Kids Television

Discuss TV shows old and new.
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oldsheperd
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 5:18 pm
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#1 Post by oldsheperd » Wed Jan 12, 2005 5:55 pm

Since Mr. Rogers is coming to dvd according to Digitalbits, I was curious if anone else really wants to see one of their favorite kids' show make it to dvd. My requests would have to be Today's Special, Pinwheel and You Can't Do That On Television.

dfloyd
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:45 am

#2 Post by dfloyd » Wed Jan 12, 2005 6:30 pm

I'd like to see Zoom, which ran on PBS for 9 seasons starting in '72. Especially seasons 6-8 with cast commentaries that dish the dirt on all the sex and drugs.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

#3 Post by Gregory » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:24 pm

Wasn't each Pinwheel episode 4 hours long? I remember when I was little I would wait all morning for it to be over so that something else could come on. Today's Special is another one I didn't like but turned on sometimes anyway because there was nothing better on. I can't believe I wasted so much of my childhood watching bad television!
The first shows I remember watching were pre-cable shows on public television: The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, Mr. Rogers, and of course Sesame Street. I remember liking a lot of the groovy, colorful animated shorts they showed on Sesame Street, many of which seemed influenced by Norman McLaren. I'd love to see some anthologies of that stuff.
I also remember a bunch of late 70s/early 80s live-action children's shows like The New Zoo Revue and The Great Space Coaster. I'd like to see those again just to see if they're as bizarre as I remember.

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Jeff
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#4 Post by Jeff » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:16 pm

Gregory wrote:The first shows I remember watching were pre-cable shows on public television: The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, Mr. Rogers, and of course Sesame Street.
There is no current children's television that matches the quality of those shows. Even Sesame Street has gone straight to hell. I can't imagine buying any season sets any children's shows on DVD, but I could definitely go for a set of the live-action shorts that ran on Sesame Street in the late 70s/early 80s. David Gordon Green has said that these were an influence on his work.

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Lemdog
The Man with no Title
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#5 Post by Lemdog » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:39 pm

That's easy The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It was on nickelodeon when I was a kid all 39 episodes would be a dream come true.

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jesus the mexican boi
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:09 am
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#6 Post by jesus the mexican boi » Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:17 pm

I'd like a compilation of all the clips from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood when Mr. McFeeley brought a tape over to show how something was made. Those were cool. I'd be hep to see Electric Company, too. And maybe this is already out, but I spent way too much time in front of the TV when He-Man and She-Ra and the Masters of the Universe were on.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

#7 Post by Gregory » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:39 pm

An older program I've read about but never saw was CBS Children's Theater. Children's show host Fran and puppets Kukla and Ollie presented foreign films such as The Red Balloon to children in the United States. (Of course, that one will never get released on DVD because they'd have to secure the rights to all the films that were included.)
Still, I'm curious if anyone has seen this and remembers what they showed.

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domino harvey
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Re: Kids Television

#8 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jan 09, 2011 1:42 am

This amazing episode of Recess explains in ten minutes how both organized religion and pseudo-philosophical thought promulgate and function within society. Maybe kids today aren't doomed after all

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#9 Post by knives » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:10 am

That was surprisingly good. I guess not everything from my childhood(well my siblings' in this case) has gone to crud. The whole thing was pretty funny with a strong emotional ending. Though, in reference to your doomed comment, this was canceled something like five years ago so this holds no water for today's children. Though they do have Adventure Time and Phineas and Ferb so not all is lost.

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domino harvey
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Re: Kids Television

#10 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:17 am

Oh I know it's not "recent" recent, but Recess definitely still comes on some channel, because it and Arthur are the only kids' shows I'll stop and watch-- those two programs really almost seem written for adults first, but in an emotionally open and honestly expressed fashion that only a kids show can get away with.

