What TV shows do you watch that you feel are appropriate/enjoyable for the whole family?
I have 3 kids, aged 9-12. We don’t watch much TV, but every once in a while we feel like turning on the tube and vegging as a family, and are more likely than not disappointed at finding absolutely nothing “suitable” to watch. I dislike many shows that have people acting really meanly or disrespectful towards each other, and I don’t like being “surprised” by sexual messages. And I find many of the “comedies” just aren’t that funny.
Our family makes a point of watching Star Trek Voyager and Malcolm in the Middle.
Any suggestions?
Feel free to suggest any shows, but I’d appreciate network suggesations as we do not have cable.
Get cable. Nobody ever said raising kids was gonna be cheap. Then you can enjoy old stuff:
• Old movies, on TCM and AMC. Kids come runnin’ for the great taste of Betty Grable and Clark Gable!
• Old TV shows. You and I grew up fairly unwarped watching “Dick Van Dyke,” “Donna Reed,” et all. Now the kiddies can do the same, on Nick at Night and TV Land.
• Oh, and don’t forget The Cartoon Network: I highly recommend “The Powerpuff Girls” for kids & adult alike.
My daughter’s ten, and my son just turned five. Both are highly opinionated, stubborn, and pushy (I dunno…I suppose they get it from their Mom’s side of the family).
Needless to say, there is almost NOTHING they will happily watch together. THE SIMPSONS is okay. THE POWERPUFF GIRLS is okay. (Brightly-colored animation for the little one, irony and satire and surrealism for the big one.) That may be it.
If I were in your position – less age difference between the kids – I’d be renting a lot of videos. When my son’s off doing something with his mother, my daughter and I will pick up some classic flick (we did CITIZEN KANE last weekend), make popcorn, and kick back with it.
{waves merrily to Eve on the other side of the revolving door}
Yeah, what she said.
I used to think the Cartoon Network was bad news for kids (even though I LOVE cartoons) because it’s ALWAYS AVAILABLE…kids who watch cartoons every time the tube’s on and eat ice cream at every meal don’t develop a taste for Clark Gable and avocado salad.
When I was a kid, I used to watch all kinds of classic films on teevee over at my grandfather’s house…I remember sitting through and enjoying THE AFRICAN QUEEN, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, all kinds of things.
But my daughter’s happy to watch other things now. And I’m sure my son will “graduate” to the harder stuff eventually.
I third the old movie/TV vote. Why not watch things that were created to be seen by the whole family. (Or, rather, created for adults, who graciously let the kids watch, too.)
You can really develop some interesting tastes in your kids that way. My brother and I grew up on old movies. He’s in the Army now–very macho, with a gun collection and a new Trans Am and a motorcyle. His favorite movie of all time?
I believe all the good stuff is on TV Land now (which I don’t get, unfortunately). Nick at Night is now showing such “classics” as “The Facts of Life” and “Three’s Company.” ::hurl:: Do not expose your children to these shows!
Wouldn’t ya know it. Them rich New Yawkers act like everyone is made out of money. Is that always the answer for you liberal easterners? Throw enough money at a problem and it will go away?!
Eve, yeah, we tried the cable route briefly, then realized there was some good stuff on, but also just a whole lot more crap. And I felt a little silly when I found myself calling my kids away from a book or something to watch an episode of Mr Ed. The other thing that shocked me was how shows I remembered as being hysterical, weren’t. (The Odd Couple, for example.) And I’m such a lazy sack, I don’t need any more encouragement to piss away time in front of the tube. “But honey, I am only watching reruns of Australian rules football at 3 a.m. in order to decrease the per minute cost!”
Over the summer my kids discovered daytime reruns of I Love Lucy. So sometimes we tape those, or Andy Griffith, and watch them later. And I remember when I first exposed them to ** The Three Stooges**. They couldn’t believe it. It was like a cartoon with real people. My son laughed so hard he had to rush to the bathroom to avoid an accident! I remember when we were calling them to turn off the TV do something or other, and they whined, “But it’s the Stooges!”
Ike, I’m sure you agree an excuse to rent old movies is one of the true boons of parenthood. Yeah, we went through the Marx Brothers several years ago. Right now we’re doing quite a few westerns and war movies. My 10 year old walks around with a toy pistol growling, “Fill your hands you son of a bitch!” (The Duke in True Grit) Cracks me up. A while ago we did a lot of Bogart. And over Halloween I blew my son’s mind with Night of the Living Dead. Hitchcock will be any time soon.
So what did you think last night, Ike, sitting in the room with your 10 and 5 year olds and Homer saying, “Baby go boom boom?” I didn’t intend to unwind for the weekend by talking with my kids about fetishes.
In posting my OP I was just wondering if I was missing some network offerings out there that were “suitable for the whole family.” I doubt it. Bring back Gunsmoke. Mission Impossible. Hell, even the damn Brady Bunch. Remember how risque Laugh-in was?
Gotta watch my blood pressure. Where are my pills?!
Sex and the City on HBO, and South Park on Comedy Central, are perfectly wholesome family entertainment. And for a refreshing change of pace, I used to recommend The Operation on The Learning Channel before it was cancelled – particularly as a show to watch during dinner.
This thread is too timely. I was watching cable the other night after reprogramming the tube with some newly offered cable channels.
Well, at one point in programming the thing, I walked away and started doing other things. When I glanced back at the tube, they were airing a promo for Bonanza.
It was too funny. A voice ran during the entire ad. A guy was saying things like, “Don’t you miss the days when T.V. was wholesome? The days when families gathered around the T.V. to be together and enjoy quality programming? When family bonds meant everything? Do you wish those days could be had again?”
That alone was kinda funny. But the kicker was while the guy talked away, they were showing footage of knock down, drag-out, great shoot-outs of the wild west. I swear during the ‘quality programming’ message, they showed a shoot-out in a bar where one guy with a shotgun starts blasting away at a guy walking down the stairs. He falls against the wall, crashes through the railing and smashes into some chairs a story below where he comes to rest dead.
As I watched this, I thought this must be a new TV-Land kinda spoof. I laughed at the irony as this guy waxed poetically and people all over the place were getting blasted into oblivion.
But the cincher was that this was a legit promo for Bonanza. I think it was the PAX network but I couldn’t tell.
Anyrate, slight hijack, but I thought it was fitting. You might just want to avoid PAX… They have a different idea of what family values are all about.
And for a refreshing change of pace, I used to recommend The Operation on The Learning Channel before it was cancelled – particularly as a show to watch during dinner.