News Roundup: End of March 2012

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Renewals, Cancellations, & Scheduling:
BBCAmerica's Being Human will return for a fifth season of six episodes.

FOX's Q'Viva: The Chosen is being shortened from two hours to ninety minutes... and it's moving to 11pm instead of 8pm on Saturday nights. Cops and Bones will fill the gap.

The CW's The LA Complex (which doesn't premiere in the US until April 24th) will expand its first season from six episodes to nineteen. The new episodes will air over the summer.

FOX has renewed Bones for an eighth season.

Animal Planet has renewed Pit Boss, My Cat from Hell, and Pit Bulls & Parolees.

MTV renewed The Challenge for a 23rd season and The Real World for a 28th season.

Nickelodeon will present Dora's Easter Adventure for the first time this Wednesday, April 4th at 10am ET/PT.

TLC has yet another reality competition show in the world. Craft Wars will being its 10-episode run on June 26th, hosted by Tori Spelling.

Cast & Plot Updates:
Jason Alexander will have a role on an upcoming episode of Two and a Half Men.

Lindsay Lohan and Whoopi Goldberg will both guest on Glee this season.

Shows in Development & Other Fun Stuff:
Netflix has decided to pass on Terra Nova after all, so consider it gone for good.

FX is looking at potentially making Fargo into a television show.

You may have known that you can watch the pilot for Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 early on ABC's website and on Hulu, but the second episode will also be available on April 2nd, a full nine days before the official debut.

NatGeo's Bid & Destroy will "give viewers an unprecedented look into the cutthroat, rough and demanding world of demolition." Twelve episodes are expected later this year.

Way back in October, Scott Baio was cast as the lead in Daddy's Home, an original show for Nick at Nite, but the network has ordered 20 episodes, to start filming later this year.

FX will have six installments of the untitled late show with Chris Rock & W. Kamau Bell, premiering this summer.

NBC is launching "NBC Kids" on Saturday, July 7th. This three-hour block will help meet the development needs of 2-5 year-olds.

Disney finally beat Nickelodeon in "average number of total daily viewers." If took them nearly 17 years to do so.

Sitcom: yes. Animation: no.

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

But even the 'yes' on sitcom is iffy.

For Soleil Moon Frye, the 1980s were dominated by portraying the spunky orphan, Punky Brewster. Four seasons of live action were intertwined with two seasons of animation (and an unrealized spin-off). Punky Brewster was an NBC show, which tackled a long and unsettling story arc in the second season where Henry (Punky's foster father) suffers an ulcer after his photography studio burns down, forcing Punky to be cared for by neighbors, then whisked away to Fenster Hall (an orphanage), sneaking out, then getting stuck with some rich foster parents, before finally being reunited with Henry five episodes later. Well, shortly after that NBC gave up, but it was popular enough to warrant an additional two seasons in first-run syndication (aka a grand total of three months, watching a new episode every afternoon on weekdays).

This post is a snark on NBC throwing in the towel too early (obviously they could have continued the show), but more importantly, it's about the lack of focus put on the animated series, It's Punky Brewster. I caught this one long before I found Punky Brewster on the Family Channel in the afternoons (back when the lineup on that channel included brother-sister game shows back-to-back). It ran on Saturday mornings, in that typical 2 12-minute episodes per half hour format, and my parents taped several episodes for me that I'm sure are still floating around my mom's house somewhere. (I also had a pair of Punky Brewster velcro-fastened sneakers when I was in Kindergarten, and they were super colorful and AWESOME.)

The animated feature was very much like the original, except that Allen is still there (he eventually moves to Kansas on the sitcom), and they hang around with a magical little furry guy named Glomer, who lives at the end of the rainbow. Henry is still a photographer, but the majority of episodes take place either at school, or someplace trying to remedy one of Glomer's spells. I've only seen a handful of episodes, including one where Punky is turned into a mermaid, one where Punky tried to expose a breach in child labor laws in a candy factory, one where Punky and her friends have to spend $1 million in two days, a Valentine's Day episode, and one where Punky acts as a detective.

Regarding why the show didn't last longer, I can't really seem to find a definitive response. I'm thinking that since NBC gave up on the sitcom in March of 1986, they didn't want to continue the animated series either, so they ran that out in December 1986.