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#11 Post by knives » Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:14 am

Damn basic cable. I really wouldn't mind watching reruns of that as a read a book or something. surprised to hear that Arthur holds up though.For some reason my memory makes it come off as not that good. I have to say though that you nailed why I still watch a lot of the children's programming that's out there and almost none of the 'adult' stuff. When done right these shows can have this perfect balance of wit and honesty that's alarming at times. For example I just went through the entirety of JLA(maybe not the mist child-like example)recently and while there are a lot of standout moments the most emotionally gripping one is Grundy's return in the second season. That last moment when she looks at Grundy's eyes is just amazing. That has to be one of my favorite episodes of television of all time. Though I think everything that has(storytelling wise)broken off of those Timm shows has drastically improved kids shows since I was little. The number of G.I. Joes and Strawberry Shortcakes are luckily few. I'll let Batmite do the rest.

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dx23
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Re: Kids Television

#12 Post by dx23 » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:32 am

Good to see another fan of JLU here! The series is one of my favorite TV shows ever and the episode you mention "Wake The Dead", is one of the best written animated features. I loved how they turned Grundy in a Hulk-like character in the show and his interaction with Hawkgirl. I also loved the Starcrossed story-arc, the entire Cadmus saga (which made The Question one of my favorite characters of all time) and the final episode, Destroyer, which has one of the best fighting sequences I have ever seen.

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#13 Post by knives » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:42 am

Their Question is truly an odd one. I love how they managed to combine all of the very different forms the character has taken(from objectivist mouthpiece to zen philosopher)and gave him solid shape. I don't think anyone, even the writers at first, would've thought to team him up with anyone which I suppose makes The Huntress stuff all the more genius.

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dx23
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Re: Kids Television

#14 Post by dx23 » Tue Jan 25, 2011 12:53 pm

Hey knives, have you watched Young Justice on Cartoon Network? The show seems to be in similar vein as Justice League Unlimited.

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#15 Post by knives » Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:55 pm

I only caught the premier(been trying to shrink my ungodly kevyip which is like ants), but it seems like it has the potential to be something worth watching. That said it also seems like it could also fall into the modern mistake of angst=quality.

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dx23
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Re: Kids Television

#16 Post by dx23 » Tue Jan 25, 2011 5:43 pm

knives wrote: That said it also seems like it could also fall into the modern mistake of angst=quality.
Yes, I'm afraid about that too, especially the way they are portraying Superboy and his relationship with the Martian Girl. Still, I hope that they keep that too a minimum and focus on good storylines incorporating the guys from the Justice League. Still, I don't understand why they decided to go with Dick Grayson as Robin instead of Tim Drake.

Edit: By the way, Bruce Timm and Conan O'Brian remade the last scene from the second episode.


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domino harvey
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Re: Kids Television

#18 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jul 31, 2011 2:05 am

Well, that was amazing

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Kids Television

#19 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:09 am

I'd love to see some Encyclopedia Brown pop up. Not sure I'd buy it, but I'm sure I'd watch it if they ran the reruns on HBO Family.

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#20 Post by knives » Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:57 pm

Anyone catching up with the Thundercats reboot? My prejudices against it from the terrible '80s original keep me skeptic, but it's proving itself to be at least significantly better than that. The best I can say after three episodes is that unlike Young Justice it doesn't treat it's own darkness as content. the complexity begets darkness, not an attempt to go the other way around. The animation is also really amazing. I don't think I've ever seen an American show look this good before. Even the Grundy dying episode of JL which was my previous watermark barely stands as equal to the most recent episode. There are so many little details in just the third episode that I could max out a post gushing about them. I also like how in the most recent episode a pretty clearly defined and thought out moral presented in a way that's impossible to miss but is still never spelled out. The whole thing is reminding me in a positive way of Avatar, but a whole lot less jokey.

