Because we're ON VACATION, we're watching far more TV than I normally allow

[conuly]

Two or three episodes a day. Well, it won't kill them, and everybody in the house BUT them and me sleeps in, so they need to be contained.

In the past, I've watched Dora. God is that an obnoxious show. If you have to cajole children into participating, you're doing it wrong. It's insulting to everybody to be asked an already insultingly simple question, and then be nagged into giving the reply, or have to sit through several seconds of silence before the answer is given.

But you know what really annoys me about this show? What really, really annoys me?

Nobody on that show seems to understand that the possessive of Boots is not Boots, but Boots'. Maybe it's just me, but if I were refering to Boots' boots, or his books, or his birthday, I'd say "Boots-iz such-and-fuch" not merely "Boots such-and-fuch".

Drives me batty.

Comments

[l33tminion]

What would you accept as an authoritative source, then? If your answer is "my first grade teacher", we'll have to just agree to disagree.

(By the way, I agree that modern children's television is appalling. Don't know much about Dora, although I know that Barney is insipid and Blue's Clues is basically heroin for pre-schoolers. How I miss Mr. Rodgers...)

[conuly]

1. Don't know. Never really considered it. My first grade teacher was pretty old, though.

2. Oh, I miss Mr. Rogers!

Though some modern kids TV is okay. Backyardigans is *my* heroin.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Backyardigans is *my* heroin.

Ditto that. GOD I love that show!

You know...for the kids...

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Backyardigans is just about the most annoying kids show I've seen. >:O

[conuly]

Says the woman who loves loves loves Dora.

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

Is old-school children's television programming really better, or just what you watched before you started being too old for it?

[l33tminion]

Well, I admit my perceptions my be colored by nostalgia, although I stand by my opinion of Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood. (Just compare how Mr. Rodger's deals with imagination compared to the treatment of imaginative play in Barney. Or note the lack of hyperactive scene changes and incessant repetition. Or the quality of Mr. Rodgers as a role model.) Still, I can't help but feel educational television has become less education-focused and more commercialized. I think long-running classics like Sesame Street have gone down hill as well, although some would suggest that the old Sesame Street "may not suit the needs of today's preschool child".

(Criticism based on that last point seems to be a variation on the "everything was more hardcore back in the day" mantra... still may be valid, though.)

[conuly]

Depends on the specific examples.

Nothing beats Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

However, I don't have a rabid hate for Blues Clues (although I prefer the earlier episodes - from what I've seen of later ones, they seem to have gone headlong down the hyperactive tv mode).

Backyardigans, as I've said, is really great.

Dora, the best I can say about that show is that it's only half an hour long - it's the worst on all points, it's condescending, it's hyperactive, it spends too much time on cut scenes for various characters, and the newer episodes are worse yet.

Barney is an older show, and it's crap.