Whenever they visit, and I look after them, the most useful tool in making the job as stress-free as possible is kids TV. On sky that’s, everything form 601 onwards. I press ‘6’, ‘0’, ‘1’ and invariably my oldest niece (by far the dominant one) says “Leave this on”.
It doesn’t take long for me to be transfixed, mesmerized, and glued to whatever happens to be on. Ed Edd, and Eddy, Powerpuff girls, that one with the kid and imaginary friends (I forget the name)
I’ve also watched countless DVDs with them (a futuristic cartoon version of Treasure Island, finding nemo, 101 Dalmatians etc…) and I took them to the flics to see The Incredibles. I loved every film.
The only thing stopping me from watching the kid’s channels when on my own is dignity.
I am insanely obsessed with Nanalan. It is soooo cute, watching it is like holding a baby. I liked it better when it was just little shorts with very little dialogue, but I’ll still watch the longer eps if I’m up when they are on.
Some of my favorite TV shows have been series that were targeted at kids and teens, stuff like “Weird Science,” “Eerie, Indiana,” “Dinosaurs.” Not to mention all the various incarnations of the Muppets.
I may have grown old, but that didn’t compel me to grow up.
But what if it’s not good, quality entertainment?
I am ashamed to say that I will watch WinX Club any time it’s on. And not because I have a younger sister.
I’m a huge nerd, so I’m really not secrative about the fact that I watch a ton of kids stuff.
In fact, when I’m hung over and in bed on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Jetix on Fox Family is my best friend in the world. X-Men and Spider-Man reruns, Digimon, and Power Rangers? Oh yeah.
Speaking of which, I’m completely hooked on Power Rangers: SPD just because the new Green Ranger is really, really hot.
I developed a love for *Invader Zim * last summer. I’ll check out the animated features, even the disney ones, when they come on TV to see if they’re any good(And they usaually are at least amusing).
When I was living with my dad, and then my sister - I was addicted to pretty much everything on Noggin. Then they started to show “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” and “Clarissa Explains It All” and I was completely hooked. I LOVED those shows growing up.
Now that I’m on my own and lack the satelite dish, I miss that channel.
I love kid’s shows. So many of them now are very clever, I find them much funnier and more experimental than the formulaic sitcoms made for ‘adults.’ Spongebob Squarepants, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Lab… I also like most of the Disney movies, though the straight-to-video ones can be pretty painful. Everything Pixar has made is great. And of course I’m excited because in '06 they’re supposed to be releasing an entire animated film about a RAT.
I was never fond of the live-action teenager shows, though. I get the impression most kid’s cartoons like Spongebob are written by weird guys with a twisted sense of humour, but shows like “Clarissa Explains it All” always seemed kind of contrived and too fake for me.
Yes, and I’ve never made a secret of my opinion: they are uniformly better written than Primetime programming.
Much more intelligence goes into the script.
Why would it be a secret? I like kids’ tv and movies and books. They’re fun. Screw that dignity stuff–taking yourself seriously all or even most of the time will put you into an early grave.
I can’t really say that I love any kids shows in secret…I’m pretty open about it.
Off the top of my head, I can think of several shows that wind up in the ‘best series ever’ catagory, regardless of targetted age group:
Action/Drama:
Transformers: Beast Wars (those of you who have seen ‘Code of Hero’ know what I’m talking about)
Justice League
Batman: the animated series
Roughnecks
Comedy;
Spongebob
Codename: Kids Next Door
Billy and Mandy
I agree, except for the Power Rangers. But I think both X-Men and Spider-Man had their best adaptation with those early 90’s cartoons. Now if only they could get Batman: The Animated Series on there as well. Oh, and maybe The Tick.
Actually, if a network was to replicate Fox’s Saturday morning lineup from the early-to-mid 90’s, I’d be all over it.
Astroboy
Beetlejuice
Digimon
Dangermouse (no relation to Dangermom)
Heckle and Jeckle
Jayce and the wheeled Warriors (from Paul Dini, who worked on Batman: TAS, Babylon 5, and The Real Ghostbuster)
Jem
Jumanji
Kimba, the White Lion.
My Life as a Teenage robot.
You know what, I also liked the Ghostbuster cartoon, the one that had nothing to do with the one with slimer, but was instead based off of a "F-Troop spin off movie. It had a girl who’s skin was colored purple.
I secretly like those cheesy made-for-TV movies on Nickelodeon and Disney. Yeah, they’re corny and predeictable and you know exactly how everything is gonna unfold but I find them kind of relaxing. Such a treacly sweet, untroubled world…
I watch a number of the Disney channel movies and shows that my kids watch. Some of the movies are pretty cheesy, but others are very good. As other posters have noted, some kid’s movies are better written than the ones aimed at so-called grownups (Rob Schneider, anyone?).
Double Teamed about Heather and Heidi Burge, the 6’5" basketball-playing twins, was excellent. The one about the kid who created a bunch of clones of himself, on the other hand, stunk up a storm – but then, it starred one of the Lawrence brothers, so that was pretty much a given.
