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"It's 10 pm - Do you know where your children are?"

Electro

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Seems this was some type of public service announcement / call to parents that was shown on american TV in the 70s. Michael must have gotten some inspiration from this for his song.

Does anyone remember this or know more about this campaign?
 
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from the comments on this video at YouTube:

Erik Stone

Over The Years, New York's Channel 5 Had These Announcers Saying: "It's 10pm, Do You Know Where Your Children Are?" Before The Start Of A 10pm Newscast. They We're The Voices Of Lou Steele, Tom Gregory, Ed Ladd, Fred Scott, Chuck Caron, Scott Chapin, And More...
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Seems there was also another one saying "It's 7pm, Did you hug your child today?".
 
found some more...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30945/origin-its-10-pm-do-you-know-where-your-children-are

where-your-children_5.jpg


"It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?"

This ominous question, somberly intoned just prior to the local news, was eventually parodied by a multitude of stand-up comedians, novelty song artists, and horror movie posters. But the original intent of the line was very serious.

New curfew laws had gone into effect in several cities across the U.S. as a result of urban unrest and rioting during the summer of 1967. New York City, feeling the effects of the Newark riots, was one of the largest metropolitan areas affected. Mel Epstein, the Director of On-Air Promotions at New York's WNEW-TV, coined the phrase that summer as a reminder to parents to keep their kids off the streets. News anchor Tom Gregory started using the question to kick off each nightly broadcast of his Faces and Places in the News show. When Faces and Places was replaced by The 10 O'Clock News, the on-air and backstage personnel may have changed, but the catchphrase remained the same.
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Woah!! I hope the estate was able to piece together the backstory from notes MJ left behind.
 
Wow. - Incredible how Michael picked up inspiration everywhere! - I wish I was as creative as him!
 
Once again, The Simpsons has taught me stuff I didn't realize I knew:

 
Wow how young are people here? I can't be thattttttt old.. of course I remember this..

They had this in the 90s too
 
Yes, This was also promoted PSA in the 90's as well also, including pages in the phone book that read. "MOM , DAD I USE DRUGS."
 
I have a friend of mine who is obsessed with PSAs. I showed her this demo a long time ago and she picked up the PSA reference right away. She then wanted it for her iPod.

Though it's seems that it's not the only song Michael wrote that was inspired by a PSA. "Crack Kills" was also a PSA campaign. And Beat It was reworked for a "Just Say No" campaign for the Flintstones.
 
Since I first heard "Do you know?" I thought about this advert and The Simpsons. Michael was so talented that he could be inspired by anything - and make a hit. There was something truly magical about this man we all love so dearly. I hope the rest of the world will soon truly understand what the rest of us have always known.
 
Im actually surprised that quite a few of you have never heard this saying before and didn't know thats it's where Michael got it from. Then I remember a lot of you aren't American. Theres really no backstory to the saying, it may be to the song itself, probably not to why Michael chose this song title in the first place. "Its 10pm; Do You Know Where Your Children are" is a Fox 5 slogan that still occurs to this very day before the evening news. It may have originated around the time that the guh from AMW's kid had gotten kidnapped and murdered, but I'm not too sure on that.

Anyway, its meant to raise awareness to Child Abuse. Which is probably why Michael was drawn to the saying in the first place.
 
Im actually surprised that quite a few of you have never heard this saying before and didn't know thats it's where Michael got it from.
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I think TV-broadcasts in Sweden were between 18.00-22.00 weekdays and maybe 18-23 weekends.
They could send sports other times otherwise we had the famous war of the ants

http://youtu.be/MKGULVHPSns
 
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there has not been ONE time that I listened to that song that I did NOT think of the adverts from back in the day.. Thats one reason I liked it so much!! Every night on TV I'd hear that as kid.. They'd run it more than once a night.. "its 9 ocock, do you know where your children are?" Remember the days when channels would just stop for the night and have the lines on the screen?? lol!!

Yeah that happened in the 90's..
 
I don't remember the PSAs, but I do remember when television channels would sign off, like this:

 
I remember this being discussed when the song first leaked... Michael was a genius :)
I bet someone in the US media will pick up on this when the album gets released.
 
msdeweydiva said:
I don't remember the PSAs, but I do remember when television channels would sign off, like this:

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That was much grander than we had in Sweden
After the last program it was shown an image of a clock some minutes before the picture disappeared
 
morinen said:
I remember this being discussed when the song first leaked... Michael was a genius :)
I bet someone in the US media will pick up on this when the album gets released.
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and if they don't, we should help them to pick it up:)
 
morinen;3981941 said:
They have. As soon as the album got played in the USA, of course someone recognized it :)
http://www.vibe.com/article/what-ha...hup-plus-4-other-things-we-learned-mjs-xscape
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Great!!!
"MJ Found Inspiration In Televisions PSAs
Everyone remembers that old public service announcement that preceded the nighttime news: "It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?" In a similar fashion, Michael tells the story of a runaway kid on “Do You Know Where Your Children Are?” over a galactic synth loop that’s still stuck in my head, two days later."

So there is a hope that some journalists understands what this song is about, and hopefully others will pick it up too.
 
Michael was definitely concerned about this. I love how he was able to bring his own views into his songs, it makes it much more personal to me.
 
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