I found one episode online, where the kids get shrunk.

the coolest dog you ever knew!

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

so I've neglected to even post an apology blog in the past week. But I haven't seen any tv at all, and I've had several days with no internet, so nothing else got done, either. Bottomline, my bad.

Foofur. You may have never seen this show. I spent a good chunk of a month of my high school life advocating for my friends to sit down and watch an episode or two of one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons as a youngster. I didn't get far, and as it turned out, Foofer was probably best appreciated by children. It will always have a special place in my heart, and I can guarantee that should a DVD of the series (only a few episodes are currently out on VHS) become available, I'll be purchasing it posthaste.

Anyway, Foofur is a blue hound dog who lives in a for-sale mansion with a bunch of other strays. He has lived there for a long time, and inherited it when his owner died... but that doesn't stop it for being for sale! The episodes generally revolve around staying hidden from the realtor (Mrs. Escrow) and her pesky chihuahua (Pepe) or having adventures around the house and neighborhood. My favorite episodes include a circus and a fortune teller, respectively.

The other dogs include Annabell (sheepdog who is a little ditzy), Burt (friend of Rocki's), Dolly, Fencer (who is actually a cat), Hazel (kinda stuck up), Fritz Carlos (dates Hazel), Louis (bulldog who dates Annabelle), and Rocki (Foofur's niece). Fencer is often tormented by three rats who also live in the mansion.

It ran on Saturday mornings on NBC from 11:30am til noon in the 1986-1987 and 1987-1988 seasons (totaling 46 episodes). I'm not really clear on why it didn't continue, but I imagine it has something to do with lack of interest, since it doesn't seem that anything fabulous was up against it in that timeslot.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Playground

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Yeah, yeah. By now you know that most Disney shows get cut off before they have time to fail. I talked about this with The Weekenders, and probably somewhere else along the line as well. This show actually made it 6 seasons, for 128 storylines (but the last two seasons only had a total of 8 episodes). That sounds good, except that the plots are 10 minutes long, meaning only 64 or so episodes were made (there were a few that ran longer, meaning only 1 got into a time slot, etc), and the finale makes it 65, the magical Disney cut-off once again. It ran Saturday mornings, and later got the weekday afternoon slot, which I think is where it came to popularity.

I got hooked on this fantastic cartoon during the afternoon One Too block. The finale (3 episodes) has the kids in the 5th grade (they remain in the 4th grade throughout the rest of the series), and there has been speculation that there was to be a seventh season with the kids getting older, but it was ultimately cut. Though the show has been running in daytime and early-morning syndication for years, the final three episodes have allegedly never been re-aired in the US, which is quite curious. (I read the descriptions of these episodes and none seem familiar, so that could very well be true.)

The show began in 1997, and was clearly character-driven. Without the various (beyond lovable) elementary school stereotypes and the ability of the writers to play out those stereotypes in such a REAL manner, the show would not have been such a success. Given that, let's go over the stereotypes...
The Troublemaker (TJ) was an awesome leader with a great aptitude for speaking to all groups.
The Military Brat (Gus) was naive to the unspoken rules of the playground, and excelled in a single sports area: dodgeball.
The Brain (Gretchen) could do great math problems and science projects, and had a talking, handheld computer.
The Gentle Giant (Mikey) was larger than the others in his grade (and some of the teachers), but wrote poetry, did ballet, and had an operatic singing voice.
The Female Punk (Spinelli) who has to ignore her family (not only do they embarrass her, but they gave her the trendy name of "Ashley") and be tough for her petite size.
The Athlete (Vince) who is naturally popular (as his older brother once was), gifted in all sports, and has concern for others (he won Class President every year until the 4th grade).
The King of the Playground (Bob) is a sixth-grader who makes all the rules governing who can play where and with what during recess.
The girly-girl clique (four Ashleys, who all have brothers named Tyler and sisters named Brittany) who have a clubhouse, a catchphrase ("Scandalous!"), and only wear the most fashionable attire.
The Teacher's Pet (Randall), who often does nothing but rat-out misbehaving peers.

