Bureaus Watts posted:

We've all had a lot of fun attacking defenseless, irrelevant cartoons - Doug? Who's Doug? - here over the past few days, but I think it's time to take a closer look at one of the big dogs. Today, I'll be looking into the history of Teletubbies.




Teletubbies has been around since the late 90s, produced by Ragdoll Productions and written by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport. Although marketed to children, the show is actually a semi-documentary which follows four avant-garde musicians (members of the supergroup The Teletubbies) in their daily lives living together in the Tubbytronic Superdome, as they work on an album together, over the course of a year. They were filmed every single day throughout the year, resulting in 365 episodes, some of which dealt with adult themes, such as oppression, and transgender and race issues. As a result of filming every day and having to work with that specific footage, the episodes’ pacing was erratic, which often drew criticism.

The show contains the following characters:

Tinky Winky


Tinky Winky is the first member and 'face' of The Teletubbies. He is 'the big purple one' and struggles with his femininity throughout the show. His distinguishing features are a red bag which is with him at all times, and his triangular antenna. He is meek, though intelligent, and has been described as a tortured genius. Ultimately, Tinky Winky had the roughest time as a result of the show’s popularity.

Dipsy


Dipsy is a keyboardist in The Teletubbies, named after his straight antenna, which resembles a dipstick. He is the most headstrong of the group, and is very stubborn. He also struggles with anger issues as a result of the abuse he received at a young age due to his darker skin colour. He's considered by the rest of the group to be the funniest member. After the show he continued producing music, and wrote a satirical book about politics, a subject he is shown to have very strong opinions on throughout the show.

Laa-Laa


Laa-Laa plays the violin, and contributes female vocals to the band. Her antenna is curly, and she looks after the members of the group throughout the series. Her bubbly persona often means she is the result of unwanted attention from outsiders, something which is not dealt with much in the show. Since Teletubbies, Laa-Laa has kept to herself and now lives a quiet life in Yorkshire, though she apparently keeps in touch with her co-stars. She has stated in interview that she somewhat resents the fame brought by the show, but does not regret her choice to take part.

Po


Po is the youngest of the group, and plays a wide array of instruments for the band. She is Cantonese, and sings the Cantonese vocals on The Teletubbies' album. She still performs music, though it is much more accessible than her work with The Teletubbies. An example of her work can be found here.

Noo-noo


Noo-noo is the housekeeper, and looks after the Tubbytronic Superdome throughout the year, very rarely venturing outside. Noo-noo is shown throughout the series to have a vindictive personality, damaging the possessions of others out of annoyance, and a dry, ironic sense of humour. Very little is known about Noo-noo's life outside the show, he has never done any acting work or - to my knowledge - released any music, making him a very enigmatic character indeed.

The Sun Baby


The Sun Baby is the fantasical element of the show, and serves as an antagonist. It is implied throughout the series to have implanted televisions in the stomaches of the band members and imprisoned Noo-noo. It also controls the voice trumpets which dictate what happens, and when. It has been suggested that the Sun Baby is loosely based on Alistair Campbell, but no explicit confirmation or denial has been offered by those involved.


To give the feeling of isolation throughout the show, most negative things that the artists experienced during their time at the Superdome were attributed to a fictional creature known as the Sun Baby, who represents evil in the world. Comparisons to countless villains have been made, many saying that the Sun Baby is a parody of Alistair Campbell, but the official line is that "the Sun Baby is whomever or whatever you interpret him as”, something with has been confirmed by Andrew Davenport, who said the Sun Baby was designed to reflect whatever evil the viewer wanted to see.
Teletubbies was, in essence, performance art. The artists developed their own language to communicate while on camera (which was the majority of the time throughout the year,) which is usually considered to be incoherent babbling by those who haven't studied the project, despite its intricacy. Creating characters was considered, but in the end it was decided that each of the Tubbies should just play themselves, with no embellishment to their personality, in order to keep their interactions grounded in reality. The show catapulted all involved to fame, and for the first time ever, avant-garde was in the mainstream's gaze. It was a strange time, as the media struggled to follow people who weren't designed to be in the media, performing strange events, or even doing things that were unusable to the press due to their nature. Eventually, the interest died out for the most part, leaving members such as Po to do whatever they wished, although interest remained, focused on a certain member.

Behind the scenes, Tinky Winky had a darker side. Towards the end of filming, after the show had started broadcasting and media coverage was at a high, he was involved in a sexual harassment scandal - something which was controversially not brought up in the show. However, years later, all four Tubbies still claim that Tinky Winky is innocent. In a recent article, Po defended him again
and Dipsy said similar things in an interview in 2009 with The Guardian


The allegations didn't go away for a long time, until Tinky Winky settled out-of-court "in order to preserve [his] mental health", but it didn't stop there. His attempts to distance himself from the public eye didn't help, and his addictions to painkillers and alcohol resurfaced. He's been in and out of rehab for the past few years, but the people close to him say things are looking up. Is it possible that we'll see another The Teletubbies album, drug-addled and public or otherwise? Let me know what you think in the comments below.