What is "let's pretend"

This article is on the US radio series. For the UK TV series see Let's Pretend (TV series). For the Raspberries song see Let's Pretend (Raspberries song).

Let's Pretend, created and directed by Nila Mack (1891–1953), was a long-run CBS radio series for children.

It had several different early formats and titles. Aunt Jymmie and Her Tots in Tottyville began October 27, 1928. Aunt Jymmie was the host of this Saturday morning children's program's whimsical tales of fantasy and fairy tales. She introduced each week's tale which was enacted by a cast of young children, "the tots." The young "tots" traveled to Tottyville, a make-believe world of king and queens, princesses, witches and magic spells. Originating from the WABC studio in New York City, the flagship station for CBS, this series lasted for 18 broadcasts until February 23, 1929 when it was replaced by the 30-minute The Children's Club Hour with Howard Merrill, who was the host and the scriptwriter. During the 1940s, Merrill scripted for The Gay Nineties Revue, Secret Missions and detective series such as Sherlock Holmes, Leonidas Witherall and the Abbott Mysteries. The Children's Club Hour, which offered fairy tales performed by juvenile cast members, began March 2, 1929 and continued until June 22, 1929.

After 17 broadcasts of The Children's Club Hour, the time slot was given to Estelle Levy and Patricia Ryan who created another children's program, The Adventures of Helen and Mary, scripted by Yolanda Langworthy. Broadcast on CBS Saturdays at noon and other late morning timeslots, this series began June 29, 1929.

Let's Pretend was a 1980s children's television series aimed at preschool ages in the UK. It was shown across the ITV network at 12:10 on Tuesdays, then later on Mondays, replacing the popular Pipkins which had been cancelled at the end of 1981. Like its predecessor, each edition was fifteen minutes long, and the programme was produced using many of the same personnel such as the puppeteer Nigel Plaskitt and the producer Michael Jeans.

Each week the presenters would find a number of ordinary household items and contrive to produce a short story featuring them all. The first programme, "The Story Of The Broken Puppet", was shown on Tuesday 5 January 1982 by Central Television. The show was broadcastweekly until 1988, Big Centre TV Re-Aired the programme.

The show's original opening titles showed items moving along a conveyor belt into the mouth of a large plastic whale, and later a puppet caterpillar moving along the screen.

Category:ITV children's television programmes Category:1982 British television programme debuts Category:1988 British television programme endings Category:1980s British television series Category:Preschool education television series Category:Television series by ITV Studios Category:English-language television programming

"Let's Pretend" is a hit single by Raspberries, released in March 1973. It was written by band leader Eric Carmen, who also provided the lead vocals. It was the second single release from their second LP, Fresh.

The song reached the Top 40 on three principal U.S. charts, number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 18 on Cashbox, and number 14 on Record World. It was also a number 13 hit in Canada. It spent 16 weeks on the Billboard chart, longer than any of their other singles except for their greatest hit, " Go All the Way," which lasted 18 weeks.

Eric Carmen stated that "Let's Pretend" is one of the best melodies he has ever written, and that he reused part of it for his first solo hit, " All By Myself." He said the song lyrics about young people in love dreaming about eloping and making a life together are a recreation of the concept in Beach Boys' song " Wouldn't It Be Nice."