farm in rural Warwickshire, near Ragdoll's base in Stratford-upon-Avon - the same farm that hosts the outdoors set of Tots TV. The landscaped hills surrounding the Tubbietronic Superdome's crater, designed to hide the outside world from the set, have the unfortunate side-effect of hiding the set from the outside world. Nonetheless, an eerie amount can be seen from surrounding public footpaths- the hillocks themselves are instantly recognisable, patches of flowers can be seen, and, when filming is taking place, the Windmill towers above the area imposing its inscrutable will upon the happy denizens of Teletubbieland. The original intention was to locate Teletubbieland in a wood, but this idea was abandoned due to lighting difficulties. Instead, the land we know and love was created from scratch. Earthmovers dug a pit 3 yards deep, with a flat central portion 75 feet in diameter for the dome itself. The land in total occupies a field 80 by 130 yards. The grass is, for the most part, a quick-growing mix (the same turf as is used at Wimbledon), although astroturf is used in the high-traffic areas such as the paths and the immediate environs of the dome. _3.2________The_Flowers_________________________ There are two types of flower in Teletubbieland - the large individual ones which are seen in the foreground, and the scattering of bunches seen in the background. Because Teletubbieland needs to be regularly mown to maintain its crisp golf course appearance, most of the flowers are stuck onto a piece of netting which is thrown across the more distant hillocks. It is an easy matter to pull this off when mowing. The foreground flowers are on spikes, and stuck into the ground individually. _3.3________The_Tubbiecostumes__________________ Don't be fooled by the cuddly appearance of the Teletubbies. They are huge. Ragdoll has pulled off quite a feat in making grown actors wearing over- sized costumes appear childlike. The illusion is pulled off by eliminating any familiar objects in the world which would give a sense of scale. The actors peer out through the mouth of the costume, and the costume head towers a further couple of feet above them. *The eye and mouth movements are controlled remotely by the crew. _3.5________The_Tubbietronic_Superdome__________ The Teletubbies live in a structure correctly referred to as 'The Tubbietronic Superdome'. This structure is 16 feet high, and is complete as seen in the programme. The interior shots are indeed shots of the interior of this dome, rather than, as one might expect, filmed in a studio. _3.6________The_Cast____________________________ -3.6.1-- Dave Thompson -3.6.2-- John Simmit -3.6.3-- Nikky Smedley -3.6.4-- Pui Fan Lee -3.6.5-- Toyah Wilcox -3.6.6-- Eric Sykes -3.6.7-- Penelope Keith SECTION 4 - Teletubbies And The Copyright Law ______________________________________________________________________________ _4.0________Overview____________________________ In the beginning, there were no Teletubbies web sites. Then someone blinked, and all of a sudden you couldn't move without browsing into one. With very few exceptions, these sites concentrated on aspects of the programme which had little to do with childrens' entertainment. They tended to revolve around sex, violence, and, to a large extent, drugs. The BBC didn't like this. With stories circulating in the press about the sacking of Dave 'Tinky Winky' Thompson, Concerned Parents in uproar about the perceived low educational value of the programme and the fact that it appeared to be popular with druggie students which _surely_ couldn't be good for children... the BBC decided to take action. _4.1________The_Clampdown_______________________ There's nothing the BBC can do about discussing the programme, but all of the sites at the time made extensive use of scanned and digitised images from Teletubbies. Technically, and much though people do not generally get heavy about such use, this made all of these sites in breach of copyright. The legal department sent out a mailnote to all of the maintainers they could find, asking for the copyright material to be removed. Here's mine: ======================================================================= Dear Sir Teletubbies It has come to our attention that you are operating an internet site on Web address http://www.mitt.demon.co.uk/teletubbies/index.html. This site features material which is the copyright of the BBC and/or its contributors including a still from BBC television broadcasts. By copying this material without permission you have infringed the BBC and/or its contributors* rights. The BBC does not wish to discourage fans of its programmes from discussing them on the internet, but for a variety of reasons the BBC cannot allow its copyright material to be scanned into sites and disseminated without permission. Further, given the target audience of Teletubbies is pre-school children, your material is in danger of compromising the programme*s intentions. Ragdoll, the producers of Teletubbies, are as alarmed as we are and are justifiably concerned to see that this misrepresentation stops. Please take the necessary steps to remove all BBC copyright material immediately from this site and provide confirmation that you have done so. We look forward to hearing from you by return, in the meantime the BBC*s rights are expressly reserved including that of taking legal action. Yours faithfully BBC Intellectual Property Department Legal Adviser*s Division British Broadcasting Corporation BBC White City 201 Wood Lane London W12 7TS ======================================================================= Spreading Fear Uncertainty and Doubt in this fashion had the effect not just of causing people to remove the images, but to remove entire sites to be on the safe side. _4.2________What's_Left_________________________ The sites which still exist use a mixture of alternative images (a shower attachment in place of a periscope), 3D renderings, and conventional artwork for decoration. In some nooks and crannies can still be found copyright material which the BBC hasn't discovered yet - generally images 'rescued' from one of the original sites before the clampdown. SECTION 5 - So, Are There Any Websites, Or What? ______________________________________________________________________________ _5.0________Unofficial__________________________ Oliver's Website - The one the BBC lawyers point to as an example of a Good Teletubbies site. But they still won't allow any real images on it. http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/7306/ Moose Industries 2000 - Hey, I'm allowed to plug my own website, surely? 3D rendered pictures, nonsense articles, that sort of thing. http://moose.spesh.com Lots more, but I'll have to rummage around to see what's still up. _5.1________Official____________________________ Not yet... SECTION 6 - Contributers and Credits. ______________________________________________________________________________ This FAQ is maintained and edited by Moose 2000. The first draft was written by Moose, who also did the ASCII scribblings. Thanks are due to: Oliver Lyu and mummy Julia, out of whose mailing list this FAQ was born - http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Dell/7306/mailinglist.html Mark Fawcett, for his researches into the 'real' Teletubbieland in the middle of darkest Warwickshire. The denizens of Oliver's mailing list for starting this all off, and for any contributions which will come my way in the future. Write to tub-faq@mitt.demon.co.uk if there's anything which you feel needs to be added. Please bear in mind that I will exercise editorial control, and that I won't automatically add everything that is submitted to me. I also reserve the right to edit any submissions to fit into the house style. Full credit will be given for anything which is used, and I'm always on the look- out for bits of trivia to do with the programme. Moose