Remember all the great shows we used to watch as kids? You know the ones with important life lessons? The ones with the comedy? The ones that actually had a decent plot?
Who remembers shows like Spongebob (no the new episodes do not count), Rugrats, The Amanda Show, Lizzie McGuire, As Told by Ginger, Wild Thornberries, Jimmy Neutron, Chalk Zone, Even Stevens, Phil of the Future, Proud Family, Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, All That, Zoom, Out of the Box, The Brady Bunch, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Dragon Tales, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (okay yes it's a preschool show but it was awesome!), Avatar the Last Airbender, Power Rangers (when they were good), Drake and Josh) to name a few.
Yes there are many many many more television series out there that deserve their name to be on this list but I don't want to put every single one of them up there because that takes more effort than necessary and like most human I am somewhat of a lazy person. Instead I want to point out how the quality of television has just decreased in the past few years. I mean think about it. Dora is just as clueless as ever, Joe (from Blues Clues) still can't see the paw print, and Squidward still gets annoyed with Spongebob. You'd think after a decade these people would have figured their lives out by now (This must make you feel so much better about the quality of your life right now).
But okay in all seriousness, television has really gone down the drain. Sure there are some great children networking shows but they're more like diamonds in a coal mine than anything else really. For instance Disney Channel today airs:
Who remembers shows like Spongebob (no the new episodes do not count), Rugrats, The Amanda Show, Lizzie McGuire, As Told by Ginger, Wild Thornberries, Jimmy Neutron, Chalk Zone, Even Stevens, Phil of the Future, Proud Family, Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, All That, Zoom, Out of the Box, The Brady Bunch, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Dragon Tales, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (okay yes it's a preschool show but it was awesome!), Avatar the Last Airbender, Power Rangers (when they were good), Drake and Josh) to name a few.
Yes there are many many many more television series out there that deserve their name to be on this list but I don't want to put every single one of them up there because that takes more effort than necessary and like most human I am somewhat of a lazy person. Instead I want to point out how the quality of television has just decreased in the past few years. I mean think about it. Dora is just as clueless as ever, Joe (from Blues Clues) still can't see the paw print, and Squidward still gets annoyed with Spongebob. You'd think after a decade these people would have figured their lives out by now (This must make you feel so much better about the quality of your life right now).But okay in all seriousness, television has really gone down the drain. Sure there are some great children networking shows but they're more like diamonds in a coal mine than anything else really. For instance Disney Channel today airs:
- Dog with a blog- which is, you guessed it, about a dog with a blog. You know this show could have had great potential but it's really not about anything. The children get into a situation, talk with their parents, fix said situation, ends with the dog typing in his blog. Overall very predictable and leaves nothing to the imagination.
- Jessie- Nanny in New York. Children get into a situation. Talk with nanny, fix said situation. Overall very predictable and leaves nothing to the imagination.
- Austin and Ally- Two aspiring singers working towards the big time. One of their friends manages both of them. The other friend is there for comedy. It's a comedic show with a simple, predictable plot line, oh and there's a budding romance.
- Ant Farm- group of student prodigies who get into situations and use each others "tal-ants" to find a way out.
So yeah these shows might be a little useful in helping children think about life situations and all of that, but for the most part as TV shows they are highly predictable and are focused around the same exact plot line just using different characters. This is where you might argue that older shows did the same thing. But the difference is that older shows let children use their imagination. It wasn't about laying out the story, it was about setting the plot and characters and letting the audience fill in the blanks for some details.
Also when we were little, there were more shows that allowed us to use our noggins. There were a plethora of shows similar to Zoom and Out of the Box which focused on presenting DIY ideas to kids about science, other education, and just straight out having fun. These shows fostered the imagination and encouraged kids to get off of the TV for a while and have fun doing stuff elsewhere. But today the most imaginative you'll get in a TV show is them asking you which tool, color, object is necessary and for you to yell at the TV. Shows today encourage kids to mindlessly sit in front of the TV for hours, which makes them inferior to the shows that we got to experience a decade ago.
This issue isn't about the plot anymore, or even just general quality. The issue is about what shows throughout the decade are encourage kids to do. 10 years from now do we want a generation of young adults who grew up glued to the TV or a generation of young adults who can think for themselves and who know how to think outside of the box?
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