Editing Children's television series (section)

=== Role of advertising ===
{{See also|Advertising to children|Television advertisement}}
In the United States, early children's television was often co-opted as a platform to market products and it rarely contained any educational elements (for instance, ''[[The Magic Clown]]'', a popular early children's program, was primarily an advertisement for Bonomo's [[Turkish taffy]].) In the early years of television, advertising to children posed a dilemma as most children have no [[disposable income]] of their own. As such, children's television was not a particularly high priority for the networks.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.ew.com/article/2007/06/08/bob-barker-saying-goodbye-price-right | title=Bob Barker on saying goodbye to ''The Price Is Right'' | first=Lynette | last=Rice | date=June 8, 2007 | magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] | access-date=April 30, 2016}}</ref>

This practice continued in a toned-down manner through the 1980s in the United States after the [[Federal Communications Commission]] prohibited tie-in advertising on broadcast television. These regulations did not apply to cable, which remains out of the reach of the FCC's content regulations.

Due in part to the success of ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 |date=2005 |edition=2nd |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-1476665993 |pages=404–405}}</ref> the 1980s saw a dramatic rise in television programs featuring characters of whom toy characters were being sold to retail consumers in bricks and mortar stores, underscoring the value potential of manufacturing merchandise for fans of children's programs. This practice remains firmly embedded in the broadcast sector's business case broadly in the 2020s.

Commercial-free children television was first introduced with ''[[Sesame Street]]'' on [[PBS]] in November 1969. It was produced by what is now known as [[Sesame Workshop]] (formerly Children's Television Workshop, known as CTW).