The counter-thread to this one would be in the Pit where I would complain bitterly about the dumbing down of Sesame Street, but I’m thrilled to submit Between the Lions as proof that children’s television doesn’t completely suck.
The show is brilliant.
In a near wasteland in which puppets with lisps, creepy quartets, and soppy purple dinosaurs dispense little educational content and heaps of shallow morality lessons are standard fare, Between the Lions stands out like Audrey Hepburn in a trailer park. No goofy faces hamming it up, no painfully bad child actors pushing a weak plot, no hack songs which act as shameless promotions for a concert tour. The show is brisk, stimulating and chock-full of rapid-fire phonics lessons which are over before even the most resistant child realizes he’s just learned something.
Age differences don’t matter when one is watching quality stuff, and this show is thoroughly entertaining in the way that Bugs is…the little ones get the gags while the grown-ups laugh out loud at the subtle wit and word play, and a child can’t be exposed to too many smart cultural references in my opinion. As an example, I’ll give you Fun With Chicken Jane, a regular short cartoon segment which appears in each episode. Scot, Dot, and their fowl friend Chicken Jane live in a Primer world, reminiscent of the Dick and Jane series (get it?) and each week some disaster ricochets off the two children and onto Chicken Jane. Watch one here.
So we’re using our newly acquired Tivo to snag and record as many episodes as possible, then saving them on DVD just in case this show goes down the same sorry street as the previously mentioned PBS show. Now I won’t feel guilty when the Farmkids want to watch a couple of hours of tv on a rainy day.