# Why the BLEEP do toddler shows insist on the illusion of interaction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475 "2012-09-12T06:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/21 "2012-09-12T16:45:06Z")
Just off the top of my head, SuperWhy does this as well. [Shrugs] It doesn’t bother me. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/22 "2012-09-12T17:26:43Z")
Because it worked really, really well for Blue’s Clues. For many years, children’s programming maintained the fourth wall. It was more common when in the seventies, but for about ten years it wasn’t a popular technique. Then Blue’s Clues hit and the channels learned that preschool programming could be very lucrative. So there was a huge boom in children’s programming for that age that tried to copy what worked for Blue’s Clues. So we have even more preschool programs than ever and they are all trying to do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/23 "2012-09-12T17:34:46Z")
I just wish the goldfish on Bubble Guppies would give me more time to decide after they ask me a question. It’s like they’re late for an appointment or something, and secondly, no one is asking THEM, Gobi is asking ME!!! ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/24 "2012-09-12T17:41:45Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > Because it worked really, really well for Blue’s Clues. > > For many years, children’s programming maintained the fourth wall. It was more common when in the seventies, but for about ten years it wasn’t a popular technique. Then Blue’s Clues hit and the channels learned that preschool programming could be very lucrative. So there was a huge boom in children’s programming for that age that tried to copy what worked for Blue’s Clues. So we have even more preschool programs than ever and they are all trying to do the same thing. Yep, Blue’s Clues was (and still is) a huge, huge hit and became the model for much of today’s young children’s programming. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/25 "2012-09-12T20:26:48Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Annoying? Yes, but much more beneficial than sitting mute and lifeless watching some of the other shows. And that, in turn, is more beneficial than wrapping them in muslin and stashing them in a dark closet. In neither case is it actually, y’know, a good use of a toddler’s time. (yeah, I’m one of Those Parents. Sorry, my disgusted snootery is over. For now.) ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/26 "2012-09-12T20:40:35Z")
Blues Clues was pretty enjoyable for me when my son was its target age and we watched it. So if these other shows are irritating parents while they try to imitate it, they aren’t doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/27 "2012-09-13T01:34:16Z")
My daughter (age 2 at the time) always ignored it when Dora the Explorer would ask her questions. So I started answering Dora, figuring it’d help my kid get the idea of what she was supposed to do. Instead she turned to me and said “Daaad, you not on T.V. You off T.V.” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/28 "2012-09-13T01:40:11Z")
Maybe this will change when my daughter (now 13 months old) is a bit older, but I can’t imagine watching this sort of crap with her. Play with some toys. Read a book. Talk to her yourself. Don’t get her thinking that some shitty cartoon character is her BFF. (Ha, think you’re snooty, **Left Hand**? 😛 ) ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/29 "2012-09-13T02:14:30Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > _shakes watch_ I have “Howdy-Doody time.” Must be slow. That’s what my clock says, too. I think you have to stop calling it a ‘trend’ after the first 60 years. I think you can safely say that this sort of thing has been going on since the invention of television. Heck, I’m sure it goes back further, to radio. Remember Ralphie listening to Li’l Orphan Annie in\* A Christmas Story?\* ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/30 "2012-09-13T11:50:33Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And that, in turn, is more beneficial than wrapping them in muslin and stashing them in a dark closet. > > In neither case is it actually, y’know, a good use of a toddler’s time. > > (yeah, I’m one of Those Parents. Sorry, my disgusted snootery is over. For now.) By one of “Those Parents” do you mean the ones that cause all the other parents to look at each other and shake their heads? Let me guess, you have a single child. Look, I merely stated that shows that stimulate children to participate are much more beneficial to development than the ones that don’t. Period. I did not express any opinion on the the benefit children watching TV, the pitfalls of muslin wearing, nor the healing powers of a dark closet. Secondly, while watching TV is may not the best use of a toddler’s time, moderate viewing with parental guidance can be a good use of their time. It’s when things are used to excess that they become a problem and it is your job as a parent to avoid that happening. FTR my kids ar 6, 4 and 2 and do not watch TV regularly, they are usually outside with their friends playing sports, riding bikes, swimming, etc. or at our island cottage which is way, way off the grid. Besides between going to school, Beaver Scouts, hockey, and baseball seasons, there’s no time for TV… and I mean for the parents either! Whew! ---