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dx23
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Re: Kids Television

#21 Post by dx23 » Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:33 am

I've been watching the new Thundercats and the show has been very good so far. I don't hate the original series (actually, I liked many episodes) but certainly they don't pass the test of time. At first I had mixed feelings and felt they rushed everything in the first 2 episodes, including bringing Mum-Ra immediately to the mix. They also took out their race advance technology, made Lion-O and Tigra half-brothers, Panthro (who we still have not seen) looks less tough and much older than in the 80's, Thundera is now a city instead of a planet (taking away the Superman/Krypton-inspired origin) and drifted far away from the original series pilot (which I always thought it was solid). Still, the new series is real good. I loved the brought back Grune and made him a top bad guy (he was one of my favorite childhood toys), the animation is fluid and the stories are just plain good. Seriously, this is how the He-man reboot should have been.

By the way, the Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes have been surprisingly good, almost even up to par with the Justice League series. Marvel/Disney also seem to be putting everyone in the same animated world, similar to what Warner/DC did with Justice League Unlimited. The Avengers already have had cameos from the Fantastic Four, Wolverine (as James "Logan" Howlett in the Captain America mini-episodes), Frank Castle, Captain Mar-vell, Black Knight, Doc Samson, SHIELD, the Asgardians and the Skrulls. I heard recently that the Ultimate Spider-Man series is going to be incorporated in the same world and from what I understand so will the X-men in their next series. Marvel failed to capitalize on this back in the 90's when they had series for Spider-Man, X-men, Fantastic Four, Hulk, The Avengers (West Coast), Iron Man and Silver Surfer.

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knives
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Re: Kids Television

#22 Post by knives » Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:12 am

Maybe the reasons I don't have any problem with the changes from the original series is that I have no personal connection to it. I've seen about a dozen episodes, but never really cared. This new one is just doing everything right so far and can't wait to see where it goes. It definitely makes up for their other new show which is frankly unwatchable. Maybe the worst thing I've seen them produce and I've seen ATHF. As to Marvel I could have sworn the Spiderman cartoon overlapped some episodes with X-Men. I wasn't aware of a new cartoon though. What channel is it on?

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dx23
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Re: Kids Television

#23 Post by dx23 » Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:35 pm

The new Avengers series is on Disney XD. If I'm not mistaken, Disney has put all the mini episodes on Youtube and their Disney XD website.

The X-men had a brief 2 episode crossover in the Spider-Man cartoon, which is the one that actually used many Marvel characters in the series. Many of those characters were always part of the Spider-Man universe, like Black Cat, Morbius, the Punisher, Daredevil, Blade and the Prowler but the writers also incorporated Iron Man, War Machine, Storm, Captain America and the Invaders. The X-Men series also used Captain America for one episode in a retelling of an WWII mission Logan and Cap had but almost every other non-mutant character that appeared on the show was only show in brief, non-speaking cameos. The Fantastic Four series did the same. They had so much potential to bring all these character together but they never truly exploited that idea. It's kind of ironic that the only true Marvel show that has done this so far is the kid-oriented Marvel Superheroe Squad, which is shown early mornings on Cartoon Network.

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Kids Television

#24 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Sep 01, 2011 11:56 am

I think there might be another more directly relevant thread (which I can't find), but I was wondering if anyone had any dvd recs for learning/entertainment DVDs for toddlers.
I'm trying to find some good stuff for my friend's one year old ... who will soon enough become a 2 year old and progress right through to 3 and 4.
Anything with letters, basic words, colors, catchy songs, etc.

It seems much easier to find things targeted at pre-schoolers (ages 4 and 5 and such).
But I'm also interested in any pre-school recs as well.

I just bought Blue's Clues based on a rec here, even though that seems to be older stuff. Anyone know the age range for that?
I also picked up a whole huge Scholastic box/assortment of things such as Harold and the Purple Crayon, Curious George, etc.
But I'm not familiar with newer material, and even less so for BBC fare such as Wibbly Pig and Charles and Lola.
Hard to know what's good and what age ranges these are suitable for.


Otherwise, you can tell Gregory, in an earlier post above, indeed hasn't seen Children's Theater, or he would have simply said Kukla, Fran and Ollie, instead of explaining who they are in the wrong order ...
I liked that as a kid, but can't recall much except the puppets.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Kids Television

#25 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:13 pm

John de Lancie will be playing the villain in the second season of...My Little Pony.

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