Kids' TV.

[Melaisis]

And the desecration thereof.

Recently, a friend of mine posted a rant on our shared blog about the longevity of television shows which we watched when we were kids. Now, I'm from the 'Rainbow' era, whilst he comes in a few years later. However, he makes a point of saying how much better (and certainly less weird and/or politically correct) TV was when we were kids. Also, we're both British, so how was kids-centric TV in America twenty/twenty-five years ago? Informative? Funny although you didn't get the jokes? Downright rude?

Full article [http://www.reviewsrantsrandomness.com/2008/07/11-01-my-childhood-called-it-wants-its.html].

 

[bluerahjah]

Well let's see 20/25 years ago we had Fraggle Rock, the Smurfs, the Snorks, while all good when we were kids, also corny as hell. It seems that tradition has reared it's head again in the newer cartoons.

 

[JakubK666]

You DON'T like Teen Titans?

 

[SteinFaust]

hmm. i had sesame street, power rangers (season ONE, the best ever), a bunch of crap from Cartoon Network, and the classics like popeye etc.
so in order, i learned that:
-talking to strangers such as giant birds and people that live in trash bins is okay, but only as long as you yell out a letter or a number every 5 seconds.
-all conflicts can be solved by changing your clothes, beating the piss out of someone, blowing them up, and changing your clothes again-- ALL with no repercussions.
-animated bullshit is still bullshit, regardless of how many fart jokes and innuendos occur in the process.
-and that eating your greens can help you beat the living hell out of someone the size of a brick sh1thouse, reflect bullets, and can get you a very flexible (though skinny) girlfriend.
XD

 

[SteinFaust]

Funny, the cartoons I watched growing up are still enjoyable today.

Looney Toons, Tiny Toons, Batman the Animated Series, Biker Mice from Mars, Exo Squad, Pirates of Dark Water, Kevin Spencer, Samurai Pizza Cats, XMen, and of course, South Park.

those were all good, cept i can't remember what pirates of dark water was about... it sounds SO familiar..

EDIT: OH THAT ONE! ah thank jebus for wiki..

 

[tiredinnuendo]

The fact that we've gone from the classic Sesame Street that I grew up with to Dora the Explorer on TV and classic Sesame Street "may not be appropriate for children" DVDs in stores, all in two generations pretty much sums up exactly what happened to kids TV.

And by the way parents, if you are under some delusion that Dora is good for your children, you are wrong.

- J

 

[LewsTherin]

I am worried about childrens television.

High. School. Musical.

Anyone whos doesn't get chills from hearing that there is a THIRD installment coming out is either 8 or inhuman.

In MY day *snicker* I watched stuff like sesame street, Spider man, The Bugs Bunny and Tweety show and Power Rangers (when it was good), none of these cheap laugh ridden monstrosities. For example, I was unbelieveably bored one day so, completely out of character for me, i turned on the T.V. and lo and behold, Hannah Montana. I made it 30 seconds. Truly terrifying.

This is Lews Therin, urging you to kill your T.V.

 

[JakubK666]

High. School. Musical.

Anyone who doesn't get chills from hearing that there is a THIRD instalment coming out is either 8 or inhuman.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!1

Disney Channel needs to die.While I can watch the worst of Cartoon Network crap without suffering too much, Disney sitcoms make me want to shoot myself.

 

[zirnitra]

I had play bus, postman pat, fireman sam loads of stuff like that when I was very young. then I got older it was more imported american action cartoons; defender of the earth, some thign I always remember about this guy who whenever he came into contact with water turned into this amphibious fish boy thing. Thundercats, Dogtanian, biker mice all the classics, then when I was about 10 pokemon came along I was obsessed with that for awhile and stopped watching kids tv when I was 11 and a half maybe

 

[orreso]

Disney and 4kids need to commit suicide, Cartoon network just needs to get halfway decent voice actors and animators, then MAYBE they'd have a chance. Anyway I watched bugs bunny, (the Million box skit is my favorite) looney tunes, Tom and jerry, basically anything Hannah Barbera.

 

[rainey]

I have a 3 year old daughter, which gives me a good excuse to watch some children's tv today. I have to say, apart from a couple of programs which I actually think are pretty good, I'm saddened at how soulless children's tv is these days.

It gave me another good excuse to visit my local hmv shop and treat her to some of my childhood favourites, which she loves by the way; Bagpuss, Chorlton and the wheelies, Ivor the engine, The Clangers. There's more I need to get my hands on too, like The mysterious cities of gold cartoon series, battle of the planets and Ulyses. She's a bit too young for these at the moment though.

These programs had brilliant stories and animation. They ooze depth and feeling, not like the computer generated cartoon crap we see on cbeebies and Nick Jr today.

I also think this ties in quite nicely with the current gaming market. While alot of today's games have top notch graphics, they lack a certain element of depth and story. I don't know what it is. I just think there's a real lack of pride in what people do these days. Everything just seems to be so money driven. Cobble it together as fast as you can and get it on the shelves, there's no life and soul in things anymore.

Starting to ramble so I leave it there for now.

 

[Jumplion]

I watched Digimon, Yu-gi-oh, Pokemon (that will always have a place in my heart, no matter what they did with the theme song and overall show), basically all the real crap ones.

Though I do like to revisit digimon every now and again, though the 5th season the data squad crap is horrible.

I need to go watch Pokemon. Now. And Power Rangers, there's just something about the kung-fu action that's so horrible it's great. GO GO POWER RANGERS! *voowoosh!*

High. School. Musical.

Anyone who doesn't get chills from hearing that there is a THIRD instalment coming out is either 8 or inhuman.

I screamed in terror when I saw the cardboard cut out advertisement. No matter how hard I will kick and scream, I am going to watch it (on TV atleast). And I thought the first one was pretty good actually, the second one however was horrible.

 

[SteinFaust]

hahaha we need to get up this mountain. can you tell me where the mountain is?..........
............
............
.............
...........Very good! mountain! la montana!

that's just lazy on the part of the animators and voice cast.
and who the hell needs to learn spanglish? why not just immerse a child in an all spanish show? little kids are sponges for languages.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Uhmmm....this is my savantic knowledge thread, so I'm gonna try and stay quiet.

Let's put it this way. I grew up watching Kid's TV and I can probably name any theme song from 74 onwards, up til about 2000 odd when Cartoon Network etc. got all corporate.

But don't knock Dora. She rocks.

Put it this way, anyone else remember Hector's House, The Herbs, Barnaby, Fingerbobs?

And pffft....High School Musical? Fame did it decades ago.

 

[SteinFaust]

not really,no.
what's that?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Last time I did a list of all the ones I could remember, there was over 200.

 

[SteinFaust]

the second one from the top looks like a shot of "Albi, the Racist Dragon"
*falls out of chair laughing*

EDIT: link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Qu3iP3RYA

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

That's Tarragon the Dragon. If I remember rightly, he was velly inscrutable; so you might have a point.

 

[jim_doki]

here's a blog i wrote about how messed up kids cartoons actually are

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=212632344&blogID=401155713&Mytoken=DC8F2046-B2A0-4635-B47764083ED86F071617058

 

[cleverlymadeup]

i had sesame street and mr dressup when i was growing up, didn't really like mr rogers as much as mr dressup tho

after school had cartoons on, fraggle rock and the smurfs were on their first runs, transformers and thundercats were soon to follow

the funniest part was when watching a friend's sibling, i saw George Carlin as mr conductor on shiny time station, i laughed cause i knew who he was at that point