Synths and Kids' Television, the Perfect Pairing

Synthesizers and children's television are a natural pairing. They are both ways to explore the outer reaches of imagination and provide a fun opportunity to get weird.

Per the mold set by Public Broadcasting Shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, children’s television has spent decades trying to educate developing, malleable minds by providing enough stimulation to keep those flitting little eyes glued to the screen.

If a kids' show could keep its viewers' imaginations stimulated, it could teach them a thing or two about manners, mathematics, and everything in between. It makes perfect sense that the wacky, wonderful synthesizer would end up on children's television, turning the wonders of technology and sound into funny noises and beautiful melodies that delight people of all ages.

When Mr. Rogers had Bruce Haack on his show in the '60s to demonstrate his homemade, light–controlled synthesizer, Haack brought Miss Nelson to help the kids get loose. Years before his decidedly satanic album about sentient computers in the war between good and evil, Electric Lucifer, Haack and Nelson were using his synthesizers to make a series of children's albums. In the '60s, he understood that synthesizers are just as fun as they are mind–expanding.

Likewise, when Suzanne Ciani makes sound effects with her synth on 3–2–1 Contact, it's a combination of the canny and the imagined that makes a listener say that the burble sounds like water trickling. It's fun to pick your brain and deduce what familiar sound this strange electronic bloop resembles. It's not teaching "the cow goes moo," but instead a kind of thinking that's much more creative and constructive.

So we thought: why not dedicate a Friday post to some Saturday morning delights, watching Stevie Wonder manipulate a vocoder or Mr. Rogers tickle himself with a Soloist preset that sounds like a tuba?

If you want some great examples of synths being used on soundtracks for children's television, check out Experimental Music on Children's Television.

Stevie Wonder plays an ARP 2600 on Sesame Street.


Mr. Rogers is thrilled by the tuba sound on his ARP Soloist.


Suzanne Ciani patches her Buchla and makes sound effects with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Oberheim OBX on 3–2–1 Contact.


Thomas Dolby with a Minimoog, Korg DW8000, and Fairlight CMI on The Ghost of Faffner Hall.


Herbie Hancock demonstrates a Fairlight CMI on Sesame Street.


Minimoog Model D, Moog Prodigy, Moog Etherwave Theremin, and Korg Monotron appear as props on Yo Gabba Gabba!


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