Then vs. now

[Samantha Weltzin]

Anyone remember 3-2-1 Contact on PBS? Or Square One on PBS?

*crickets*

How about Reading Rainbow and Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego? Ah, there we go!...maybe?

I remember 3-2-1 Contact, but not Square One. The others, of course, were super-popular, so yes. Familiar with those too!

Ah memories...*Nostalgia lane.*

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Anyone remember 3-2-1 Contact on PBS? Or Square One on PBS?

*crickets*

How about Reading Rainbow and Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego? Ah, there we go!...maybe?

3-2-1 Contact on PBS?  No.

Square One on PBS?  No.

Reading Rainbow? Yes.

World Is Carmen San Diego? Totally! (Good show!)

[rainfyre66]

3-2-1 Contact on PBS?  No.

Square One on PBS?  No.

Reading Rainbow? Yes.

World Is Carmen San Diego? Totally! (Good show!)

Aw man, JQ, I thought if anyone might remember these it'd be you! Tsk tsk. They had some catchy theme songs though!

3-2-1 Contact-

Square One-

[The Green Fox]

I agree childrens television has been dumbed down. Instead of teaching kids to talk on shows for really young kids, they sometimes just have the characters speak jibberish and nonsense that isn't even English. Ever seen Pingu the Penguin? Boohbah? The characters act like brainless mind controlled zombies, that can only repeat their own name at best, and nothing else (I'm not bashing Pokemon ROFL, I think Pikachu is cute, and is actually an intelligent, possibly spiritually advanced creature).

Pingu is somewhat safe, I think. Boohbah is the spawn of Satan, jk, well, maybe not jk. Also, Dora the Explorer teaches that if you tell a thief to not steal from you, he'll stop stealing from you, snap his fingers, and say "OH, MAAN!" and wander off. How does that apply to real life? Not one bit. If a burglar broke into my house, and I told him to stop swiping my stuff, he might shoot me dead if I used the Dora method.

Childrens television should remain fun and imaginative, but at the same time, try to stay realistic at a certain level. Shows for slightly older kids, shows like SpongeBob and Jimmy Neutron, in my opinion are not dumbed down as much, and contain truly evil villains, and truly courageous heroes, and semi-realistic social situations at times. Kids shows should be more adventurous in my opinion, also, teach values like friendship, the difference between right and wrong more, rather than the "anything goes" attitude that is very prevalent in society today. 

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Aw man, JQ, I thought if anyone might remember these it'd be you! Tsk tsk. They had some catchy theme songs though!

3-2-1 Contact-

Square One-

Nah, I might have remembered 3-2-1 Contact, from a long time ago, but not Square One.

[The Green Fox]

It will eventually become obvious, despite what I said about current kids shows, that EVERY generation thinks the last generation was better, or that their current one is better. What I believe will eventually happen, is that old people will look like idiots, and young people, and the young at heart, will reign supreme forever. In the far off future, like in thousands of years, I think people will evolve. This is a spiritual belief I have that is not associated with any religion. It is my belief that when humanity evolves, if it does, there will still be rules, but not as many. People will laugh at what used to be the concept of morality, and a morality that meets the needs of people, rather than one that restricts the needs, will come  into place. Humanity will come to terms with itself, and what it's all about. Crime will be a thing of the past, because there will be more constructive non-harmful to others ways to release anger, sexual feelings, etc.

Humanity must come to terms with itself, rather than say one generation was more disgusting than the other.

Until humanity faces up to the fact that it has problems that need to be worked out, we're all dead.

Let's hope and pray that this day comes.

[Samantha Weltzin]

It's a thought, yes. We have the potential to do what you described here, Green Fox. The question is, of course, whether we're going to destroy ourselves before something like that happens.

Here's the funny thing, though: You can actually track brain activity while watching shows. I'm willing to bet money that brain activity is higher during Sesame Street than it is during Dora the Explorer, which is bad because infants' brains are supposed to be higher in activity than those of adults', given that they're still developing.

