Narrational Structures in Children's TV in Germany

How fiction films make meaning depends on their narrational structure. As far as children's TV is concerned, for me, the most interesting problem is which kinds of film discourses can be invented which children as TV consumers will accept, which at the same time stimulate their phantasies in favour of non-affirmative but nevertheless realistic ideas of life. German programmers had to leam that they would lose their audience by well intended shows which did not match children's viewing experiences and viewing expectations. After a « bardic » period of « talking heads », reading from books or encouraging hobbies and crafts and after a second period with its recourse to the narrational techniques of literature (see Palmer 1988, p. 85) children's TV executives finally used the genres and norms of mainstream TV. Comprehension on this level is based on what Bordwell calls the extrinsic narrational structure. Catching children's attention in this way, programmers can encode specific messages by intrinsic devices of deviation. As long as children's TV serving children's unique needs exists, the structure of narrative devices of deviation aimed at foregrounding, at making use of intrinsic options, will be of special interest.