What is wrong with kids' TV

[bestjob]

I am on a real anti-kids'-TV crusade these days. Here are a few of the things I hate about it:

Every show is made to fit in a time slot of the same length. Would you respect a library that had only books with exactly 100 pages and 30 pictures?

All the supposedly educational shows look the same. Isn't there room for originality in cartooning? There seems to be a rule against real-life actors as well.

The "hosts" of educational shows are frenetic teenagers who seem interchangeable. Their sets are all busy, busy, busy, with unrelated junk all over the place.

Any other comments?

[khrisday]

COMMERCIALS!!!!!
and commercialism in kids TV. Every show has a line of products to sell now.

[hydrangea]

We do very little tv and a few videos. We only get PBS anyway. We hate commercials. We hate children sitting like zombies and staring at a screen. I hate the fact that even though my children only watch PBS and occasionally, they still know what Chuck E. Cheese is! Chuck E. Cheese is a PBS sponsor and has one of those "non-commercials." I hate my children getting attached to characters that then we can go spend lots of money on buying plastic, doomed to landfill, versions of at the toy store.

I want my children to use their imagination, and tv leaves no room for imagination. They can see what the characters look like, hear their voices, etc. When they have books read to them, they need to use their imagination a lot more.

I remember years ago reading that shows like Sesame Street actually promote short attention spans. They're always jumping from subject to subject, encouraging children to think that they always need to be stimulated.

I don't want to sound like I see absolutely NO value in television. I know I have learned quite a bit from some educational shows I've seen, and I know that my children have learned some things as well. They have seen things on tv, other places, other ways of living, etc., that they probably wouldn't see around here.

However, almost any show on tv that's good enough for me to think I'd allow my kids to watch it and learn something from it has been put on video.

[khrisday]

It's true, we just disconnected our cable (yet again) and the kids watch one video (an hour or less) a day while I take a shower. They get less advertising this way and we have more control over what they see.

[bestjob]

Does anyone know the titles of good videos available at the library or video store that offer something different, either culturally or visually?

[serendipidy]

We love the big adventure series by Little Mammoth Media (I think they have a website: www.littlemammothmedia.com? It is also known as the Big Adventure series. We have watched 4 or 5 of them, our favorites being the Big Space Shuttle and the Big Plane Trip. They are super informative and geared towards kids in the 5-8 age range, maybe older. Our 5 year old loves them. We have gotten them out of the library.

Like many of you, we do very little tv. We actually do NO tv (including PBS) unless it is a special program of some sort - for example, we watched much of the winter olympics. We do 1 video per week on average - a friday night treat. Often, the kids request to watch a home video, which of course is commercial free and provides great family time too, reminiscing...

[serendipidy]

Darn! Sorry, that was supposed to be www.littlemammoth.com.

Newbie warning. :-D

[lavender]

One of the few things we still watch is Reading Rainbow on PBS, hosted by Levar Burton. In each show a book is read, then he interviews kids or professionals or there's something related to the subject of the book. At the end, kids suggest more books on the same subject. PBS still airs it, but we've gotten them from the library too.

We've watched a couple other PBS shows, too. Cyberchase, Sagwa, and occasionally Zoboomafoo, but I don't really like them much and we've nearly phased them out--we're thinking of maybe even phasing out TV altogether in our house...

[Thall]

Bestjob:
Most of the "educational" kids stuff tries so hard to be PC and non-violent and inoffensive and educational that it gets stupid and boring.
So stop watching PBS and get cable.

There's lots of really fun and creative cartoons on now. Dexter's Laboratory is really funny and good, as is Spongebob. The new Justice League cartoon is quite good, and Samurai Jack is very interesting. The cartoon network also shows tons of classic cartoons that are well drawn, clever and well imagined, with interesting plots, that are NOT all the same length.

Even the various action/adventure shows (Power Rangers, Digimon, etc) usually show more imagination and creativity than the same episode of "Dragon Tales" for the 10th time.

As for commercials, they are an invaluable resource for educating one's children about the vagaries of our society and the capitalistic system.

I just don't get the "TV stunts the imagination" thing either. Every show of interest that I've encountered becomes the source of endless imaginative play. The plotlines are much more complex and creative than most "children's books".
We've done hundreds of complex experiments inspired by "Dexter's Laboratory". We've created thousands of morality plays (complete with theme songs, costumes, background music and sound effects)inspired by the various cartoon heros and action adventures.

The only books that I've seen similar sparks from are books about old myths and legends (King Arthur, greek, roman, celtic (and other) myths, Robin Hood, classic fairy tales) which have much more in common with Power Rangers than they do with anything on PBS.

[ekblad9]

We don't have cable either and stick to mostly PBS or nothing. The biggest problem that I have with shows like Spongebob and the like is the commercials in between. They're just awful. I've noticed so many commercials on PBS now too. It's kind of sad. I know there are some wonderfully educational shows on things like the History Channel and TLC and we will probably get cable again when the kids are a bit older. If only you could choose what channels you want.