This isn't arguing about generations in specific, although I could make an argument about that as well, so much as it is about children's programming and how it's being dumbed down unnecessarily in an attempt to "protect fragile minds" and stuff.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

hey, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WLbJ8TpLP4&feature=related

[Samantha Weltzin]

God I love Mad TV. :D

[Thu'um]

not all movies and tv shows are bad now

[Samantha Weltzin]

No one ever said they were. This is just about kids' programming in general.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Pee Wee's Playhouse was a great show...today's kid's shows are just brain destroying schlock, bogged down with commercials...

"All That" started out funny, but then it went to crap (sorry about the audio quality):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngN_ZMBTJg&feature=search

...personally I liked "Roundhouse" and "You can't do that on television" better.

[Samantha Weltzin]

Augh. Commercials. Don't get me started on those. They used to have a point, but now I wonder if they even affect anyone anymore. I guess they must, given the huge amount of money thrown into their production.

But yes. Even the early-childhood-oriented Peewee's Playhouse could at least be appreciated by people with an IQ over 50. And All That was just funny. I remember enjoying that for a long time. Guess I didn't catch the tail end of its run, though, 'cuz I remember it always being good.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Even that "Ernest P. Worrel Show" was pretty good, for kids and adults.

I like how he's always pestering Verne at his window, and always ends up getting his hands trapped on/in the windowsill, and Verne just shuts the shades/curtains/shutters on him, or how he always wants a "Wall Street Tycoon" haircut, but it always came out wrong.  I couldn't find any good youtube videos on his show.

"Boogeyman!  I'm on the first basement step!"

*steps down*

"Boogeyman!  I'm on the second basement step!"

*steps down*

"Boogeyman!  I'm on the third basement step!"

*steps down*

"Boogeyman!  I'm on the -WHOA!"

*falls down the steps and gets tangled up in the net*

:lol:

[rainfyre66]

I guess the biggest point we're all missing though, including myself, is why are we so reliant to have our kids get such a large portion of knowledge from the TV? Since when is it television's- something that was invented as a form of entertainment- responsiblity to provide quality education, something that parents and the school system should be doing most of all?

I have to tell myself this when I'm ready to start pulling chunks of my brain out through my ears with a wire hanger when I'm stuck watching Dora the Explorer or Caillou or other various kid's programming that drives me up the wall.

[Sabre]

I guess the biggest point we're all missing though, including myself, is why are we so reliant to have our kids get such a large portion of knowledge from the TV? Since when is it television's- something that was invented as a form of entertainment- responsiblity to provide quality education, something that parents and the school system should be doing most of all?

I have to tell myself this when I'm ready to start pulling chunks of my brain out through my ears with a wire hanger when I'm stuck watching Dora the Explorer or Caillou or other various kid's programming that drives me up the wall.

It's not that it's the only source of learning, or that it exsists soly to educate, but it is a powerful tool as well as one of the few activities pairents can do with their kids. Of course there are dumbos out there who are like that. I'm told 90% of Americans get all there knowlage about other culture from TV. I don't know it that's true, but that would explain alot such as why Americans think Saving Private Ryan is accurate and why they get upset when the hero of any story is not american.

Off topic, but this cultural blindness is why so many games are americanized. Other nations are willing to accept an ethnic hero, whereas americans are not.

Back to your point though I think the issue (as I already said) is a case of nostalgia. Bad programs are forgotten (such as earth warp) whereas the few classics remains, and thus the bulk of crap is today judged on the standards of the then classics.

Let's apply this mindset to games as an example. I know we are all knowlagable of retro here, but Im going for an example here. What games of the Snes do you remember? SF, Contra, Mario, maybe the odd lesser known game like Street Racer or Putty Squad. There was about 800 games on Snes. That's 0.08% of the Snes libery. Those are being held up as representative of the entire Snes libery, excluding such crap as Shaq Fu and Primal Rage.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

I guess the biggest point we're all missing though, including myself, is why are we so reliant to have our kids get such a large portion of knowledge from the TV? Since when is it television's- something that was invented as a form of entertainment- responsiblity to provide quality education, something that parents and the school system should be doing most of all?

