We don’t have time to watch a lot of these, but we love
Oobi. Yes, we love Oobi and are proud! That show cracks me up. They are just hilarious. We quote Oobi all the time.
Tiny Planets is also great, except for the episode where they put a fan on their airboat to make wind for the sail. Argh, bad science! But hey, a great theme song. Bing and Bong, heroes of the universe…
and of course, Sesame Street is classic, but mostly we watch the DVD, 'cause I hate Elmo and his world, yes indeedy. Also it’s too long, half an hour is about our limit for the little one since she gets grumpy.
Boobah… shudder I don’t have any kids and I’ve ALREADY decided they’re never watching that show.
Arthur is great, I think. And Caillou didn’t bother me so much. His name means “pebble”, not “big head”. That would be “gros tete”.
I have fond memories of shows such as The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Rupert, but apparently they scared the hell out of all my friends. And they all liked Sesame Street while the muppets creeped me right out. I just… don’t… like… the look… of furry puppets. twitch
Has anyone seen Sitting Ducks? It’s a European production that appears to be set in Italy, or at least somewhere with ducks on Vespas. It’s pretty neat.
I feel pity for all the American parents out there. No Bob The Builder? No Postman Pat? No Little Red Tractor? No **Tractor Tom **? All strong little case favourites, and Bob and Pat are cool. Peppa Pig is hilarious, and leads to much oinking.
About the only American {or is it Canadian?} show I can stomach is Blue’s Clues, although little case quite likes it. {Is it just me, or does Joe look like Joaquim Phoenix?} Clifford is just annoying - here’s the moral, kids: be nice. In case you missed it, here’s another: share nicely.
The Wiggles rate pretty low: too much singing and dancing, not enough construction equipment. Hi-5 doesn’t even place with the younger voter, although I like it because that Malaysian looking chick who’s always dressed for clubbing is hot.
All-time favourites, though, are the DVD’s of Dangermouse.
I’m definitely checking out Arthur after reading this thread!
I had to add that our neighbors gave Chloe a Boohbah for her birthday - it even makes weird noises when you squeeze it. Chloe is very disturbed by it and won’t play with it. The few times I’ve offered it, she’s gotten really upset and said, “A-WAY, a-WAY!” Until I remove it from her sight.
We do mostly PBS and DVDs. My 4-year old is mostly into Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder (shockingly dubbed into boring American accents). He used to watch Barney, which I (in an apparent minority of one) actually don’t mind, and sometimes he watches Sesame Street (he loves Big Bird, Cookie, Grover and the Count). I don’t know why they dub Thomas and Bob, since we have a Kipper video, which he loves, British accents and all. On DVD he’s just gotten into something called Hard Hat Harry, which has the worst production values outside of Roger Corman movies, about a genie who takes kids on educational trips to learn about farming, airplanes, space travel, etc. It’s not a bad series, if you don’t mind cringing at the bad acting and worse special effects.
My 18-month old is into music. Any time one of his brother’s shows plays music he stops to listen. He mostly watches Baby Songs, a series of DVDs that’s all music that teaches something. We’ve seen Boobah and it is EVIL.
Oh, we get Bob the Builder here. Our two year old loves Bob. She made a big fuss last night because she wanted to bring her Bob and Wendy toys to bed.
I hear lots of complaints about Barney, but frankly there’s plenty worse stuff that we’ve seen. We got as a hand-me-down a tape of a show called The Big Comfy Couch and I can’t tell you how much we hate that thing in our house. It’s the Necronomicon of children’s shows.
It’s a two way street: US shows like Clifford (the big bland dog) are also dubbed into English accents for the BBC, although they appear to keep to the original script. When they say things like “I do too” and “Too bad” it doesn’t sound quite right.
I used to like this show back when I was younger. Canadian import.
Case Sensitive, Blue’s Clues is American. I can identify the country of origin of most kids’ shows. We get Peppa Pig over here, as part of a preschool cartoon block called “Tickle U” along with some other American, Canadian, and British cartoons: Firehouse Tales (American), Gordon the Garden Gnome (British), Little Robots (British), Gerald McBoing-Boing (Canadian, based on the Dr. Seuss character), something about a kid with a bucket of dinosaurs (Canadian), and something about three African animals with funny names, I think its Yoko! Jakamoto! Toko! (don’t know country).
I thought that one was Americanian. Quick check shows it is.
There is plenty worse out there, but something about Barney just drives me up the wall. That and when I babysat on a regular basis the only thing Jessy would watch was a tape of Barney Live In New York City… It was just watch it, rewind and watch it again for hours on end. (Though I did drag her outside to play and try to distract her in other ways).
I kinda like Big Comfy Couch personally, though I have seen people complaining about it teaching their kids to put the toys away into the couch. If Velociraptor is up late enough for that show (it comes on at 7:30 now, we usually put him to bed then) we pick up our toys at the same time as Lunette picks up hers… and put them away in the stands for that.
Me too. I’ve been working on replicating the wearable wind up key Major Bedhead receives on my niece’s tape. Making a wearable wind up key that turns is easy. I’m having problems with making one that will click when turned.
Do they still show Bananas in Pajamas anywhere? Talk about nightmares! To call it corny would be an insult to corn. One of my sisters–never having seen the show–bought a tape for my young daughter, who, of course, LOVED it. I found it to be a spectacular crap-fest. Fortunately for me, even my two-year-old soon grew tired of it! I am tremendously grateful that it was a short-lived love affair, but it seemed like years at the time!
Oh, thanks a LOT. Now I’ve got the Bananas in pajamas theme song in my head, even though I’ve never actually watched the show. World’s catchiest song, is what that is.
Peep and the Big Wide World is one of my favourites. A baby chick, a baby cardinal, and a utterly narcissistic duck explore the world, discovering basic science. They end it with live action of young kids doing experiments to solidify the content. Joan Cusack narrates. It’s all good.
and, yeah, Damn, I hate Hi-5. That one guy who never stops smiling creeps me out. I never want him around my kid.
My daughter is a teen now, but when she was little, we saw The Wiggles live three times. We all loved them, their show or one of their tapes was on often in our house. I also agree with the OP’s other choices. Jo Jo’s Circus, Max and Ruby, and Charlie and Lola. They bring back sweet memories. Another one we used to love was Peep and the Big Wide World. I also have another shout out for Bear in the Big Blue House.
