I barely had last week’s column off to the paper when I realized I had forgotten numerous other fantastic children’s books. For example, how could I have not mentioned Winnie-the-Pooh? He and his companions such as Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Christopher Robin were outstanding friends to a young reader.
After sending off my column, the next day I was out shopping and saw another favorite: The Monster at the End of This Book. This fun book featured Grover being very frightened about a monster lurking around, only to discover (spoiler alert!) that he was that very monster and had nothing to fear.
And this led my wandering mind to think about not only the books that helped inspire me throughout my childhood, but also the television shows. After all, Grover was a big star on Seseme Street, the seminal children’s show from my youth. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, the Count, Cookie Monster, and my favorite, Mr. Snuffleupagus, taught me my letters and numbers and how to treat others, among so many lessons every episode.
In fact, that’s what I remember most from television shows when I was young: the lessons learned. Most shows had a moral at some point. They showed us situations in which we might find ourselves and how to react appropriately. Mr. Rogers was always there to teach us to be kind to our neighbors. He also showed us how to change out of our outside shoes when we came in the house!
One of my favorite shows once I was a little older was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He-Man and his companions would fight the evil of Skeletor and try to defend Eternia and Castle Greyskull. Of course, it was a cartoon series used to sell toys, but at the end of each show, Orko or Man-at-Arms or Teela would appear to tell us what we should have learned that day. Sure, they are cheesy when you watch them now (and I do, occasionally, on Netflix), but as a youngster I was rapt with attention to what my heroes had to say.
Do children’s shows still do that? My kids enjoyed watching The Wiggles, a group of singing, dancing men who had some catchy tunes. If you’ve ever seen them, you certainly remember such classic songs as “Fruit Salad” and “Toot, Toot, Chugga, Chugga, Big Red Car.” Everyone knows The Teletubbies. While the kids enjoyed watching them, I was a bit freaked out with the giant baby in the sun. Dora the Explorer was also a source of entertainment, and I probably learned more Spanish there than I did in dos anos of high school.
Dora probably did the best job of teaching lessons to kids. “Swiper, no swiping!” echoed from the television as she tried to persuade that sneaky fox to do right instead of wrong. Boots, her faithful monkey companion, would often show how to be helpful. But many of the other shows I remember sitting through with my own kids seemed to be purely for entertainment and selling CDs and DVDs.
Hey, we had plenty of shows while growing up that didn’t teach valuable lessons all the time. Most of those were confined to Saturday mornings. We learned not to order from the Acme catalog from Wile E. Coyote, not to hunt rabbits from Elmer Fudd, and how to turn down romantic overtures from a skunk named Pepe LePew. We watched Tom chase Jerry in a perpetual quest for sustenance. We discovered that the culprit of a crime was probably somebody dressed in a mask and who would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
The Smurfs were around to show us that size matters not and that you can solve problems, even if there is only one female to guide the way. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids taught us to enjoy what we had and treasure friendship. Schoolhouse Rock might have even taught us skills better than our teachers when it came to English, math, and science!
And we had heroes! The Super Friends would always manage to defeat the Legion of Doom. Mighty Mouse was always on his way to save the day. Underdog, Dynomutt, and Hong Kong Phooey were dogs who fought crime in style. Thundarr the Barbarian was a great fantasy piece. And we always counted on the good guys winning and doing it the right way.
I watch some cartoons now. The Marvel super hero cartoons don’t really do justice to the outstanding movies and comic books out. They seem hashed together on a shoestring budget. On the other hand, the Star Wars franchise has done well with their Rebels series, and the latest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was super.
Still, much like the books I wrote about last week, we’re probably all nostalgic and partial to what we remember best from our youth. Maybe you’re a bit older than me and have different memories or younger than me and encountered a different crop of kids’ shows. All I know is the amount out there now is unbelievable. Of course, having more than four channels will do that for you!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is clinomania, which means an excessive desire to stay in bed, as in, “The children felt a surge of clinomania on the weekend, wanting to stay tucked in, watching cartoons.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!