So I don’t plop my 7 month old in front of the tv or anything, but when I put him in his exersaucer while I’m in the shower or trying to clean up the house, I think that PBS is a more appropriate back drop than other daytime options like General Hospital or Maury Povich. I’d prefer Brody go around saying, “Elmo!” rather than, “You are the father!”
Needless to say, I’ve become familiar with some of the PBS daytime programming and I find it quite interesting.
One show that will catch B’s attention is “It’s a Big Big World” about some animal friends in the rain forest. There are lots of bright colors, fun characters, music and singing. That’s all most people would see. Not me. I can never get past the fact that the frog character is named Warts. Seriously. They couldn’t think of anything else to name the frog? Warts? I only think of a venereal disease.
I became privy to the Warts situation a few weeks ago and started to put my cynicism aside until I realized that Snook, the main character, always seems to be stoned out of his mind. He speaks slowly, methodically, and is always sleeping. The creators can get away with it, because he’s a sloth, but I know those production types and I’m sure they get super giggly about the fact that they’re creating a show with a stoner puppet (that no one knows is a stoner, except me) after they’ve smoked a giant doobie.
(Seriously though … the show is cute and the characters, stoner and venereal diseased alike, are endearing.)
Today I was in for a real treat when I turned on PBS to discover a show that B and I had not yet experienced, “Sid the Science Kid.” Brody didn’t pay any attention to it, but it was the most entertaining 30 minutes of television I’d viewed in a while. Check out this cast of characters …
There’s the highly annoying girly girl – To be highly annoying to me (a very girly girl) she has to be pretty terrible. She’s always talking about fairies, doing cheers, and participating in other super irritating activities.
There’s the boy with ADHD – Sid the Science Kid was asking his friends what kind of pancakes they liked and ADHD boy came running up to them, jumping up and down, shouting, “Syrup!!!!! Syrup!!!!!! Syrup!!!!!!” Later, inside their classroom, ADHD boy was bouncing up and down yelling, “I’m a bunny rabbit!! I’m a bunny rabbit!!!” while the rest of the class was seated for circle time. This is not fabricated.
There’s the down-on-life gothic girl … She’s dressed in darker clothing and when Sid inquired about why his mother’s pancakes were runny and his dad’s pancakes were burnt, she stated in a very flat affect, “Did you ever think the pancakes are mad at the stove?” What?!
I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!
September 20, 2008 at 1:11 am
Lol. I haven’t watched PBS in many months but when I did I thought the same things about “Big World”. I’ve never seen that science show but we used to watch Arthur. Once they aired an episode about profanity, something my children (ages 3 and 5) know nothing about (so far). Anyway, it was supposed to be about NOT saying naughty words but they did a parody of The Sopranos in which they used lots of bleeping. In the show DW and those twins required lots of bleeping. They have also done parodies of other adult shows such as South Park and made references that would (or should) go over a child’s head. PBS also (used to) aired Wish Bone a show about a dog with a vivid imagination. Once they portrayed Jekyll & Hyde in which Dr. Jekyll actually COMMITTED SUICIDE.
Hows that for “a safe place for kids” ?
September 23, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Wow this was the most amazing thing I’ve ever read some people read way to deeply into things. Now if you want nasty watch what disney makes these days. Shriek is full of sex jokes. Also you shouldn’t protect kids from everything otherwise you end up with a child who can’t deal with the real world and it’s problems. Most people with over protective parents end up in quite a bit of trouble when they enter the real world. Be selective. But do allow your childern to see that there is a ugly side to the world just don’t let them see it all or all at the same time. And please don’t tell me a sloth acts like a stoner, or that because of a broad range of personalities. that one character is this or that or this. If you wanted we could put all the characters in suits and ties and make them teach kids accouting and never worry about teaching life leasons. Tv in general has gone to the dogs and even though PBS has lost some ground, such as word world with no phonics involved (makes me miss the letter people) problem is that it is becoming more entertainment and less educational probably for ratings. But that’s business.
September 23, 2008 at 3:03 pm
My son is 7 months old, so at this point the content of shows doesn’t matter as much as it will in the future.
My point wasn’t that children shouldn’t watch these shows … This post was merely a tongue-in-cheek response to the “adult humor.”