**Author:** ![NDCompuGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b4bc9f/32.png) [@NDCompuGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDCompuGeek)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/31 "2012-09-13T16:32:51Z")
My kids are 7, 8, 14, and 15. They were all raised with a TV in the living room, front and center, but not necessarily raised _on_ TV, if you get the difference. They all enjoyed / enjoy Winnie the Pooh, Blue’s Clues, Zooboomafoo, Bob the Builder, and the oldest two watched Teletubbies a lot more than I like to admit. I think the reason they watched it so much is exactly because of that interaction beyond the fourth wall. As they are older (and I am wiser, I hope), I try to limit them to max 1 hour per day of TV. Anything else that is interactive is OK, including (most) video games, and especially going outside and playing with their friends - real world interaction. Then again, as I think of their favorite shows, that two-way communication (fake though it is) made it kind of OK for me as a parent to feel normal about allowing my kid to plop down in front of the TV and have their brain sucked out by that one-eyed neuron eater. There are now shows that the older kids are rallying to watch. Shows like Tosh.0, Baby Boo Boo, Wife Swap, etc., that make me want to laugh at their penultimate absurdity and stupidity, but at the same time quickly tell my kids to change the channel to something more acceptable like Disney - as if some of the shows on that channel are any more “good”. Long story short, that genre of shows is trying to be more interactive with young kids so they don’t just sit there like a bump on a log. Those shows are trying to involve the kids in some sort of two-way communication, dare I say “interaction”, so more of the brain is active instead of killed. Just my two bits. Take it or leave it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/32 "2012-09-16T20:59:23Z")
The only time it bugged me was when they did it on Dora the Explorer: they asked the kids to click on something, which is just weird. Do they want the kids to touch the screen and get it all dirty, or do they expect that all kids sit there with an unplugged mouse so they can click? It did make me think that, if you want interaction, you probably should do video games. But, of course, no one’s seemed to figure out how to do videogames at TV show turnaround and prices, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/33 "2012-09-17T01:20:27Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I am actually not annoyed by… Wait! Let me bookmark this post. A rare statement like that could have historical value. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/34 "2012-09-17T01:47:14Z")
“Oh no! That mommy has fallen down and now the baby carriage is rolling down the steps!” –_Little Eisensteins_ ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/35 "2012-09-17T01:55:59Z")
I’m suspect this practice dates back to before TV. I saw a pantomime act when I was a kid where the players would goad the kids in the audience into shouting advice-- sort of like how some adults will tell actors in horror movies to not go in the basement. And just like the victim in the movie, the stupid pantomime jerk didn’t listen to me and got kidnapped by the pirates. THEY’RE BEHIND THE TREE, IDIOT. NO, NOT NOW, THEY MOVED WHILE YOU WERE DICKING AROUND. GODDAMMIT, WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/36 "2012-09-17T03:44:55Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Absolutely moronic and irritating trend in children’s programming, faux interaction that the kid will quickly catch on to and sour them at being manipulated. They take so fucking long to get on with it too, does the kid need ten seconds to say yes? Yes, they do. Kids like having time to think and react. The shows are made by people who know a lot more about children than you do. They’re that way for a reason; it works. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/37 "2012-09-17T12:17:00Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I am actually not annoyed by and have actually laughed about Aquanauts, british animals under the sea. I laughed because I wondered if they would explain how that cat got that bad ass eye patch, who took his eye? Then in one episode he just lifts the patch to reveal he has his eye.😛 - Octonauts\*, please… Not that I have any excuse for watching that program… but it does have some nicely obscure fish in it. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2012, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/38 "2012-09-17T12:31:21Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > - > > Octonauts\*, please… > > Not that I have any excuse for watching that program… but it does have some nicely obscure fish in it. And the [best theme song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L57l19PWuI) of any pre-school show out there. Seriously, you can’t go wrong with a show about [blobfish.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJRwLR5sXxc) “Truth is, I have no muscles, I’m all jiggly like a jelly” ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/39 "2014-01-08T14:53:35Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > - > > Octonauts\*, please… > > Not that I have any excuse for watching that program… but it does have some nicely obscure fish in it. Yeah, I thought I was hallucinating when I saw [The Octonauts and the Humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZcXvKT-gM). Anyway, the reason for this bump was just to point and laugh at myself 14 months ago. > [@](#): > > Maybe this will change when my daughter (now 13 months old) is a bit older, but I can’t imagine watching this sort of crap with her. Play with some toys. Read a book. Talk to her yourself. Don’t get her thinking that some shitty cartoon character is her BFF. 😛 Now shut up, watch Numtums and let mummy and daddy have some peace and quiet. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475/40 "2014-01-08T15:26:55Z")
I kind of liked [Maraka](http://vimeo.com/40612629). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-bleep-do-toddler-shows-insist-on-the-illusion-of-interaction/634475.md?page=3)