I should start off by admitting that I don’t have kids. I tell you this because it is entirely possible that I have no idea what I’m talking about when I write this entry on kids television. (Please address in the comments if you feel inclined.) Still, I’ve never really grown up when it comes to my tastes in media. I’m a 29-year-old Harry Potter nerd who makes my boyfriend go to kids movies with me and occasionally checks out Disney and Nickelodeon when I get bored with watching the Real Housewives of Wherever.
Last week I was feeling nostalgic for some of the shows I used to watch when I was 12, so I did what any self-respecing internet addict would do and looked up some clips online. If it weren’t for YouTube it may never have even occurred to me that a lot of kids shows these days feel kind of… well, weak. From what I can tell we have two main categories of current programming for kids: trouble makers, or pop-star tweens. Both are annoying, but it’s also kind of sad that kids today don’t seem to have the option to watch something quirky.
The trouble makers are usually stupid and the whole show can seem to be a blur of loud music, bright colors, skateboarding, and idiots making bad decisions. The tween side of programming seem to be young versions of vapid adults that will eventually find roles on some 2018 version of Gossip Girl. They date, they sing, they worry about who to date and what to wear… but what do they do for our imaginations?
Just because an audience is young doesn’t mean they can’t be respected. They don’t need to see an onslaught of simple mindless entertainment. I for one think kids are capable of understanding so much more than what we give them to watch today… which makes me wonder whatever happened to the weird, creepy, and smart shows for kids?
I used to love Eerie Indiana and The Adventures of Pete and Pete. When I was a kid these shows never talked down to us, nor did they make us feel rushed to grow up. Their characters weren’t trying to adults, in fact the characters were special because they were young, not in spite of it. Usually they were telling stories that were best from a kids point of view because adults would never believe them. Shows like that left you thinking about all of the weird possibilities right in your own back yard. They were created to make us wonder about the world, not just about when we would be discovered as the next teen pop sensation. (When did being famous become the only goal of our youth?)
As with most things, the most important test is time… in 20 years will people look back and say that Sonny With a Chance is still good? Doubt it. But as an adult I still think that Pete and Pete and Are You Afraid of the Dark? are thought provoking and fun to watch, and that has to mean something.
What is the point of my tirade against shows that feature the Zack and Codys of the world? Quite frankly, I worry they are too repetitive and cliché to be entertaining. But most of all I worry that they just aren’t weird enough. Am I saying that weird and clever kids shows made me a better, more interesting, more imaginative adult? Well, the truth is, I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t. But maybe they did. At they very least they were certainly more interesting to watch.
Heather Hansen