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What Danes consider healthy children’s television

economist.com

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Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#171

Post by themaninthedark »

DanBC wrote: post #153
tclancy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am old enough (40) with a daughter who is almost 3, to be a little horrified by kids' TV. It's not that there isn't a ton of "good" stuff for her, it's that there is only "good" stuff. There isn't anything not geared toward teaching her math, reading or morals. When I was a kid, that was PBS and a handful of other shows and the rest of it was people whacking the crap out of each other to make me bug my parents to b…

> There isn't anything not geared toward teaching her math, reading or morals. ...and those wouldn't be so bad if they were not terrible at teaching math or reading or morals.

In a topic about good children's TV, morals are brought up and no one remembers Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?

As a child I never watched TV with any regularity but that and Sesame Street stick out in my mind above all the cartoons and other shows I watched.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#172

Post by egypturnash »

mack73 wrote: post #25
wodenokoto wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what they are showing on CN in general right now, but I'm an adult who watches the regular show and Steven Universe, and would very much watch the latter together with my children if I had any.

My two kids (6, 9) fell in love with the regular show years ago. It's the only show I can watch with them. The writing is strange and psychadelic with hidden messages I'm sure only I pick up on and the artists (is this show computer animated?) are great.

Pretty much every new cartoon you see is done at least partially with the computer. In the case of Regular Show, Wikipedia tells me that it's animated traditionally, on paper, then goes through digital ink and paint. Which is pretty retro for a show that premiered in 2010.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#173

Post by rahimnathwani »

stevekemp wrote: post #112
david-given wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can't go wrong with Oliver Postgate, who I now notice made nearly half of the programs in my (completely randomly selected) list... Also I appear to have remembered a fairly small selection of the 'children's television on drugs' genre. See also: Banamaman, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Roobarb and Custard, Captain Pugwash... While talking about children's television: it's not British, and it's slightly later,…

You've given me a nostalgia-trip. In return I give you: The Wombles!

I used to think the theme tune went 'The wombles of Wimbledon: common are we' but actually it's 'The Wombles of _Wimbledon Common_ are we'. I had never heard of Wimbledon Common, although it's only 4 miles from where I was born.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#174

Post by justabystander »

wodenokoto wrote: post #16
TeMPOraL wrote: post #11

At the risk of making a tu quoque argument - if you want to see unhealthy children television, look no further than Cartoon Network.

I don't know what they are showing on CN in general right now, but I'm an adult who watches the regular show and Steven Universe, and would very much watch the latter together with my children if I had any.

I've got a large amount of extended family and married friends, so good shows like these are super helpful in positively connecting with their kids. And shared media interests is actually part of a large social aspect of public school.

> Steven Universe

This show works incredibly well. Especially since the episodes are short - a feature for parents as well as kids. Gravity Falls, as well, does a great job of being fun without trying to do much preaching. Of course, some of the adult fandom for these can be a bit ... enthusiastic, so I worry about whether the kids will be able to enjoy themselves at conventions and on the internet without getting caught up in the drama.

Both of these shows have also garnered approval from some parents with some pretty insane control issues, too. In situations like that, it's nice to be able to provide gateway entertainment to kids languishing under extreme supervision. I doubt I'm the only one who's had to deal with that. It's surprising how many parents unwittingly rob their kids of a childhood. Being a non-parent in some ways gives a more even perspective about loosening the grip on the kids and not taking everything so seriously.

Shows like Regular Show and Adventure Time are pretty good, but some parents reject them for being "too stupid". Yeah, there's juvenile behavior, but it's not all over. When introducing parents to these, I sometimes have to be particular about which episodes I start with, or they'll immediately reject it.

I've introduced teens to shows like Rick and Morty and Star vs. the Forces of Evil. Parents are generally more accepting of more edgy material at that age. And they're gonna push boundaries, so at least point them to the better quality shows. Anime has also gotten hugely popular in this recent generation, to the point that some of my nieces and nephews seem to literally breathe it. Streaming subscriptions help with that, though available shows vary by licensing deals and region. Hulu is one of the best for cartoons.

