Watch with Mother was the first television program series to address specifically a preschool audience, and along with BBC radio's Listen with Mother, which began in 1950, it represented a shift in BBC policy to make programs, both on radio and television, for this very young audience. Until this time, the BBC had made occasional radio programs for the very young: however, in the words of Derek McCulloch ("Uncle Mac"), director of Children's Hour radio, the network did not think that the young should be "catered for deliberately." This audience, according to McCulloch, came "into no real category at all." (An earlier program, Muffin the Mule, which was originally shown from 1946 on BBC children's television, had all the appearances of a preschool children's program but was in fact addressed to all children and was popular with adults as well.)

     During the planning stages of Andy Pandy; there was clearly some reticence about introducing a television program for very young children, and the BBC had a special panel to advise it, consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Institute of Child Development, the Nursery Schools' Association, and some educational child psychologists. There was particular concern about children watching television on their own, leaving the "mother" free to do other things. To counter these concerns about the development of the child and the responsibilities of the mother, Andy Pandy, and the later programs, needed to be imagined in such a way as to allay such fears. The textual form of the program and its scheduling were important in this respect.

     Created by Freda Lingstrom (head of Children's Television Programs at the BBC between I 951 and 1956) and her long-standing friend, program-maker Maria Bird, Andy Pandy was designed to be a program specifically directed at the preschool audience. Lingstrom, while assistant head of BBC School's Broadcasting, had been responsible for Listen with Mother and was asked to make a television equivalent on music and movement lines. Andy Pandy had no linear narrative structure. Instead, it presented a series of tableaus with no apparent overarching theme. For example, in one program, Andy starts by playing on a swing, accompanied by Maria Bird singing, "Swinging high, swinging low." He is joined by Teddy. The camera then focuses on Teddy, who enacts the movements to the nursery rhyme "Round and Round the Garden." Finally, after a scene with Andy and Teddy playing in their cart and a scene with Looby Loo singing her song, "Here we go Looby Loo," the two male characters return to their basket and wave goodbye and Maria Bird sings, "Time to go home." Lingstrom argued that the tempo was slow and there was no story so that the action could move from one situation to another in a way totally acceptable to the very young child.

     The program was designed to bring three-year-olds into a close relationship with what was seen on the screen. Andy Pandy was intended to provide a friend for the very young viewer, and as a three-year-old actor was out of the question, a puppet was the obvious answer. The characters took part in simple movement, games, stories, nursery rhymes, and songs. The use of nursery rhymes was seen as particularly important, as it worked both to establish a relationship between the mother and the development of the child and also to connect the child to a tradition and community of preschool childhood. The children were invited not only to listen and to watch the movements of the puppets but also to respond to invitations to join in by clapping, stamping, sitting down, standing up, and so forth.

     Andy Pandy drew upon the language of play in order to make itself, and also television, homely. Mary Adams, head of Television Talks at the BBC, argued that the puppet came to the child in the security of his or her own home and brought nothing alarming or contradictory to the safe routines of the family. In Andy Pandy, and also in The Flowerpot Men, the fictional world of preschool childhood was presented within the confines of the domestic. Andy, Teddy, and Looby Loo were always presented within the garden or the living room. Likewise, in The Flowerpot Men, the characters were presented within the garden and in close proximity to the little house that was pictured at the beginning of each program. In Andy Pandy we hear nothing of the outside world, whereas in The Flowerpot Men the only off-screen character we hear about is the gardener, whose character, neither seen nor heard, signifies the limits of this imaginary world.

     Watch with Mother was never scheduled within the main bulk of children's programs between 5:00 and 6:00 P.M. When, in September 1950, there was discussion that Andy Pandy should be shown with the rest of children's programs, Richmond Postgate, acting head of Children's Television Programmes at the BBC, firmly responded by stating that at 5:00 P.M. three­-year-olds should be thinking of bed. The program was designed to fit into the routines of both mothers and small children, and it was scheduled at different times during its early history. However, changes to its scheduling caused minor revolts, which were widely reported in the press. For example, when in 1963 the BBC planned to show Watch with Mother at 10:45 A.M., the Daily Sketch declared that "for most small children 10:45 is a time to 'Watch without Mother.' And there's not much joy in that." However, although the timing of the program was intended to provide a space especially for mother and small child, it is clear that some viewers saw it as a means to do other  things.

     In the 1960s and 1970s, a new stream of programs were invented for the series (e.g., Pogles' Wood; Trumpton; and Mary, Mungo, and Midge). There was still significant emotional investment in the older programs, however. For example, there was much concern in 1965 when viewers thought that Camberwick Green was to replace Andy Pandy and The Flowerpot Men. Doreen Stephens, head of Family Programmes, reassured the audience, stating that the familiar shows would be shown, which they were, although less frequently until 1970. It was no surprise that when a number of the older programs were released on a Watch with Mother video in 1986, it became a best-seller and topped the BBC's video charts.