Some Days… It Don’t Pay to Get Outta Bed
Published April 25th, 2007 in L.A. Toddler, It's Really Just All About Me....
I always hate it when old people whine about the “good old days.” But now… I’m getting older so it’s my turn. I’ve earned the right.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you absolutely couldn’t wait to roll out of bed and flip on your TV on Saturday morning? Of course you do! Because, even though you got only 3 channels, you had the Looney Tunes cartoons! You had Bugs, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, and Yosemite Sam.
And what you mostly didn’t have was a message.
About the only thing you ever learned from watching Wile E. Coyote chase the Road Runner was that if you ran off a cliff – you wouldn’t fall until you looked down.
But nearly every single show my daughter watches teaches something. They teach tolerance, acceptance, kindness, responsibility and self-esteem. They teach! Don’t get me wrong. I believe the children are our future. Teaching our children is a positive thing. But can’t they leave it to the teachers? Or the parents?
Where’s the fun?! Kids should get the joys of watching the slapstick pratfalls, the crude humor, and Sylvester the Cat being blown up five times in one episode. Watching the Berenstain Bears lecturing on self-control would never have been a decent reason to crawl out of bed at 7am on a Saturday morning.
There is a separation of Church and State. Why can’t kids today catch a break that gives them a separation of School and Cartoons? In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to get a DVD collection of all the Looney Tunes greatest hits. Maybe throw in some Little Rascals. As soon as my daughter is ready to hang up Sagwa and Thomas the Train, we’ll have to get acquainted with all the classics on the Cartoon Network. And we’ll laugh our butts off.
Let’s hope she likes the “good old days” as much as I do…
“If you want to send a message, call Western Union.” – Samuel Goldwyn
19 Responses to “Some Days... It Don't Pay to Get Outta Bed”
- 1 Pingback on Apr 25th, 2007 at 11:20 am
My son is in the middle of his third go-round of all four volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collections DVDs.
And just last week he used his own money to buy Tom & Jerry’s Greatest Hits DVD set.
So there is definitely a hunger for mindless entertainment among kids today. He’d watch it every single day if we let him, but we limit it to weekend mornings.
My kids watch boomerang A LOT. They love Tom and Jerry and Scooby. I don’t like either of those, but they are tolerable. The one my son watches that I absolutely HATE is baby looney tunes. Anyway, trust me, some of the new cartoons are good, and don’t teach much.
I absolutely agree. Bring back those days when the only thing you learned from cartoons is that everyone buys their dynamite from Acme.
While we don’t have any DVDs of Warner Brothers cartoons, we do have the first season of the Muppets, which is also good entertainment without teaching anything.
And when she’s a little older, I have the first season of Animaniacs just waiting for her. It still is one of my favorite cartoons of all time. Although I guess you could call it a little bit educational - I still remember my state capitals through Wakko’s America song.
If your going to go old school…you gotta reach for the good stuff!
They have all the DVD’s and love to watch H.R.Puffenstuff, Sigmund the seamonster, The NEw Zoo REvue, The Banana Splits, The HAir Bear Bunch, Speed Racer, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Little Rascals, Dick Van Dyke, They even enjoyed Dragnet (granted I know those last two aren’t really toddler friendly) And who could resist School HOuse Rock…(message for sure BUT catchy tunes.)
BY THey I mean my kids!
I grew up without television, so I can’t really empathize. We had an old broken set but it didn’t get channels and we didn’t have films and it was never on. In fact, as far as I can remember, the first time my parents went out and bought a new one was September 11th. They wanted to watch the speeches. Outside of that, I come from a family that doesn’t really believe in TV and it’s pretty obvious from my complete lack of pop culture knowledge that I still don’t watch television.
But Fiance? He’s already getting ready for when there’s munchkins running around. “We’re going to show them…” and as far as I can tell, what follows is a list of everything under the sun, from Thundercats to Looney Tunes, from Tom and Jerry to Pinky the Brain, from the Little Rascals to Family Guy. Okay, so maybe Family Guy isn’t “classic” but he’s still collecting DVDs of these things getting all excited about showing them to kids.
I love Spongebob, and that one cartoon where the kids are best friends with the Grim Reaper.
Catdog is cute too.
Yes, I’m right there with you. We have all four volumes of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, and husband thinks that we should restrict airing of the Looney Tunes to early Saturday morning, thus recreating the get-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn to watch cartoons and eat bowls of sugary cereal ritual that has so tragically been taken away from children in this deranged generation. I also have been tempted to only let baby watch The Wizard of Oz ONE day a year in mid-March so that she knows the joy of anticipation. And NO Tivo, you have to wait for commercials to go to the bathroom, and then you better make it quick!
Hear! Hear!
I heartily agree. I loved watching morning episodes of Tom and Jerry.
I only let my kids watch Family Guy.
You said it brother!
Me only wached Bugs and Daffy, two, and nevver did I think I wasnt edukated.
I remember that about Wizard of Oz. It seems so weird to me now to think there was a show on once a year and everyone watched it and it wasn’t sports.
I have to say (because You’ve Got Mail is in TV right now) that the books we read, the music we hear and the TV we watch as a child becomes part of our identity in a way that no other media in your whole life does…
Having said that, I am an angry bitter person who is prone to random fits of violence towards the door frames in our home and cars (I like to slam when I am mad, puts a special little punctuation to my point) I should have watched more sesame street, thank God for PBS sprout - I shudder at the alternative. Did i mention Modern Toddler slammed 2 doors tonight. I am so screwed.
BTW, thanks for the recent comment on my page, it is ridiculously cool that you continue to click on by… as can be deducted from my blogging, it may in fact be intelligent journalism and/or the slightest hint of skilled writing that was the missing link from my formative years.
Good point. I was a cartoon junkie and look how I turned out!
Ok, bad example.
I would rather poke myself in the eye than watch the Berenstain Bears. The books were bad enough. Yuck.
You need more SpongeBob. And if you like cartoon mayhem, there’s a videotape (not available on DVD as far as I know) of three Roger Rabbit shorts called The Best of Roger Rabbit that is pretty darn funny. And don’t forget Wallace and Gromit. Not the movie, the shorts!
And, yeah, I used to love Saturday morning — the only time during the week that the TV belonged to us kids.
My eight year old still loves Tom and Jerry, and for all the reasons you mention.
My favorite - Chilly Willy. Does ANYONE remember Chilly Willy?
Amen! (Is that acceptable? Or is there separation of church and blog too?)
I remember getting out of bed to watch Hickory Hideout (ok Ohio boy, remember that one?) Yes still a bit wholesome but at least it was a weekend ritual. Kids today can turn on the tube at any time of day and find some kind of cartoon on. There’s no fun in that.