Eureka (partially found Polish educational TV series; 1957-1977)

Title card.

Status: Partialy found

Eureka is one of the oldest Polish educational television programmes, with the first broadcast on 4 September 1957. It was a popular science magazine, of a scientific and technical nature, which was founded and produced in the Chief Editorial Office of Educational Programmes of Polish Television. The magazine format of the "live" programme was invented by Maria Korotyńska and Ignacy Waniewicz. Maria Korotyńska was the first editorial director. Soon Jerzy Wunderlich became the long-serving editorial director.

Background

The programme was created by: Andrzej Mosz, Rafał Skibiński, Zbigniew Zdanowicz, Teodor Zubowicz. Andrzej Kurek also joined the team, and more recently Marek Siudym.

Each journalist was tasked with developing 1-2 topics and presenting in the studio. The presentation of the prepared material was supported by actors dressed as historical figures. Guests were invited to the studio, prominent Polish researchers, patent creators or technical people related to the topic presented. The studio hosted, among others, professors Janusz Groszkowski - radio engineer; Leopold Infeld - physicist, collaborator of Albert Eistein; Tadeusz Kotarbiński - philosopher, praxeologist; Bogdan Pniewski - architect; Hugo Steinhaus - mathematician; and others. Thematic series such as "Show what you invented," "Eureka with a visit to...," "Masters of technology," "Monuments of Polish technical culture," "Museum of technology," "Journeys into the future,"" "Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow at the latest...", "How to look at a work of art",etc. Monothematic special editions of the programme were frequent. Silhouettes of prize winners in the fields of chemistry, physics and medicine were presented in the autumn.

Each topic was illustrated with a film, charts, photographs, exhibits or diagrams as appropriate. Whole pieces of technical equipment were also brought into the studio. On 22.03.1965, the entire programme was played from Poland's first videomagnetophone (so the editorial notes), a VCR. Often, the programme's crew would move to the field television centres of Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Szczecin and Wrocław and realise topics related to the research and technical institutions there. Other popular science programmes originated from Eureka, such as: "Man, Earth, Cosmos" - Teodor Zubowicz, "Pleasant with useful" - Andrzej Mosz, or "Sonda".

Example of the Series Content

Only 4 topics were included in the programme: The Institute of Scientific Information, guest director Piróg, author Jerzy Wunderlich;

• Mariner II, charts and film, by Rafał Skibiński;
• Venus, charts, stills, by Andrzej Mosz;
• Satellites-Spies, by Teodor Zubowicz, M.Sc., Andrzej Mosz;

(as recorded in the programme notebook).

Availability

Eureka was rebroadcast on the 'Intervision' network, e.g. on 14.09.1964, 1.02.1965 or 22.01.1968. Special episodes for foreign countries were also published, such as Eureka for the CSRS (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic).

Today, the only fragment of Eureka survives in general circulation, despite several complete episodes being stored in the TVP archives.

Gallery

The only publicly available extract from Eureka.