IBM to Donate $2 Million to ‘Puzzle Place’ Series : Television: Funding will enable KCET-TV to produce a second season of the kids’ program for PBS.
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Just as production is ending, KCET-TV Channel 28 finally has lined up the last piece of funding to cover the second season of “The Puzzle Place,” the children’s series it produces for PBS.
The public-TV station is due to announce today that IBM has ponied up $2 million to help underwrite the series, which teaches preschoolers about diversity and problem solving.
KCET and Lancit Media Productions had started taping of the second season of 24 episodes in April with $4.5 million in advances on expected merchandising income, which was enough money to fund the production but $2 million short of covering all the ancillary activities the producers had planned, including advertising and promotion.
Sears kicked in $1 million in June. Now the IBM grant not only makes up the remainder but also reduces by $1 million the amount that KCET and Lancit were contributing from their licensing advances.
Stanley S. Litow, director of corporate support programs for IBM, described the gift as “consistent with our overall corporate commitment to improve education in America.”
The new episodes of “Puzzle Place” will begin airing early in 1996.
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