Country of origin Israel No. of seasons 1 Running time 30 minutes per episode Number of episodes 45 | No. of episodes 45 Number of seasons 1 | |
Network Israeli Educational Television Genre Children's television series Similar Parpar Nechmad, Rechov Sumsum, Rega im Dodley, Kishkashta, Zehu Ze! |
Bli sodot ofra haza
Bli Sodot (Hebrew: בְּלִי סוֹדוֹת lit. Without Secrets), is an educational television show broadcast on Israeli Educational Television during the years 1983–1986 and on reruns during the mid-1990s. The show was intended for lower grades of Elementary, seeking to help with their reading. The show was incorporated as an integral part of the school curriculum and was even accompanied by 10 study booklets and five enrichment booklets, published by the Center for Educational Technology (CET).
Contents
The first-of-its-kind educational television broadcasts intended to teach children to read and would visualize to the viewer the process of reading through songs and sketches led by some well-remembered characters such as Gashash Balash ("Probing Detective") and Itonish ("Newspaperman"). The show's hosts Hanny Nahmias, Oshik Levi, Nathan Nathanson, and Hanan Goldblatt, and several other actors who'd participated on the show such as Shula Hen, Ofra Haza, Galia Isay, and Matti Sari. Plasticine Animation clips, introducing the characters "Alphy" and "Betty", were also featured.
In the days of only one channel, the show received extremely high ratings among children and is considered one of Israeli Educational Television's classics. Its popularity led to a follow up series called BeSod HaInyanim (Hebrew: בסוד הענינים) between the years 1991-1992. First graders would watch Bli Sodot while second graders would watch the Besod Ha'inyanim follow-up.
The show remains an integral part of Israeli culture, with 39% of elementary schools still using it in the classroom.
Parpar nechmad and bli sodot ofra haza
Characters
Recurring themes
Episodes of the show were usually constructed with a standardized structure, which included learning of two new letters with similar Niqqud (Hebrew orthography).
A standard episode was built with two sketches, one for each letter, where objects are presented to have the learned letter within them, and repetition of the syllable and examples on the use of the letter in the word. On top of the known sketches and characters there were also repeated segments on each chapter intended for memorization of the letter, and several of them became part of Israeli popular culture.