Endearing television is hard to come by, despite seemingly wall-to-wall preschooler shows on the air.

"Make Way for Noddy" is, at the very least, charming and delightful, a breath of fresh air in the curriculum-driven and activity-driven world that is preschooler TV today.

It's not that it's bad to be a program that promotes pre-reading skills or bilingual skills or any of those other get-ready-for-school skills. Once in awhile, however, it's nice to watch a show that's simply age-appropriate and sweet.

An import from England, "Noddy" features a perky human host, Naomi, who cheerfully introduces each segment of the computer-animated program. Each show has five parts - two stories, two short pieces about words or phrases in a foreign language, and a cheerful closing song that goes on verse after verse.

The "Say it with Noddy" pieces offer new words in Spanish, French, Mandarin or Russian - just to name a few of the languages - and in a most delightful way tell viewers there's "another way to say" whatever the word might be. It's a casual, fun approach to foreign languages.

In Sunday's new program, Noddy learns two different concepts - asking before borrowing and playing by the rules. In each segment, the cute little boy in the blue hat does something that probably could be classified as thoughtless rather than naughty. In the first part, Noddy "borrows" a wrench from Mr. Sparks, although he doesn't tell Mr. Sparks, much less ask for permission. Noddy forgets to return the wrench and Mr. Sparks looks and looks for it. Finally, Noddy fesses up, the wrench is found and Noddy learns this could have been avoided if he'd only first asked.

In the second part, Noddy and his buddy decide to enter a flower show, but they put off planting their carefully selected seed and realize, the day before the show, they have no flower to enter. The two snatch a wild flower and plop it in a pot. They win first prize until their deception is uncovered. They lose the prize but learn a lesson - play by the rules.

This program, like another "Noddy" version that aired on PBS in the late 1990s, is based on books first written in 1949 by Enid Blyton. It's proof, once again, that children basically enjoy the same simple stories, regardless of when or where they live.