SAN JOSE, California -- In October of 1953, a Saturday-morning show called Winky Dink and You debuted on CBS, and in short order it captivated American children. Though the show was mostly a Howdy-Doody-like kids' variety show, it had a unique aspect: It was "interactive."
Children who wanted to help Winky sent away in the mail for a Wink Dinky Kit, which was basically a pack of crayons and a piece of clear plastic.
The kids then pasted the plastic to their TV screens, and when Winky got in trouble -- he'd need a ladder to climb a building or a bridge to cross over a rushing river -- the kids would draw what Winky needed on their TV screens.
Well, at the Digital Hollywood Conference occurring here this week, they're talking about bringing Winky back, 21st century style.
"It's going to be huge," said Andy Beers, Microsoft's representative at the conference. "The most significant thing to happen to TV in its 60-year history."
Like many company reps here, Beers was talking about the emerging medium called Interactive Television -- known in the business as ITV.
The technology would make watching TV more like surfing the Web. You'd be able to interact with the host of a talk show, for example, or get more stats on a sports program. And you could also purchase items using your remote control.
If Beers' enthusiasm is any indication, companies are eager to bring you ITV. But these are the firms making the hardware and software to do it, so naturally, they're fans of interactivity.
But do people want ITV? Well, there's the rub -- nobody here really knows. Shows such as Winky Dinky were popular at first, but after a few years kids got tired of the same draw-Winky-a-bridge episodes. For interactivity to work, it would need to transcend formulaic gimmickry -- and, well, TV isn't a medium known for its innovation.
Even if one assumes that consumers aren't averse to some form of interactivity, how interactive do they want their TV shows? When watching a TV version of Hamlet, do people want to be able to have a say in everything, such as whether the Prince lives or dies -- or do they just want to be able to buy the Hamlet T-shirt?
Some of those unknowns were touched on at the panel discussions on Tuesday. These talks are largely dull affairs, with company promoters often slipping into market-speak to tell why their "solutions" are the best ones out there.
But out of the morass emerged one interesting fact about ITV. Nobody really agrees on what the word "interactive" means.
In its early incarnations, TV was a very one-way medium. There were few channels, and you had to do a lot of work -- get off the couch, walk to the TV, turn the dial, come back -- to watch something else. Those were glory days for the networks, as one good show could hold an audience for an entire evening.
Of course, things slowly changed. The remote control -- probably the most significant thing to happen to TV in its history -- made changing channels a kind of national sport, and the introduction of cable TV allowed viewers many more program choices.
"And isn't changing channels a kind of interactivity?" some at the conference asked.
And then there's the Web. Today, viewers can interact with many TV shows in real time through the Internet. And some here said that, at least for the foreseeable future, that's as interactive as TV will become.
Todd Tarpley, who works on A&E's "interactive" efforts, said that many of his network's programs involve some Web element. There are, for example, Web-enabled polls for viewers to pick the best biography of the year, and Tarpley considers that a very interactive endeavor.
But what about interactive programming that doesn't use the Web? On that score, the panelists were guarded in their predictions. There are many technological hurdles to cross before most people will get ITV into their living rooms on their regular TVs, not the least of which is a large-scale deployment of the advanced "set-top boxes" that will make interactivity possible.
Deployment is occurring slowly, Tarpley said, and there would need to be five million or so people connected before he'd consider it a viable way to go.
Some attendees here are saying that given the current adverse economic conditions, there is less optimistic buzz at this conference than there was at similar shows last year. Views such as Tarpley's are representative of the majority's: Don't hold your breath, as ITV won't be here tomorrow.
In some places, though, they have ITV today. In Europe, about five millions people subscribe to an interactive sports broadcast through Sky Digital, which has been very popular.
And its success suggests that ITV will inevitably become popular everywhere. As Mark Margaretten, the director of business development at the ITV company Intellocity said, "MTV is going to sell records with their music videos. That's going to happen, it's inevitable."
