"This outstanding program" – Sandra's award-winning Popcorn

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The first ever Popcorn, uploaded to the official KATU News YouTube channel in 2022

I posted recently about Sandra Peabody's early career after acting, including her first teaching post and her first major award in children's TV production. Today I'm going to cover perhaps her most remarkable creation in that respect: Popcorn. You can watch the debut episode from 1985 above, complete with "computer" genius Kernel Popcorn and the iconic theme tune.

Popcorn was aimed at children between around six and ten years old. It ran on Portland, Oregon-based ABC affiliate station KATU between 1985 and 1992 and began as a one-off special before being expanded to a full-fledged series. Especially originally, Sandra fulfilled multiple roles: for the launch special embedded above, she was credited as overall producer; features writer, producer, director and co-editor; and studio production producer and writer!

Even that understates the extent of Sandra's dedication to the show, however. She spent a lot of time combing local schools for ideas, as well as training children to appear on camera – one of Popcorn's key features was that it was presented by kids, not by adults talking down to them.¹ Sandra found it hard to winnow the 50 or so applicants down to four, telling The Oregonian that:

"There's still a lot of the kid in me. [...] They were all wonderful in their own way."²

The final selection was based on personality, naturalness on camera, ability to read a TelePrompTer (Autocue) and ability to ask questions. This last point was crucial, as Popcorn both sent its young presenters out on location and invited guests to the studio, including multiple Olympic champion speed skater Eric Heiden.³ Considering the show aired at 7:30 am on a Sunday, this was quite some coup.

Unsurprisingly for public service television, money was always very tight. The show's annual budget was just $25,000, around a tenth that of a single episode of a successful-but-not-stellar series. Popcorn's props budget was almost non-existent, a mere ten dollars per show. Undeterred, and despite her other duties, Sandra visited local garage sales and flea markets to obtain items to help enhance the show.⁴

This brought her a significant honour – the Ollie Award presented by the American Children Television Festival. Sandra asked for a better time slot for Popcorn, but was told that ABC would not permit preemption of its network programming. So she turned back to what she did best: encouraging kids to participate. More than 400 letters arrived asking to help with Popcorn, and so she set up auditions.

This being Sandra Peabody, she didn't do things by halves. She set up a "Spotlight on Kids" section, which accepted everything from jokes to music to science experiments, and asked for two-minute audition tapes. Over 300 arrived. The solution was simple: edit each tape down to 30 seconds because, in Sandra's words:

"We want to make them look the best they can look."⁵

Sandra told The Oregonian that, in time, she intended to work her way through all 300 of the tapes. Because of course she did. The segment premiered in 1987, by which time the show had acquired a partial sponsor: a popcorn maker!
Although clearly created as a labour of love, Popcorn is the show that won Sandra her greatest professional recognition. As well as the aforementioned Ollie, it picked up three significant accolades including her Emmy:

• 1987: National Association of Broadcasters Award, in the "Service to Children" category.
• 1988: NAPTE Iris Award, in the "Excellence in Local Broadcasting" category.
• 1992: Northwest Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Public Service Announcement or In-House Campaign" category.

Popcorn was mentioned more than once in submissions to the US House's deliberations on the state of children's TV. In April 1989, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) publication, Service to Children: Television Idea Book was attached to the organisation's submission to a Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee hearing. Its listing about the show noted that:

"Themes of personal effort and self-assurance permeated the program. Popcorn gives kids the chance to 'do anything they do the best'."⁶

In March 1993, the show was mentioned to the same House subcommittee in a statement by Paul LaCamera on behalf of the NAB. The statement referred to Popcorn:

"This outstanding program [...] informs and educates children in a creative way [and] has tackled some tough issues, including the Persian Gulf War."⁷

By the time of LaCamera's statement, Popcorn was no longer on the air. However, its legacy extended well beyond its few years on Portland's screens. One of the original four "Popcorn reporters", Aaron Cooley, grew up to become a professional writer in his own right. He created the ten-episode Showtime series The First Lady, a 2022 drama which explored the pressures and experiences of Betty Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama.⁸

Four decades after she had created Popcorn, the love and care for young people that Sandra Peabody poured into the show she created was still reverberating. Popcorn may be gone, but its influence lives on.

¹ Christensen, Mike. "Broadcasters Fight Requirements for Children's TV", The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (16 November 1989). p24.
² McDermott, Judy. "Popcorn", The Oregonian (16 December 1985). p29.
³ News article, The Oregonian (15 December 1985). p41.
⁴ Buttler, Ruth. "Experts really care what goes into kids' TV", The Grand Rapids Press (1 November 1987). p124.
⁵ "Letters inspire talent segment", The Oregonian (27 March 1987). p48.
⁶ "Children's Television." Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, First Session, on H.R. 1677 ... April 6, 1989. p78.
⁷ "Children's Television." Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session, March 10, 1993. p50.
⁸ Turnquist, Kristi. "Portland native Aaron Cooley on Showtime’s ‘The First Lady,’ and TV’s true stories trend", oregonlive.com (12 April 2022).