Law passed by a Democratic Congress attempting to reverse Reagan-era deregulation; the Act ordered the FCC to require educational programming for children as part of the public-service component of all TV station licenses.

Gray areas remained–within weeks of the law’s passage the Bush-appointed FCC ruled that toy-based shows such as G.I. Joe, Smurfs, and Thundercats did not constitute “program-length commercials” that would run afoul of the CTA’s limit on twelve minutes of advertising per hour of children’s programming.

In 1993 the Clinton FCC tried to stiffen the law’s enforcement of the law after advocacy groups caught local stations claiming, in an echo of the ’80s “ketchup-is-a-vegetable” school lunch argument, that reruns of The Jetsons teach children about life in the 21st Century.

When the CTA’s authority continued to languish in 1996, however, still more explicit regulations were put in place: licensed broadcasters in 1997 would have to air at least three hours of educational TV per week. In a compromise, the feds agreed to forfeit the right to certify shows themselves; instead, deciding what’s educational will be left to the broadcasters’ “good faith.”

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