It's also amusing that the creators of these shows are the recent adults who grew up on the last generation of entertainment cartoons.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#175

Post by kaybe »

kaybe wrote: post #75
benologist wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like my 4 year old, right down to the finger song she can sing along with in like 5 languages now lol. Those youtube videos of people with toys are nuts, some of them are like a modern form of story telling and really well made. Some shows I like of hers: - Miles from Tomorrowland, a family adventuring in space with bits of science and physics thrown in - Lost in Oz, it's decades later and Dorothy's daugh…

We recently started 'Barbie - Life in the dreamhouse' on netflix for giggles and found it to be an actually decent show. The plot is what happens if you give the barbie dolls and merch to a bunch of nerds and give them free reign. You get Glados running the automated closet and plotting for world fashion domination, only to be stopped by the evil switch being turned off again, a large part of the first episode is mod…

Now that I think of it, the closet basically proposed to use its vast database of good fashion (formed from Barbie's timeline) to generate new excellent fashion - a machine learning problem plus capable AI.

I wonder whether someone is working on that, it really sounds like a good and interesting idea. Is there a system to parameterize clothes? Hm.. I would have joined the closet if I was Barbie, despite the relation with the 'evil' switch.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#176

Post by m_mueller »

egypturnash wrote: post #170
m_mueller wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL that Donald Duck isn't very popular in the US. I grew up with a weekly Disney comic book that was a collection of mostly Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse (detective) stories. Almost always skipped Mickey, he's just way too boring as a character. But didn't you guys have Duck Tales as well? I thought that was massively popular.

Donald comes off a lot better in comics, where he's not saddled with a comedy voice that renders him almost completely incomprehensible. Duck Tales was, indeed, pretty popular, with four seasons - and it focused almost entirely on the adventures of Uncle Scrooge and Donald's nephews. Who you could actually understand. (It was also largely based on the Carl Barks comics, so a lot of the stories would probably be super…

Carl Banks, that's the one yes! Thanks for reminding me.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#177

Post by m_mueller »

Nadya wrote: post #160
m_mueller wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL that Donald Duck isn't very popular in the US. I grew up with a weekly Disney comic book that was a collection of mostly Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse (detective) stories. Almost always skipped Mickey, he's just way too boring as a character. But didn't you guys have Duck Tales as well? I thought that was massively popular.

>TIL that Donald Duck isn't very popular in the US. A large part due to how utterly annoying it is to listen to him "talk". >But didn't you guys have Duck Tales as well? I thought that was massively popular. Yes - at least in my childhood/area it was very popular. They also didn't talk like Donald Duck though. That probably has a lot to do with it.

Yes, first time I heard his original voice I felt utterly betrayed.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#178

Post by ThomPete »

skrebbel wrote: post #8

Kaj and Andreea is fantastic! I'm Dutch but my wife is Danish. She does her utmost best confronting our kids with Danish TV (we live in Holland), so I understand a bit of what the author is on about. I was initially surprised as well. Truth is, it _is_ entertaining! But most importantly, once you get past the absolutely amateuristic way things are shot (hey, the kids don't care, why should you?), there's a lot of dep…

I am Danish (now live in NY) and grew up with Kaj and Andrea and Bamse and Kylling (and Anne and Lotte) and so many other children shows.

They where mostly products of the seventies and I would argue they where educational by not being pedagogic.

I am more annoyed by my youngest who watch YouTube kids. He is not just watching "ABC" but also shows about other children who play.

In some ways it's the same as the Danish shows yet filled with product placement stuff so I guess I kind of understand how Danish children shows must feel to foreigners.

At the end we probably shouldn't worry too much. At those ages kids don't really learn as much as evolve.

Re: What Danes consider healthy children’s television

#179

Post by riprowan »

david-given wrote: post #60
aedron wrote: post #44

The most astute observation is that characters on Danish kids TV are often completely, unapologetically flawed. This makes them relatable to kids, and kids enjoy watching them in all their dysfunction. And I actually disagree with the premise that this contains no lessons or morals. Children are able to see clearly how ridiculous and ill-advised the behavior of these characters is, and so learn to recognize it in the…

In Britain, the nihilistic Looney Tunes cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and (above all else) Roadrunner were vastly more popular than anything by Disney. In fact, I don't think I've even seen a single Mickey Mouse cartoon...

I'll take Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner v Wile. E. Coyote (supra-genius) over Disney any day of the week.
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