This paper will examine two texts that present history in an entertaining context for young audiences: the family podcast The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd and the BBC television series Horrible Histories. Dr. Floyd employs a time-travel narrative and an homage to old-time radio serials, the main premise of the program being the efforts of the heroes to stop the villains from stealing historical objects and selling them on e-bay. Horrible Histories uses a series of comic, historical re-enactments to explain particularly gruesome aspects of the past. Each program exploits its specific medium in uniquely presenting history: Dr. Floyd uses the imaginative field of audio entertainment to engage the audience in its creation of historical narrative, while Horrible Histories uses the television variety/sketch format to encourage children’s love of the grotesque. Both texts, nonetheless, incorporate a range of audiovisual genres that must also be considered part of their pedagogies: a crucial element of the pleasures of the programs lies in the young audience’s growing awareness of genre and format. Horrible Histories employs the music video and other tv genres, and Dr. Floyd exploits science fiction (in all its media), literature, radio and tv genres. This paper will consider the dual pedagogical functions of each program, situating each in its specific institutional context (independent commercial podcast vs. public broadcasting program) and in the broader historical contexts of children’s history programming. (Americans will inevitably think of the cartoon Schoolhouse Rock.) I will argue that for both programs the “how” — the generic formulae that are employed and often mocked — is even more important than the “what” — the history being taught by the programs.
About the presenterThomas Grochowski
Tom Grochowski has published on topics ranging from Woody Allen, Sex and the City, the Marx Brothers, and web sites devoted to the O.J. Simpson murder trial. He currently teaches American Literature, film, and media studies at St. Joseph’s College, where he Associate Chair of the Department of English. He is currently on the MAPACA advisory board. He earned his PhD from New York University’s Department of Cinema Studies; he also holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College, where he studied with Allen Ginsberg. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife two daughters, and dog.