Part of watching a toddler grow up is a study in observing their TV viewing habits as they gradually get older. Initially, my son started out with the "Baby Einstein" series, then moved onto "Sesame Street", followed by a phase of a new show each week, until he settled on his latest and most favorite show, "The Backyardigans". He's been watching "The Backyardigans" for the better part of 9 months now, and there's no let up in his desire to watch more episodes. It's a fun show to watch, and the 5 characters in the show, Pablo, Tasha, Tyrone, Uniqua, and Austin, all meet up in the yard behind their houses, and proceed to go on adventures built on their imaginations. It's a really fun show to watch, and the songs the characters sing are very catchy and tied to some music genre in music history ("Rock", "Be-bop", "Salsa", "Cabaret", etc.). I catch myself singing the songs on my commute to work in the morning, or to myself while I'm at work.
The other day though, my son, along with some of his friends, watched a "blast from the past" - the old "Schoolhouse Rock!" series that's been re-issued on DVD. I have fond memories of this series when I watched it 30 years ago on ABC, either on Saturday mornings, or in the afternoons, combined with an "ABC Afterschool Special". Watching some of the clips in the corner of my eye as my son watched the DVD, I couldn't help but think about how the TV viewing and broadcasting times have changed. This was an instructional series, with episodes such as "Conjunction Junction", "I'm Just a Bill", or "Three is a Magic Number", and the whole idea that the ABC network would broadcast this show out of the goodness of its heart kind of baffles me now when I think of it. Sure, there is the occasional Public Service Announcement that comes on the air nowadays, but nothing like "Schoolhouse Rock!" It seems that now, everything is geared towards ratings and keeping the shifting attention spans of the little kiddos glued to TV sets. Some would probably wonder about "Schoolhouse Rock!" if it ever came on the air, and go "Huh?" I don't get it!"
At least with my kid's current show obsession of "The Backyardigans", there are no commercial interruptions of the show, even though it appears on a for-profit, cable channel. Plus, if my son ever wants to watch a show again, we tape everything around here, so even if there were commercials, he wouldn't have to sit through any of that useless garbage. So, I guess until he discovers the next show that interests him, it'll be "The Backyardigans" for a while longer around here. I'll just add this show to the memory of shows I use to watch as a kid.
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