Frances Horwich

Frances Horwich earned her Master's degree in education from Columbia University, and her doctorate from Northwestern. She become the host of one of the first educational programs for children, "Ding Dong School", in 1952. She's credited with developing the approach (later adopted by Mister Rogers and countless others) of talking to the viewers as though they were right in front of her. In 1954, Dr. Horwich was promoted to supervisor of all of NBC's educational programming for children. In 1956, however, "Ding Dong School" was canceled in favor of the game show "The Price is Right", and Dr. Horwich resigned from NBC in protest. Since she owned the rights to the show, she continued it in sydication until 1965. On June 2nd, 2001, Dr. Frances Horwich was inducted into the "Silver Circle" of the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of the Television Arts and Sciences, in recognition of her work as an educational TV pioneeer.