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ABC NEWS 


 View Related Topics  


SHOW: ABC GOOD MORNING AMERICA (7:00 am ET) 


JANUARY 19, 1999 


Transcript # 99011916-j01 

TYPE: PACKAGE 

SECTION: NEWS 

LENGTH: 443 words 

HEADLINE: THE MYSTERY OF POKEMON 

BYLINE: DIANE SAWYER, CHARLES GIBSON 

HIGHLIGHT: 
A LOOK AT THE POPULAR KID'S CARTOON 

BODY: 
    
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE 
UPDATED. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: All right, a mystery solved. Yesterday one of our guests was an 
8-year-old little chatterbox... 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: Sort of. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: . I earned my pay on that one -- whose letter about lying ended up 
as part of Congressman Henry Hyde's closing argument in the President's 
impeachment trial. While little William Summers was with us, he mentioned his 
favorite cartoon. 
  
(Clip from Good Morning America) 
  
WILLIAM SUMMERS: It's kind of like a cartoon show. Starts with a "P." You can 
probably guess it. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: I probably can't, actually. You can probably tell me during 
commercial with any luck. 
  
WILLIAM SUMMERS: "Pokemon." 
  
DIANE SAWYER: "Pokemon"? I never heard of it. 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: We'd never heard of it, didn't know what he was talking about. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: It turns out that it's a Japanese cartoon. Supposedly it got into 
some controversy because apparently it induced seizures in hundreds of people in 
Japan because the characters were moving too fast. And they took it off the air 
for a while there, although it's visible now and visible here. Of course, it has 
spawned a lot of go with it. -- merchandising to go with it. 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: We have a Game Boy with the "Pokemon" game on it. There is that 
thing. I don't know what that does. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: He's one of the characters, I think. 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: I guess. I don't know. And here's a -- I can't see this stuff 
anymore, I hate to say. A Pokemon Picachu. I don't know. It obviously captured 
William Summers' attention. I'm sorry, I should show it. And he certainly gave 
it a lot of publicity yesterday. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: And I felt so dumb. And not for the first time. Or the last. 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: Moved so fast that it gave me seizures, too. 
  
We'll be back. 
  
(Commercial Break) 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: A Reminder to stay with ABC News through the day for the latest 
on this eventful day in Washington. Peter Jennings will anchor coverage of the 
impeachment trial 1:00 Eastern Time. Tonight at 9:00 Eastern, live coverage of 
the President's State Of The Union. 
  
DIANE SAWYER: Of course, tomorrow on Good Morning America, we'll have reaction 
to the President's State Of The Union, and the first interview with the newly 
powerful House speaker Dennis Hastert. 
  
CHARLES GIBSON: Also, Dr. Nancy Snyderman with a look at the new class of diet 
drugs coming out. 
  
We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. Take care.