Background: upcoming class assignment, due in about a month:
Watch at least one hour of children’s television programming. Analyze your viewing experience: What did you watch? Who do you believe the intended audience is for the program(s)? Analyze the racial, ethnic and gender roles portrayed. Are there stereotypes presented? What are they? What is the possible negative impact of media stereotypes on children’s developing self esteem?
Oh, crap. I know roughly as much about children’s TV as I do about tensor calculus—less, actually. I can’t even name a single children’s TV show. I don’t even own a TV, fer chrissake—what little TV I do watch I bittorrent and view on my desktop. So having said that, what’s the 411 on the current Saturday morning schlockfest?
Is it even still limited to Saturday morning? Or is on at other times now?
What’s hot and what’s not?
Are there any shows that would be particularly well-suited for the outlined assignment?
Has it improved at all in the past forty years, or is it still the same staggeringly mind-numbing crap that I watched in the 70s?
Can you recommend any web sites which would give me a thorough overview of what’s available, maybe with a comprehensive review of each one?
What do your kids watch?
Are there any hotly contested issues in children’s programming today, and what are the prevalent (or at least most vocal) watchdog groups?
Can anybody toss me their two cents on this topic? Obviously, I don’t mean for y’all to respond as if this is a survey; the questions I asked are just intended to give an outline of where my ignorance lies. I just want any information you could give me on the subject.
Define “children’s programming.” What age group are we talking about here? Very young, like where Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba are still compelling, or older children who would watch something a bit more like Avatar: the Last Airbender?
Chuggington is one that at least has trains that are meant to be other races or cultures. There’s at least one African train. To be honest, I don’t follow that one very well, as I find it really irritating and try to tune it out. But it’s definitely the kind of show that’s meant to be teaching lessons all the time.
Thomas and Friends is his favorite and we’ve had lots of discussions in our back yard about the sociological implications of Thomas and Friends, but not exactly in the terms presented. But it’s an extremely popular show and is a little less blatant on the lessons. They’re still there, but it’s not like they get to the end and go, “I guess we should have listened to the adults because they have valuable things to say!” I find Thomas a lot less obnoxious than most of the others.
Sesame Street (or Play With Me Sesame) is the obvious choice because it’s full of EVERYTHING.
Little Einsteins is a favorite, too. Aside from the fact that it’s always always someone’s birthday, it’s not too annoying.
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse- now that one is annoying. And there are DEFINITELY some gender stereotypes going on. Minnie and Daisy are ridiculously feminine compared to the females I usually see on for-bitty-kids TV. They wear high heels and are always talking about pretty flowers and baking and such.
Thomas and Friends gave my son a complex. He’d cry, “I just want to be useful!”
Kinda weirded me out. The characters’ identities are tied to being in tip-top shape to to work for humans. When any of them has an engine problem, they cry they aren’t “useful”.
My 6-year-old loves The Penguins of Madagascar, and so do I. I think they’re the best cartoon shorts since the original Looney Tunes, and work basically on the same levels.
My kids (2 and 5) watch PBS Sprout almost exclusively. There’s a Sprout channel, but they usually watch shows on demand. Their favorite shows are Caillou, Zoboomafoo, Sesame Street, Mama Mirabelle and Bob the Builder.
I often babysit my friend’s 3 year old. Her favorites are Sponge Bob Squarepants, which she picked up from her older brother and “The Monkey” which is Curious George.
As someone who can tolerate kids shows, Max and Ruby is awful. The formula is the same. Ruby has to get something done. She shoos Max away the entire time (leave me alone, I asked you to play somewhere else, can’t you see I’m busy), but then right at the end she gets her project done because of something Max does and she takes all the credit. And it doesn’t help that Max only has one or two words in his vocabulary during the entire episode.
I’ll let my daughter watch most shows, but when she was the right age for Max and Ruby, it wasn’t allowed just because it annoyed the piss out of me.
I’d recommend Yo Gabba Gabba. It’s for toddlers, but there are some stereotypes, especially gender related. It’s not evil or anything, I actually kinda like it. It’s usually pretty action packed, full of dancing and music, and focuses more on having fun and being active rather than learning from some very serious lecture from an adult. This is all, of course, only relative to other toddler TV.
My 2.5-year-old daughter is OBSESSED with Peppa Pig. It would work well with what you’re looking at, despite the fact that it’s terrible and I hate to recommend it to anyone, because there are definitely some problematic issues–Daddy Pig is often portrayed as a lovable buffoon who claims to be an expert in everything but then fails when he tries to do it, not unlike men in commercials for cleaning products.
I didn’t realize there was a show for Curious George. She loves the books–maybe I can use it to get her out of her Peppa Pig fixation.
Her old fixation was Yo Gabba Gabba, which is really one of the better shows out there for the todder set, but doesn’t really apply to what you’re supposed to be focusing on.
My children and I love Max and Ruby. Yes, Ruby is a bossy little b----, but I love the look on Max’s face when she is being particulary bossy.
I am also a fan of Little Bear, especially Duck.
When I was a kid I loved Sesame Street. Now when I watch it, I feel sad that it has changed so much.
I have ordered the School House Rock DVD. Those little videos are timeless, catchy and unforgettable.
I also have my kids watching classic Warner Brothers. What could be more educational than all of Coyote’s inventions and all the things that go wrong with them?
My kids (21 months and 3-almost-4) LOVE Curious George, for which I’m grateful because I think the little fella is cute, myself. He’s much better than Barney, or Elmo, who was my daughter’s obsession for a time.
It might be good for your project because George interacts with a bunch of different people, some in the city, some in the country, of all different ages and races. Some are stereotypes (Chef Pisghetti) and some aren’t (Professor Wiseman).
If you’re looking for bizarro cartoons (Cartoon Network) my girls (both 8) love these:
The Amazing World of Gumball
Adventure Time
The Regular Show
They liked Charlie and Lola, Also Pingu (clay animation penguin). Spongebob is a reliable fallback. So many came and went as the flavor of the month it’s hard to keep track.