With a 2 year old in the house, I get exposed to a lot of children’s television. These programs run the gamut from the good (Backyardigans) to the bad (Teletubbies) to the ugly (Barney). Lately I found one on PBS on demand that’s just so darn cute! Has anyone else seen Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks? The stories are cute, the animation is well done and the morals fit nicely into the story. Mel Brooks as the sheep is particularly amusing. Does anyone else watch this show?
We try and watch it when the antenna pulls it in good. The little one is only 14 months though and we don’t want her watching much TV. She does seem to like Jakers well enough though.
Jakers is really well done. My 4 year old loves it. Compared to a lot of the crap PBS shows (yes, I’m looking at you Caillou and Dragontales!) it is a breath of fresh air.
Kipper is the only other kids show that comes close. I can watch Kipper and Jakers with my daughter, but if Caillou comes on I’m ready to reach through the TV screen and strangle that whiny little brat along with his codependent parents.
Jakers is pretty good - and with a 2 and 4 year old I have had the opportunity to sample most of them. And hey, any show that gives Mel Brooks work is ok in my book.
Seconded on Caillou being a real pain. My son likes it, but there is no way I would let him act like that in my house.
Another one that drive me nuts is Max and Ruby - overbearing older sister rabbit and bratty little brother Max, who always gets his way, usually by screwing over his sister. I would be more upset, but Ruby is so self rightous that she deserves what she gets too.
Lemur, if you have Nick Jr, I highly recommend The Backyardigans. As I mentioned in my OP, it’s excellent.
The Wonder Pets is a cute show too. Although the duck (or is it the chick?) can’t say his "r"s, but besides that, I like it (I’m not even sure why that bothers me). My 1-year-old likes it too. If it’s got music, she likes it. Unfortunately, that means we watch a lot of The Doodlebops.
I’ve seen a little bit of Jakers and it looks cute, but so far it hasn’t grabbed her attention.
The favorites for my wife and I are The Upside Down Show (worth watching even if you don’t have kids), Backyardigans, Wonder Pets and Jakers. The Littlest Briston likes all of these, but prefers Dora over anything else.
And I’d like to see someone pull a Fatal Attraction on Max & Ruby. I hate those two more than it is in any way reasonable for someone to hate a couple of animated rabbits.
You and I need to talk - maybe we can get some of Judge Doom’s dip from Roger Rabbit to do the job cartoon style.
Yup, it’s all about music. “Backyardigans” and “Wonder Pets” have lots of music, so they’re terrific.
Wonder Pets! Wonder Pets! Rah rah rah!
THIS IS SEWIOUS!
I don’t really have any qualms with current kids TV shows (I watch them when nothing else is on, even though I don’t have any kids), although I do have a mock feud with Paz over on TLC. I don’t really dislike him, and he doesn’t really do any harm (other than forcing them to cut the segments from the end of The Magic School Bus where Malcolm Jamal-Warner explains everything that happened on the show that couldn’t in real life for time reasons), and I love the way he says “King Rollo Films” during his production credits. Yet for some reason, I call him “that goddamned penguin.” And Hip Hop Harry just plain baffles me- think Barney and Friends, except replace the giant dinosaur with a giant rapping hamster. Okay. But the Wonder Pets and the Backyardigans- they do no harm. I’m pals with them. Is Wow Wow Wubbzy! still on?
Last week, a friend in Idaho was going on about Jakers. My local PBS station doesn’t carry it, but yesterday I watched a couple of episodes on YouTube (“Pie Filling” and “Growing Up”)- OMG, that is adorable! And I love the gimmick of these being Grandad’s tales of his childhood.
“Piggley, Ferny, Molly and Dannon
never miss a chance to have too much fun
in Tara or Raloo-
lots of adventure for everyone!”
I love the word jakers, we used to say it as kids and still say it sometimes. It’s kinda a polite replacement for “jesus!!!”.
Would “Jenny Mack!” replace “JesusMaryAndJoseph!”
“Janey Mack!” is how we’d say it but yeah probably. Or you could try “Janey Mack Ananey!”
My husband tapes Jakers to watch…my 3.5 yo hates it. We have about 20 episodes sitting in queue right now.
Favorites for my son: Upside Down Show (which I love, too), Diego (his obsession), Lazy Town (incredibly well done).
He also likes Wonder Pets, but I can’t stand that one, so that doesn’t often make it on the viewing schedule. I was in the grocery store the other day and there was a woman pushing her cart around singing, “What’s gonna work? Teamwork!” under her breath. Cracked me up…that show is the worst for sticking a song in your head.
Max and Ruby should die.
Oh my, I can’t believe you heard me! :o
Seriously, that’s something I would do.
At least one phone call per day in our home is met with a rousing “The phone! The phone is ringing! The phone! We’ll be right there!”.
Then I want to throttle myself.
That last point is important. Too many childrens’ programs imagine these blissful, halcyon childhood settings that even my 3-year-old doesn’t believe. The gimmick makes the tales more natural, simplifies the telling, and yet links the lessons of the show with modern, believable children’s dilemmas.
My children like the program (Mel Brooks is a real hoot as the ram), and I personally find it cute, but one thing that bothers me slightly is the computer animation. Something about seeing a character’s cureved toothline in the mouth when they talk is distracting…