When my son was two or three years old, he loved Pingu more than anything. His older sister was very fond of Little Bear.
We never had cable, though, so we checked tapes or DVDs out from the local library for the most part.
Word World, Curious George, and Sid the Science Kid, all on PBS Kids.
Well my son just turned 4. A year ago he was really into The Last Airbender which wasn’t bad. Phineas and Ferb is one of his current favorites and I enjoy watching that with him.
Last week I sat down to watch “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” and just as it started he wandered in telling me he couldn’t sleep. I told him he could watch with me figuring it would put him right to sleep but instead he sat still and watched the whole thing. He was quiet too except for asking a question about the plot every 15 minutes or so like, “Why did they cut off that boy’s arm? Why didn’t they have better medicine then?” He never sits still or quiet for that long. Who would have thunk?
So my vote for most tolerable preschooler’s show goes to “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”
Oh, another one he loves that I find tolerable is a recent reboot of the Scooby Doo series called “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc.” When my kids first started watching it I thought they were just watching classic Scooby Doo until I realized this one was darker than the classic and had a season long arc with mysteries that were built up and then actually resolved little by little. After watching the 26 episode season I decided the writers of Lost could have learned something about satisfying resolutions to consistent mysteries that didn’t require retconning by watching that show. So it gets a thumbs up from me.
Kipper is cute.
But, still beating the tar out of all other preschool shows as far as parental palatability is Sesame Street, IMO.
Of all of the subset of toddler shows by Ragdoll productions (Teletubbies, Boobah etc) I find In The Night Garden to be the most tolerable. Must be the soothing tones of Brother Cadfael…
Do what I did. Buy dvd’s of shows. Put them in you computer. Put toddler on lap. Open a screen with the dvd on the left half of your screen, and a screen with whatever it is that you want do do on the right half of the screen. Use a headset as needed.
Toddler gets lap time, you get to see what she sees, but you get to do enough of what you want to see not to get your brain fried by Dora the Explorer. And it is really strange how many of the shows mentioned here we also have on our Dutch Nicleodeon channel. All dubbed to Dutch, of course.
Word Worldwas a favorite around here. And it really honestly did count as “educational” and help my daughter understand how letters make up words. She’d “play” Word World on the fridge with the alphabet magnets, drawing little arms and legs around the words with a dry erase marker, changing one letter and redrawing the new word creature that resulted. “Frog”, “Hog”, “Dog”, “Log” was a favorite progression…
I was genuinely sad when she outgrew Wonder Pets, but I understand it makes most parents want to stab things with sticks, so YMMV.
Zoboomafoo, which is only in repeats now, is great. It’s a nature show.
YES! Zaboomafoo! I forgot about that one, but it’s the only show my son (born in 1993) and my daughter (born in 2005) both loved. Even the big ol’ sullen teenager would silently creep out of his lair of a bedroom and come watch Zaboomafoo with his little sister. 
Ooh, I forgot about the Wiggles. How could I have forgotten about the Wiggles? They have actual plots, which is rare for this type of show.
Definitely The Backyardigans. Songs are catchy, jokes are moderately amusing. It doesn’t talk down or patronise. Aside from the opening and ending, it’s not repetitive or overly structured. And everything’s imaginary, so they are never in real danger. (And you don’t have to ask yourself questions like: why exactly is an 8 year old girl allowed to roam the rainforest with only a monkey to supervise?)
I’ve come around on The Fresh Beat Band too. It’s silly, but the songs are catchy, and while it sometimes teaches a lesson, it’s not overly preachy.
Yo Gabba Gabba makes me feel like I’m drunk or high. But in a good way.
I thought one of the most tolerable was Oswald, if they still show it now. Very low-key, not a lot of frenetic action or loud music or anything. Sadly, the little Torqueling has asked us to delete Oswald from the DVR because it’s a “baby show”, and she’s now into iCarly and Victorious.
Steer way clear of Fred: The Show.
I actually realy enjoy Dragon and his Friends and Wila’s Wild Life.. Both are really fun to look at, for lack of a better way to describe it.
Unfortunately for me, its hard right now to get the kiddo to watch anything besides Mighty Machines.
I want to add “Super Why” to my list. I couldn’t stand it at first, but my kid actually seems to learn the most from this show. I can tolerate almost any show that makes my kid shout out answers to the questions-- and get them right at least 50% of the time.
Its been a few years since my kids have been out of the pre-school phase. But when I was watching it with them I really wanted to nail Laurie Berkner. I hope that helps.
Damn you I just punched the chart I was working on. And now I’m singing it.
I’m kind of lucky in that I don’t have my kids live with me any more so I don’t watch a whole lot of TV. We do watch movies though so I’ve seen a lot of movies a ton of times.
Oobi, Backyardagains, Wubbzy
Timmy Time is adorable!
Oobi is the one with the talking hands, right? Looks like a good show, though the diaper-changing episode raised some questions that I didn’t want to think about too much.
I don’t know if they’re still airing, but DVDs work just as well as on the air:
Bear in the Big Blue House is as good as you’d expect from any Henson product, and the songs are, frankly, great (not just “great for a kids’ show”).
Bob the Builder is not only tolerable, it actually makes raising kids easier. A few times when I’ve been visiting, my nieces have been in a panic about some toy or another breaking. And you know how hard it can be to break a kid out of such a panic… But all I had to do was ask “Can We Fix It?”, to an instant response of “Yes We Can!”. It might be targeted a bit older than you’re talking, though.