Verena Doelker-Tobler and the Children’s Program on Swiss Television

Abstract

Verena Doelker-Tobler took over the editorial management of the children‘s program on Swiss television back in 1961. She was thus one of the pioneers when Swiss television was still in its infancy. She worked at Swiss Television until the mid-1990s and went far beyond that to promote child-friendly programs.
When I focused on Swiss television as part of my dissertation on quality in children‘s television, there was only one expert I absolutely had to have on board in order to be able to publish a historical outline of Swiss children‘s television: Verena Doelker-Tobler.
And she put her heart and soul into it. I worked for weeks in her private archive, phoned former employees of Swiss children‘s television and summarized my findings. However, it quickly became apparent that this approach could not provide a complete chain of knowledge either, which led Verena Doelker-Tobler to supplement all my notes with personal memories. Only with her dedicated support was it possible to compile this piece of Swiss children‘s television history as realistically as possible.
To honor Verena Doelker-Tobler‘s work, the following are excerpts from her dissertation Qualität im Kinderfernsehen Beurteilung von Programmqualität am Beispiel des Schweizer Kinderfernsehens, Chapter 3 Das Schweizer Kinderfernsehen DRS.