Crayon Shin-Chan is a kids’ show… in Japan. Whether you’d want your kids to watch it is debatable, though.
If you can access the original Japanese show, it might be borderline appropriate, but the Americanized version is written by adults for adults and is DEFINITELY not.
Powerpuff Girls!
Yep, and for those that also like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, notice that Frankie wears a Powerpuff Girls shirt!
Eh I disagree, this show has been consistently good every single episode, there isn’t really a weak one.
This is what I was going to come on and post. It’s got witty social commentary but isn’t annoyingly crass in the way cartoons geared at adults are.
The music in it is top notch. The rock retrospective episode was amazing.
“And this is psychedelia.”
“What’s with all the colors?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”, looks around shiftily
This show has been a saving grace with a toddler.
I recommend the Wallace and Gromit series! There are several short films and a feature-length film. If you haven’t heard of them already, they are clay-mation classics. The best part of Wallace and Gromit is that the humor works on just a natural, all-age-group level. It’s not to say that there isn’t some winking humor aimed at adults (there is, especially with hidden puns), but in general it’s just funny for everybody.
The Shaun the Sheep spinoff series is out on DVD and is also very funny. What’s clever about Shaun the Sheep is that it has absolutely no dialogue. It’s like a silent film comedy. Again, the humor is age-transcending. I was laughing just as hard as the three and four-year-old I was watching it with.
The first episode of Malcolm in the Middle is full of more nudity and sexual innuendo than I had ever seen in a “family” sitcom up until that time (2 1/2 Men totally blows it away in that regard now though).
In addition to Lois running around topless because the laundry’s not done and Hal standing naked at the kitchen table because Lois is shaving his back hair is a really subtle one with Francis when Malcolm is introducing his family in the first two minutes. The show cuts to four quick glimpses of Francis explaining some bad thing. Three involve flaming wreckage and one involves a girl getting dressed on his bed (which you don’t notice because she’s in the background and there’s no flaming wreckage). Francis is supposed to be 15 at the time.
Pretty risque for a family show.
Yeah, *Malcolm in the Middle *I’d say save until the kids are maybe 12ish. You’ll think it’s funny, but the little kids will probably be bored or confused.
Unless you’re like me and can’t stand the way the girls blink.
Thought of some more stuff I liked when I was a kid that should be fun (or at least not excruciating) for adults… Dunno how much of it will be available on DVD, though.
Square One | 3-2-1 Contact | Newton’s Apple
Bill Nye the Science Guy | Beakman’s World
Sam & Max is definitely out on DVD; it’s kid-appropriate (unlike the comic it’s based on, which is definitely written for adults), but I don’t remember if it’ll be funny for the youngest kids. Oh, and my little brother liked Shining Time Station.
Beakman’s World is, and I want to be clear here that there is no hint of exaggeration in this, the greatest television show ever to appear in a 7 a.m. time slot. And that includes porn on the west-coast Cinemax feed.
9YO mudgirl loves these, plus How It’s Made, Unwrapped, and Good Eats. But then, she’s kind of a geeklette.
Oh, and shows she loves that don’t make me want to hurl? iCarly; Fairly Oddparents (Cosmo often makes me LOL); Drake and Josh.
When she was younger, I found much of the music on The Backyardigans to be catchy and ‘hummable’.
Thirding (or so) Mythbusters. My kids love this. They like Dirty Jobs, also.