Mulligan Stew
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From the mid-1960s up through the mid-1980s, 4-H television series was a major form of programming, particularly reaching new audiences not familiar with 4-H before. Some of the series were state-produced, but used nationwide; while a few were produced at the national level.
The most successful of these programs was produced in 1972 and made available in 1973. It was called "Mulligan Stew," and centered around a five-piece kid's rock group that turns on to good nutrition by solving a different type of nutrition problem in each of the six half-hour TV programs. The series was developed by Extension Service, USDA and filmed by USDA Motion Picture Service. It was developed based on plans and design proposals by Developmental Committees and Iowa State University Extension Service 4-H Nutrition Televison Programs. The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) provided a grant to produce the series. Eleanor Wilson, national 4-H TV coordinator, represented 4-H Extension as technical advisor on the series, working with Ira Klugerman who was hired to direct the series. Klugerman came from a background of children's television in Pittsburgh. Wilson remembers that the project consumed her and whatever staff she could involve. The budget, always a precarious item, had to be watched with dogged attention. On the other hand, the nutrition subject matter had to meet the standards of a host of home economists who did not always agree. Klugerman insisted that the production be entertaining as well as educational, but was unwilling to let pedantics dominate the series. The child actors were sometimes difficult and Wilson recalled that when she was not juggling columns of numbers, she was settling arguments on the set or haunting the local produce markets looking for just the right shade of green vegetables for the next day's shooting. Wilson herself was without much direct experience in TV production but she did know about Extension and she was convinced that if the show was to be a success it would have to be a compromise effort.
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And, it was most definitely successful. Geared to 4th, 5th and 6th graders with special emphasis on low-income urban youth, the series reached millions of new 4-H'ers. It was well received by the television station programming directors, by the schools... and by Extension. The Mulligan Stew series was being promoted and distributed through the National 4-H Service Committee, and the Committee's Television Specialist Larry Krug recalls the story of printing the member comicbook which supported the series. When Krug contacted the comicbook printer, Shaw-Barton, in Ohio, the 4-H printing rep hesitated when an initial order for one million copies was produced. 4-H had never ordered more than a 50,000 run of any literature. The rep questioned the number but went ahead preparing the print run. "Before we got the comic book off the presses, I had to call back and order another one and one-half million," Krug says. Before the series was completed over seven million Mulligan Stew comic books had been sold... the largest volume distribution of any single piece of sales literature in the history of 4-H.
Another TV series which merits attention here is "Blue Sky Below My Feet – Adventures in Space Technology." Although not as popular as Mulligan Stew. Produced in 1986 by National 4-H Council, Extension 4-H USDA, NASA and Arthur Young and Company, it provided an opportunity for a strong, lasting relationship between 4-H and NASA that remains to this day.
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