Jot (TV series)

History

Ruth Byers, a Baylor University graduate and former director of children's productions at the Dallas Theater Center, and Ted Perry, a writer at the Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission, were commissioned by Dr. Paul Stevens, the commission's president, to create a television show offering simple moral lessons for young children. Production began in 1959, with the first episode released in 1965. Keitz & Herndon, an American television production company, worked on the series alongside animator Tom Young.

The show's style was deliberately simple to cut costs—the budget for early episodes never exceeded $25,000 and later dropped—and to keep the design from interfering with the message. The main character, Jot, is a white circle with simple facial features, hands, and feet; his color and shape change to reflect struggles, representing changes in a child's emotional state. His hands and feet appear only when he is still, and he has no nose. Jot sometimes appeared with Tug, a character voiced by Ed Ruth who learns a moral lesson.

Lou Kelly voiced Jot from 1965 to 1967, in 1968, and in 1981; Colleen Collins voiced Jot in 1967. The series premiered on Peppermint Place, a Sunday children's show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, and later on The Children's Hour on WBAP-TV in Fort Worth. Episodes were syndicated worldwide and translated into 19 languages, becoming popular in Sunday School programs. The program received over 175,000 letters from children, answered by a volunteer group from 22 churches.

Regular production continued until 1974, with additional episodes made for the 1980–1981 season. Jot the Dot later became owned by FamilyNet Television and served as the network's mascot for its "Families on FamilyNet" programming block until 2014; the animation was updated for television spots and Web promotions, and the original shorts were formerly available on the FamilyNet website.

Legacy and reception

In Chile, the series aired as part of the Evangelical program Puertas abiertas on TVN, localized as Puntito. It was parodied in the Animaniacs (2020) season 2 episode "The Warner's Vault". George W. Woolery wrote in Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years that the abstract messages captivated children beyond anticipation, requiring a volunteer group from twenty-two churches to answer the 175,000 letters the films prompted. The series also appeared on the Christian variety show Joy Junction.