Wiggle Talk - A Podcast For Parents · The Wiggles & iHeart Australia

What Play School Taught Us About Parenting

·36 min·2 clips

They would not stop tape unless you said a swear word, because they wanted you to model problem solving.

1. Wiggle Talk's episode "What Play School Taught Us About Parenting" revisits the ABC children's show Play School's 1980s and 1990s era to draw out low-pressure ways for parents to connect with children. 2. Hosts Simon Price (the Red Wiggle) and Lachie Gillespie (the Purple Wiggle) speak with former presenters Philip Quast, a three-time Olivier Award winner who played Javert in Les Miserables, and Noni Hazlehurst, a four-time AFI Award winner. 3. The core thesis is that Play School worked because presenters spoke to the camera as "one child," stayed genuine rather than performing, and modelled imperfection, which parents can copy at home. 4. Hazlehurst started in 1978 and Quast in 1981, and they describe a strict audition of two songs, a make and a story, plus a 32-page script with no autocue, rehearsed a week ahead and taped live in blocks of five shows. 5. Tape stopped only if a presenter swore, which Hazlehurst says was deliberate so presenters would "play your way out of it" and children would learn that mistakes are not catastrophic. 6. Hazlehurst says she misread John Hamblin's ad-libbing as slackness until she saw an episode back and realised he was being himself, while Quast says he spent his first year "watching like a hawk" before finding the excitable, naughty child in himself. 7. Quast describes making up songs for his sons, including one about flushing "Mr. Blippi Bloppi" down the chute and a "nudie rudie" bath-time song, and Hazlehurst notes that her own child was just as likely to say no to "would you like to sing with me?" 8. Both criticise screens as a babysitting tool, with Hazlehurst linking post-COVID speech development difficulties to children not seeing faces and Quast describing parents pushing swings while looking at a device. 9. They argue that moving from live taping to segments has left the show "a bit smiley and a bit glossy," and they recall the ABC receiving complaints when two men presented together and over an Italian-themed week, alongside the cardboard sets and unmerchandised toys such as Big Ted that kept play accessible to every child. 10. Parents nostalgic for Play School or wanting simple play ideas will enjoy it.

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