As for this show, it held a contriversal memory of encouraging the kids to draw on their TV screens!
(I hasten to add; most kids did not have the kit...)
I well remember Jack Berry from the original "The Joker's Wild"-- the voice of Mae Questal was often heard in cartoons of the 1930's & beyond. She was Betty Boop & Olive Oyl...Little Audrey....etc. she would later be remebered as "Aunt Bluebelle" for Scott towels TV commercials & even later still, National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation". She made an appearence at the international Sons of the Desert convention in 1985 where she sang Helen Kane/Betty Boop songs with Vince Giordanio & the Nighthawks. She could still perform the voices! Her & Vince would also record a number together for Woody Allen's 1920s-stlye "Zelig" movie.

I'm trying to imagine the suffering of the adult host presenting this show. Wow.

Interactive, yeah, but I'm glad my childhood missed this one by about ten years. The Shirley Booth sound of the voice would've sent hypersensitive kid me running out of the room. Adults pretending to be children always sounded especially awful to me.

Some things, although clever for their time, are better off lost in the ozone! I'd heard of this show and the magic screen and all, but until now hadn't seen it...understand, I'm truly glad it's here for viewing, historically, but...wow. This thing survived and Ernie Kovacs on DuMont got dumped in the ocean? Just sad, man. A cosmic joke.

OMG, I used to watch Winky Dink and [me]
when I was a kid. The plastic screen
was green and it was cohesive -- it stuck
on by itself as long as you wiped the
dust off the screen first. The markers
were crayons but not Crayolas. When
finished you could take your brother's
bankie and wipe off the writing in
preparation for the next day's fun.

One of the founding members of the
Daycare By TV industry.

Very Creative it seems that was the interactive toys of the 50s. now they use all technology but once crayons were the populer items. the voice cast is pretty amazing aswell if i must say so myself with Mae Questel as Winky Dink alongside jack barry.

As I recall the Winky Dink Magic Crayons didn't taste as good as my standard Crayolas but, other than that, this show brought back fond memories.

...and I seriously had a WTF moment reading the previous review. Either somebody is trying to be funny, or the constant watching of Sid Davis films has had an unexpected consequence of mental insanity.

In his defense, I once posted a review forgiving the makers of a show for nuking my grandparents. And I'm not even Japanese!

A transparent plastic overly was affixed to the TV screen for WINKY DINK, so the viewer at home could "participate" in the show by drawing a bridge for Winky to cross, or a cross upon which Winky would be crucified, and so on.

Sometimes children forgot to affix the plastic screen. They would draw directly on the TV glass with the corrosive, permanent WINKY MARKER. In the 1950s, televisions cost (adjusting for 2009 inflation) the equivalent of two hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars. When parents discovered their children had destroyed the household treasure, they often killed their own offspring. It wasn't even a crime until 1958.

A pornographic version of this toy was marketed in the mid-1990s. It was called STINKY PINKY AND YOU and used not only a clear plastic screen, but a number of other rude implements. The product did not catch on, for it was thought, at the time, that pornography was unsuitable for children.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER claims that due to the success of YO GABBA GABBA, WINKY DINK will return to the "airwaves" in 2010, hosted by Joe Piscopo. The show has been canceled in advance, and it will never air after 64 episodes have been produced.

I can't not wait!