Admittedly I slept all day, but I was up
all night working on a class paper. And then went out for coffee with a friend
and hung out for a while before going to sleep. So not totally a bad thing in
this case. I also discovered last night that I like jazz, which I will discuss
at a later time. But a while ago in a column I started to go on about kids’ television.
I figured I better get around to finishing that little rant at some point. So
why not today? Seems as fine a time as any. When I was a kid television seemed to treat
kids as if they had a brain. Now a days televisions treats
kids like mindless zombies for the most part. There are exceptions and I don’t
mean just PBS. There are some cartoons out there with good writing. Unfortunately,
they are normally meant for older kids.
What I want is for a television writer to
really sink his or her teeth into writing television that is both entertaining
and smart for younger kids. And that doesn’t have to be educational. Is that
really too much to ask? I don’t think it is. We ask the same thing out of
television writers for adults why not kids as well. And tell give me that
stupid answer of well because they are just kids. That is a ridiculous. I
remember seeing a couple of kids’ book series transformed into television
series when I was both a younger and older kid. And I think there should be
more of that. Since it can be done well and the stories are good for the most
part. It could even be done with books made for slightly older kids between
young adult books and kids’ books.
I mean there is not a lack of source
material to make good children’s television or at least to get ideas for it. We
have some ideas that are still going on from my childhood that are starting to
get stale now. We need fresh new ideas to propel us forward. We need new kids’
television writers. And it can’t all just come from comic books. Some of it has
to come from games and books. We need writers to step up to the plate and
companies to take a chance on ideas once more. We need smart ideas again.
It inspires kids not just in play
but also in education as well. It makes them want to learn and aspire to be the
things they see on television. We used to strive to inspire the next generation
now it seems we just want them to be mindless robots and that is just plain
wrong. We should inspire the dreamers of the future generations. We should make
them dream and imagine. It is wrong to turn today’s youth into mindless zombies
through television. We should strive to inspire them even if that television
ends up online. It should still be good smart television.
How would you like it if your
television was mindless and stupid? You would probably flip the channel or go
online to find something you liked even if you had to go back years to find it.
And wouldn’t watch anything new till they made it smart again. Well
unfortunately kids don’t have that choice if they want to watch television
since for some that is their only form of entertainment. So don’t we owe it to
them to demand smarter television for them. We do it for ourselves so why not
them too.
I’ll get down off my soapbox for
now, but seriously think about what I’ve said today. As always feel free to
leave questions and comments below. As for me I am going to have a late dinner
and get to work on some more school work and be up late tonight. *Tips his hat
and walks out the door towards the kitchen. *
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