Good Night! Sleep Well!

During recent parliamentary hearings on broadcasting, the leader of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for his scandalous behavior and not always successful humor, offered himself as a candidate for the host of Good Night, Sleep Well, Little Ones!, the entertaining and educational bedtime TV program for preschoolers. Zhirinovsky promised that, as host, he would “lull the whole country to sleep in just ten minutes.”

Good Night Sleep Well, Little Ones! (Spokoynoy Nochi, Malyshi!) was first broadcast forty years ago, on September 1, 1964 and has changed very little over four decades. As a result, many associate it with the Soviet past – few TV programs, except perhaps the much-changed news broadcast Vremya (“Time”) and the never-ending In the World of Animals have had comparable lasting power.

Good Night revolves around four characters: the bellicose dog Filya, the mischievous pig Khryusha (whose name comes from the Russian sound for “oink-oink” – khryu-khryu), the talkative crow Karkusha (from kar-kar) and the upbeat rabbit Stepashka. Typically, the show features a cartoon as well as some educational material, e.g. elementary math, physics, chemistry, or anything from traffic rules to civic morality. Some young parents who grew up with Good Night cherish nostalgic memories of it and see it as one of the few programs that teach kindness; others feel it is a silly, short (only about 10 minutes) program with awful puppets. And yet, in 1997, Good Night won the national TV TEFI Prize for “Best Children’s Program,” and Khryusha was voted the program’s best character.

Thematically, Good Night is often very inventive. For instance, guest Galina Yegorova, who collects Russian folklore and sings folk songs, designed and created characters and sets for a series of folk tales: in one episode, all the puppets were made of the straw; in another, the famous “Kolobok” tale was told entirely with characters and sets made from honey-cakes; finally, a winter tale had puppets and sets made from white lace.

In 2001, President Vladimir Putin suggested changes to Good Night, including showing mostly Russian cartoons, and making it more educational, with puppets teaching English and reporting news. The program underwent many changes. For many years, the program was shown on the state-run First Channel. But advertising is prohibited there during or surrounding children’s programming, and decision-makers decided they could not afford 15 minutes of commercial-free time in prime time. Little-by-little, the program was shortened, eventually down to just nine minutes, including a two-minute lead-in by famous cartoonist Yuri Norshtein. Then the program was moved to the Kultura (Culture) Channel, where it was promised a 15-minute time slot. But this immediately reduced the program’s audience, since just a few regions have access to Kultura, unlike the nearly 100% coverage of First Channel. So, in March, 2003 it was agreed to show Good Night on the more widely-distributed Rossiya Channel. Present hosts for the program include Anna Mikhalkova, elder daughter of the well-known film director Nikita Mikhalkov, and Oksana Fyodorova, policewoman and winner of “Miss Universe 2002.”

All of Good Night’s characters have always been very peculiar. Khryusha (the pig) was originally intended to appear in just one program, but Natalya Derzhavina, the voice of Khryusha, made him such a charming character that he has never left. In Soviet times, Khryusha was deemed a “negative” character, whose example should not be followed – you could find stuffed Filyas and Stepashkas in toyshops, but Khryushas were rare. However, all children loved the pig, and he became the program’s most popular character. Perhaps it was Khryusha’s bald honesty, which came to be one of the most vivid examples of free speech on TV. Khryusha has never been afraid to talk silly, to admit his mistakes or buck public opinion. The “human” and funny anti-Soviet Khryusha was the only one of the puppets that differed from the countless dull characters of classic Soviet mythology.

In Soviet times, the rabbit Stepashka, a virtuous dullard, was an enthusiastic Pioneer that one imagined would grow up to become a staunch Komsomol or Party leader. The crow Karkusha played the role of the Soviet Philistine – full of twaddle and a love of glittering things, but completely shallow. The bear Mishutka seemed to be a mixture of conflicting emotions – a modest office employee, unhappy about not doing any useful public work, ever ready to obey the will of the “collective,” but, in his heart, a dreamer and an outsider.

In 1991, Good Night expanded beyond the realm of their 15 minutes of pre-bedtime fame. Khryusha became a showman. He, Stepashka and Karkusha started appearing in concerts, becoming real national heroes. What is more, the Good Night characters became the basis for a satirical program, Tushite svet! (“Turn off the Light!”) In this political program on current events, Khryusha became the caddish Khryun Morzhov, while Stepashka became the boring Stepan Morkovkin.

Today, when Russian television is being colonized by Teletubbies, western soap operas and reality shows, one cannot help pining for a simpler time, when the quirky, simple characters of Good Night were interesting enough to become Russian kids’ bedtime pals.