Monday, October 30, 2006
The Competition (Part I)
Where have we been, you ask? Did the Valentines give up TV? Did we get hit by lightning?
No, we got DirecTV and more kids channels than God himself ever imagined. And so, we have been drowning in a sea of children's programming. And I must confess that my dear little Petunia has been choosing Sprout and Noggin over Playhouse Disney most of the time.
These days, the Valentine household is more apt to be yelling 'Abre!' with Dora than conducting Dvorak with the Little Einsteins. And I have to say, I still think Disney has the edge in children's programming, but my child apparently does not agree. Here's the first installation of my assessment of the PHD competition:
Sprout
Bob the Builder is a can't miss. It's brilliant, a whole show around the cool construction equipment that kids love to watch working. Travis's low self esteem gets annoying, and I find Spud's mischevious ways to be irksome as well. But Bob and Wendy and the equipment working together is a winner.
The Goodnight Show is always good for an evening wind-down, especially now that Noel MacNeal of - ahem! - Bear in the Big Blue House fame is hosting. And for what it's worth, I think Bear is still one of the best kids' shows on TV, carrying the magic of the Muppets and the Fraggles to a new generation of kids. But I'll settle for hearing Bear's voice in the evenings if I have to.
I think Caillou is dumb. It made me mad the other day when Caillou's friend's mom told them that eating dinner was a race. We try really hard to encourage healthy eating by Petunia, and that includes developing healthy habits like not mindlessly finishing what's on her place, eating too fast, eating emotionally, etc. I don't need PBS pushing her in the other direction. Besides, I always wonder if Caillou has leukemia or something. Who is still bald at age four?
I also don't like Dragon Tales. Even though it is vaguely remniscient of some of the crap my sister and I used to watch growing up (think the Snorks), I don't like it.
Oh, one other gem in the Sprout crown is Thomas the Tank Engine. It kind of weirds me out that the trains talk without using their mouths (are they super ESP trains?) but kids love trains. And Thomas is harmless. I put Thomas and Bob the Builder in the same category. It's really more about watching the trains (or construction equipment) than the story.
Stay tuned for assessments of Noggin and PBS Kids.
No, we got DirecTV and more kids channels than God himself ever imagined. And so, we have been drowning in a sea of children's programming. And I must confess that my dear little Petunia has been choosing Sprout and Noggin over Playhouse Disney most of the time.
These days, the Valentine household is more apt to be yelling 'Abre!' with Dora than conducting Dvorak with the Little Einsteins. And I have to say, I still think Disney has the edge in children's programming, but my child apparently does not agree. Here's the first installation of my assessment of the PHD competition:
Sprout
Bob the Builder is a can't miss. It's brilliant, a whole show around the cool construction equipment that kids love to watch working. Travis's low self esteem gets annoying, and I find Spud's mischevious ways to be irksome as well. But Bob and Wendy and the equipment working together is a winner.
The Goodnight Show is always good for an evening wind-down, especially now that Noel MacNeal of - ahem! - Bear in the Big Blue House fame is hosting. And for what it's worth, I think Bear is still one of the best kids' shows on TV, carrying the magic of the Muppets and the Fraggles to a new generation of kids. But I'll settle for hearing Bear's voice in the evenings if I have to.I think Caillou is dumb. It made me mad the other day when Caillou's friend's mom told them that eating dinner was a race. We try really hard to encourage healthy eating by Petunia, and that includes developing healthy habits like not mindlessly finishing what's on her place, eating too fast, eating emotionally, etc. I don't need PBS pushing her in the other direction. Besides, I always wonder if Caillou has leukemia or something. Who is still bald at age four?
I also don't like Dragon Tales. Even though it is vaguely remniscient of some of the crap my sister and I used to watch growing up (think the Snorks), I don't like it.
Oh, one other gem in the Sprout crown is Thomas the Tank Engine. It kind of weirds me out that the trains talk without using their mouths (are they super ESP trains?) but kids love trains. And Thomas is harmless. I put Thomas and Bob the Builder in the same category. It's really more about watching the trains (or construction equipment) than the story.
Stay tuned for assessments of Noggin and PBS Kids.
