Determining what aspects of television entertainment program content influence a viewer in his decision about the real/pretend nature of that content was the purpose of this study, in which interviews were conducted with children, adolescents, and adults. Interview responses were coded in categories of content cues, with the coding of content attended to being more extensive for the children's responses. Examples of categories used include: program name, program type, production techniques, types of action, plot lines, and objects on the set. Findings show that younger children tend to utilize more specific and concrete aspects of television content in making evaluative decisions and that, with increasing age, there is a decreased use of specific content cues and an increased use of the more general. Further research is being conducted to assess if teaching content cue interpretation to children is sufficient to alter the impact, and/or to make children more critical consumers of television. (STS)