The adventures of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po spread far beyond the boundaries of Teletubbyland. First Britain fell under their spell, then the USA. Three months into the invasion, this report from the frontline.

	The show respects children's sense of humour	This calls for a Tubby Toast. Three months after a surprisingly smooth touchdown in America, Teletubbies, PBS' live-action British import for tots, is drawing all of the acclaim and little of the criticism it elicits in the United Kingdom. Airing on most affiliates after Sesame Street, Teletubbies stars a quartet of pear-shaped, Popsicle-colored beings - Dipsy, Tinky Winky, Laa-Laa and Po - who gambol over flowery hillsides and watch videos of real children on their tummy TVs. Fans on this side of the Atlantic were quickly taken with the Tubbies, whose guileless repertoire consists mostly of giggling and hugging. "The show respects children's sense of humour," says Alice Cahn, PBS' director of children's programming. Though recent ratings data aren't available, Cahn says viewership has been strong since Teletubbies premiered April 6, with 2.5 million preschoolers tuning in the first week. But what about U.K. critics' complaint that the Tubbies teach poor diction to the diaper set? That hasn't mattered in the USA, where the 'Tubbies' baby slang is seen by parents as a boon to tykes learning to talk. "That's one of the things it was created to do," Says Kenn Viselman, president of The itsy bitsy Entertainment Co., the show's U.S. distributor.
	I just used 'Big Hug' the other day to help mediate a disagreement	As in the U.K., Teletubbies has attracted a diverse following, including not only parents of the 1- to 4-year-olds for whom it is created, but also teens, college students and other adults. Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children's Television, says the adult attraction escapes her, "but viewer feedback has been extremely positive. An enormous number of parents with very young children find their kids like this show better than anything else on TV, and because of that, they do, too." "Maybe I'm in my second childhood," muses fan Anne Czubek of Toledo, Ohio, a 40-ish hospital lab worker. Czubek, who has no kids, says she and two co-workers mimic the Tubbies' soft, crescendoed phrases to relieve stress on the job. "I just used 'Big Hug' the other day to help mediate a disagreement", she says. "And saying 'Laa-Laa' or 'Po' (in the characters' voices) makes us laugh. Of course, everyone else thinks we are crazy, so we tend to only do this between ourselves." Some public TV programmers have begun rebroadcasting the show at night for grown-ups. "It's a great way to end the day," says Bill Young, program director of KERA in Dallas. Young airs an episode for adults each Saturday at 1 a.m. CT. "Personally, I've found no matter what my day was like, after watching it, I think everthing is all right." Unofficial Tubbies Web sites are flourishing. Some probe for subtext among the show's odd props and surreal special effects. Others offer theories on the characters' sexual proclivities and their sweet and crunchy sustenance: pink Tubby Custard and smily-face toast. One renegade site from the Tubbies-saturated U.K. presents action sequences of the characters being gruesomely beheaded. But the Tubbies are still on their honeymoon in America, where talking Teletubbies dolls have been selling well for toy retailers such as FAO Schwarz and Toys R Us and will be introduced in discount stores such as Target and Wal-Mart in August. Teletubbies books, puzzles and home videos will flood stores come September. "That will probably be the next controversy, the merchandising," Viselman laments. "But modern parents demand this stuff for their kids." Cahn says she hopes the show continues to stimulate discussions. "We see it as an enormous step forward that parents and child-care providers are asking questions about the television their children are watching."