Wednesday Afternoon Diversion: James Earl Jones Counts To 10

By Kevin Robinson in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 4, 2013 8:00PM

This short clip produced by Children's Television Workshop was originally thought to be boring and repetitive. Subsequent research into the way preschool children learn, however, found that children responded positively to this and another of Jones reciting the alphabet.

Researchers found that videos like this gave children the opportunity to say the letters or numbers first, with Jones serving as either confirmation or correction. And while that seems simple and obvious in 2013, in the 1970s, it was innovative television.