Sunday, August 17, 2008

What happened to kid TV?

Today, my brother made a joke about the name Doug today. He's seven and was like, "Haha, Doug? Like, I dug a hole??" And then he laughed for about five minutes.

I, however, was still in bed, half asleep. So when he mentioned Doug, I immediately thought of the old cartoon I used to watch daily as a child. And then I thought of the many other shows I remember from my childhood:

Doug
Hey, Arnold!
AAAHH!! Real Monsters!
Little Bear
Rupert
Allegra's Window
Blue's Clues
Lamb Chop
Barney
Ren and Stimpy
The Angry Beavers
Rugrats

Sometimes, I see Blue's Clues or Little Bear or even Hey, Arnold! on TV. I never actually look for Barney, but I'm sure it is on still. But where did all those other shows go? Rupert always had the coolest adventures. He flew and swam and met all kinds of cool creatures. Doug was such a cute show, too. And AAAHH!! REAL MONSTERS was not scary but really funny and cute. I basically grew up on Allegra's Window and Lamb Chop was my favorite show as a toddler. And The Angry Beavers and Ren and Stimpy had funny looking characters but I laughed my head off at those shows. And Rugrats always had a story or a moral and it was my favorite show ever.

But now these shows are replaced with Hannah Montana, Barnyard and other shows that are less amazing than the ones I grew up on. They're more annoying, in my opinion, and aren't supporting things my shows did. Unless you're watching Jimmy Neutron which makes science look like magic, other shows like Spongebob have lessons once in a while but is mostly full of gags to make the kids laugh.

Most of the cartoons my brothers watch are full of mindless plots, over-dramatic (and most often stupid) characters and no real lessons to speak of. Just like toys now give kids no imagination, so does our TV.

I remember Little Bear so well because it was always so imaginative. He went on adventures, played with all his friends and it was a magical show for me as a young child. But there aren't any shows like that anymore that I can think of. It's a shame that we've given up quality shows for shows featuring lisps, bad grammar, disrespect and force-fed mindlessness.

1 comment:

. said...

OMG... i hate TV
man, I remember the magic school bus and how I loved that show uber much
I mean, I still watched it up until they took it off TV just because I have public TV, and there were about 3 good shows on after school that weren't completely kid oriented.

Now when I occasionally babysit, I try to get the kids to actually use their imagination, and they're like... "but I don't want to. It makes my brain hurt."

Some day, our world is going to have no more authors... no more novels...
it's so sad :'(