UH-OH, EH-OH! TELETUBBYSHOW GOES BELLY-UP 
Tuesday,February 13,2001 


By MICHAEL STARR and KATE PERROTTA 

The "Teletubbies" are going down
the tube. 

The British company that produces
the hugely popular show featuring
the kiddie TV titans - known for
their strange babbling, colorful
prancing and boob-tube tummies -
has announced it will stop making
new episodes. 

The move came after the BBC,
which airs "Teletubbies" in England,
said it was not renewing its contract
with Ragdoll Productions when their
deal ends in October. 

But the diaper set shouldn't fret just
yet - the adventures of Tinky Winky,
Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po will continue
because there are 365 episodes in
the can - meaning that the "Kiddie Fab Four" will go on
forever in reruns once the new episodes run their course. 

And "Teletubbies" creator Anne Wood is creating a recycled
Teletubby show scheduled to launch in 2002. 

That was good news to some of the show's viewers. 

"I like them because they're special," said 4-year-old Darcy
Pfeifer, who along with brother John, 21/2, faithfully wears
Teletubby pj's to bed.
 
Their mom, Mary Ellen, called plans to pull the plug "pretty
sad." 

"There aren't many programs out there that they watch," she
said. "The show's cleverly done. The kids can anticipate
what's going on, based on the repetition." 

But others weren't so heartbroken. 

"I'm not upset. They were horrible," said Maura Coveleski, a
preschool teacher. "The 'Teletubbies' were totally
noneducational and difficult to understand." 
Coveleski's 5-year-old daughter, Meg, agreed. 

"I don't like them. They're not funny or silly," she said. 

In the planned recycled series, which airs here on PBS
(WNET/Channel 13 and WLIW/Channel 21), Tinky Winky,
Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po will act as "wraparound" presenters
of a series of 50 shorts - those movies now seen on the
Teletubbies' TV-screen bellies. 

Ragdoll claims that more than 1 billion toddlers watch
"Teletubbies" worldwide. 

"Teletubbies" centers on the four characters, who cavort in
an open field, speak a strange language ("eh-oh" is their
favorite word) and are watched over by Baby Sun - a
beatific baby surrounded by rays of sunlight. 

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