To investigate whether a previewing technique, transferred to the television medium, enhances children's comprehension of a televised story, two studies developed a one and one-half minute edited video, designed using a variation of Ausubel's advance organizers and constructed to provide children with a brief overview of the basic plot structure before seeing the televised story, "Soup and Me." The first study examined the effects of previewing with 54 second graders in Boston using a multiple-choice test of 20 items, which assessed their recall of central, incidental, and inferential story information. Results indicated that viewing a preview before a televised story significantly increased students' comprehension of plot-essential information, but did not influence their ability to infer from the story. The second study examined previewing's effects on free recall with 39 first graders. Those in the preview group recalled the episodic structure of the story significantly better than the control group. Previews appeared to act primarily as a cuing device, drawing children's attention to central aspects of the story. Results indicated that previewing may be an effective mediational technique for enhancing children's comprehension and retention of plot-essential information from a televised story. (Three tables of data are included; an appendix provides the macrostructure for the 19 episodes of "Soup and Me," and 28 references are attached.) (MM)