Answer:
Fact. A Connecticut Public Television Executive (and grandfather!)
said this of the show. Incidentally, this quote came to be known
through the Lyons Corporation's Texas Spokesperson. Could it be
that those in the Lyons Corp. are PROUD that their show shuts kids
up and is used as a babysitter? It sure seems that way.
Source: The New Yorker, May 3, 1993, p. 37