Just off the top of my head, SuperWhy does this as well.
[Shrugs] It doesn’t bother me.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.)
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.
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.”
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? 
)
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?*
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!
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.
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.
Wait! Let me bookmark this post. A rare statement like that could have historical value. 
“Oh no! That mommy has fallen down and now the baby carriage is rolling down the steps!”
–Little Eisensteins
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?
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.
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 of any pre-school show out there.
Seriously, you can’t go wrong with a show about blobfish.
“Truth is, I have no muscles, I’m all jiggly like a jelly”
Yeah, I thought I was hallucinating when I saw The Octonauts and the Humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa.
Anyway, the reason for this bump was just to point and laugh at myself 14 months ago.
Now shut up, watch Numtums and let mummy and daddy have some peace and quiet.
I kind of liked Maraka.