I have to tell myself this when I'm ready to start pulling chunks of my brain out through my ears with a wire hanger when I'm stuck watching Dora the Explorer or Caillou or other various kid's programming that drives me up the wall.

True. 

The thing is, the old shows weren't so much "educational" as they simply were funny, well thought out, and stimulated some brain activity, especially for kids.  Grown-ups could enjoy them, even.  But today's kids' shows don't do that, they're just mind numbing schlock.  I think that's what Samantha meant when posting this topic originally.

[fox1235]

Quote

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[Samantha Weltzin]

It's not that it's the only source of learning, or that it exsists soly to educate, but it is a powerful tool as well as one of the few activities pairents can do with their kids. Of course there are dumbos out there who are like that. I'm told 90% of Americans get all there knowlage about other culture from TV. I don't know it that's true, but that would explain alot such as why Americans think Saving Private Ryan is accurate and why they get upset when the hero of any story is not american.

Off topic, but this cultural blindness is why so many games are americanized. Other nations are willing to accept an ethnic hero, whereas americans are not.

Back to your point though I think the issue (as I already said) is a case of nostalgia. Bad programs are forgotten (such as earth warp) whereas the few classics remains, and thus the bulk of crap is today judged on the standards of the then classics.

Let's apply this mindset to games as an example. I know we are all knowlagable of retro here, but Im going for an example here. What games of the Snes do you remember? SF, Contra, Mario, maybe the odd lesser known game like Street Racer or Putty Squad. There was about 800 games on Snes. That's 0.08% of the Snes libery. Those are being held up as representative of the entire Snes libery, excluding such crap as Shaq Fu and Primal Rage.

Yes, there is a lot of schlock. If the SNES was bad, the NES was far, far worse and even some of the "classics" were awful on that platform (Metroid, for instance, was clunky, mean-spirited, and actually pretty boring; Blaster Master was a better version and it doesn't get much press).

That said, can you supply a list of good children's programming that only recently came on? I've looked (mind you, not -that- hard), but I haven't been able to find a popular kids' show playing now that started after the year 2000 that was even slightly comparable to the good shows of the past.

[Sabre]

Yes, there is a lot of schlock. If the SNES was bad, the NES was far, far worse and even some of the "classics" were awful on that platform (Metroid, for instance, was clunky, mean-spirited, and actually pretty boring; Blaster Master was a better version and it doesn't get much press).

That said, can you supply a list of good children's programming that only recently came on? I've looked (mind you, not -that- hard), but I haven't been able to find a popular kids' show playing now that started after the year 2000 that was even slightly comparable to the good shows of the past.

Franklin is pretty good and I've heard good things about big cook little cook. Hilltop Hospital is awesome (no DVD release yet) I've not dug to deep, but you also have to remember the large amount of repeats on both then and now.

[Samantha Weltzin]

That's odd. I wonder why I haven't heard of any of those? Maybe they're just not as infamous or something.

Guess I'll check out clips from 'em.

[Kursed]

Sesame street wins so much. Say what you will about it, but it was some quality children's programming.

Amen.

anyway this is what I have to say to this  When will then be now?

[Guest Julius Quasar]

:lolhyst:

Good one, Kursed!

Sad we went? from cool stuff like Spaceballs, to crap like Scary Movie and that other garbage that's out now. 

[Samantha Weltzin]

Good one, Kursed!

Sad we went? from cool stuff like Spaceballs, to crap like Scary Movie and that other garbage that's out now.

Hey now, Scott Pilgrim was amazing. There's still some good stuff out these days too. It's just harder to find among the massive flooding of other, crappier things.

[Kursed]

Hey now, Scott Pilgrim was amazing. There's still some good stuff out these days too. It's just harder to find among the massive flooding of other, crappier things.

I'm sorry you can't beat classic actors like Michal winslow I've lose the bleeps I've lost the sweeps aand the creeps