Do you know where your children are?
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Do you know where your children are? is a popular question used as a public service announcement for parents on American television throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, usually at 10:00PM or 11:00PM, depending on the market and/or the time of the local youth curfew. The phrase originated from Buffalo, New York's long time ABC affiliate WKBW, and was possibly inspired by the Scottish bedtime story, Wee Willie Winkie.
WKBW news director Irv Weinstein is said to have begun using the phrase at the beginning of his career in the early 1960s, at the suggestion of a local viewer. WKBW used the phrase until 2003, when virtually all of its old image was scrapped in favor of a newer package.
Besides being used on WKBW, the question became the long-running slogan of New York City TV station (and eventual Fox affiliate), WNYW, which often had celebrities saying it on camera just before the news.
[edit] In popular culture
- The phrase is used in an ethnic joke:
- What's the difference between America, Canada, England, France, Italy, Poland, and Japan?
- In America they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your children are?"
- In Canada they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your neighborhood is?"
- In England they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your family is?"
- In France they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your husband is?"
- In Italy they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your wife is?"
- In Poland they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know what time it is?"
- In Japan they say, "It's 10PM. Do you know where your viewers are?"
- Comedian Lewis Black wrote a play in the late sixties by this name along with Cary Engleberg.
- The question is parodied in an audible on Yahoo! Messenger with "It's 11PM. Do you know where your brain is?".
- In an episode of The Simpsons, while Bart is out late, Homer is watching TV and the PSA plays, to which he replies "I told you last night, no!"
- CBS used the phrase "It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your parents are?" between shows to advertise the series Swingtown.