The Mean Teacher (Miss Finster) generally did not like the students doing anything fun.
The Fun Teacher (Miss Grotke) who acted kinda like a hippy, standing up for students and believing in creative projects.

And then there were other fill-ins: a girl who always eats corn chips. A girl who is always on the swings. A girl who is always upside-down on the monkey bars. The kids who always dig holes. The kid who stays inside every recess (this one actually has a name - Menlo). The A/V kids who spend recess in the basement. The Boy Scout. The hustler. The urban legends kid (Butch). The kid who gives advice (Guru Kid). Lastly, there's the Kindergartners (mostly unnamed, but there are Tubby, Hector, and the Sticky Kid), who are crazy, run around, have riots, and are mentored by the older kids. You can see a lot of these characters here.

As you can imagine, storylines range from seeking out hidden water fountains, getting the "good ball," swinging over the top of the swingset, dealing with indoor recess during a thunderstorm, and having various competitions.

I loved the show. The characters were great. The storylines were funny. The jokes were clever. Win all around! They even dealt with semi-special episodes, mostly limited to cultural and socioeconomic differences. Included below is one of my all-time favorite episodes - the one where Gretchen takes up the art of the YoYo. You can also see some of the other kids, but it's not very good at illustrating all of the stereotypes. (But, many episodes are on youtube, so check it out)

I'm Living for the Weekend

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I've always been a fan of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Even up through high school and into college, which explains how The Weekenders is one of my all-time favorites, even though it didn't debut until 2000. It ran on ABC, and ruined Pokemon's run on the WB. It's not on at all anymore, although reruns were on ToonDisney and a few other channels for a few years.

This show worked HARD on being completely original and setting itself apart. The show centers on four kids and what they do on the weekends. Two guys and two girls, and their families are seen from time to time. Tino, voiced by Jason Marsden, is the main character, and often breaks the fourth wall while telling the audience about what's going on. But, two things that set the show apart: the kids' clothing and hairstyles actually change, which is rare for cartoons; the pizza place that they frequent is never the same background... the theme of the place is constantly changing. Some of my favorite themes were Cirque du Pizza, Mount Pizza-Uvious, Sherlock Pizza, Mission Impizzable, Pizzamergency, and Lord of the Pies.

Rarely was school a topic in the show, and I think that was a big draw for kids looking for an escape from other shows (which Recess did in a similar manner, but focusing mostly on playground situations). The crew could be found hanging at the arcade, the mall, movies, listening to music, playing sports, and other things tweens might do. There are no "very special" topics, but there was a holiday episode showcasing Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah.

It got the boot because it was a Disney show. Disney and their fear of a show losing viewers just stops shows in their tracks.

This is a very early episode in the series, but it shows families, hobbies, and the general tone of the show.




Later Days!

Butterfly in the Sky...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

... I can fly twice as high...

Sometimes I wonder why I didn't particularly care for Reading Rainbow as a small child. It took me until I was eight or so before I enjoyed the show for the books. Before that, I only liked the field trips. I did always have a thing for the books that featured other cultures (like Native American or Chinese) and would take facts from the books and use them in real life, no lie. And the opening, so great. Both the song and the animation. :)

The show began before I was born, and I was saddened to find out while I was compiling information for this post that it stopped being broadcast in November 2006. For 24 seasons, LeVar would read books to kids, and the show was aimed at getting kids to the library. There was a featurette at the end of every episode that recommended other similar books to the one read that day. There were occasional guest-readers, like Bill Cosby, Michelle Tractenberg, and Hulk Hogan. I'm sad that PBS just couldn't afford to keep going, as the show won 26 Emmys among other awards. But, it was funded heavily be "viewers like you" and while I'd beg my parents every year to pledge something during the PBS telethons, they never did. And I guess other parents gave up, too. :(

While a lot of the books were pretty plain, the later seasons (which I would catch occasionally in college) would include books with themes like poverty and prison, which I think was probably a wake-up call of sorts for the elementary-age viewers. Apparently, the pilot also dealt with financial difficulties, but I haven't seen that one. Reruns ran all the time, so it's kinda bittersweet I never saw the opener.

My Top Ten Favorite Episodes of Reading Rainbow:
10. Perfect the Pig - I really enjoyed the animation in this one. and that fact that Kermit guest-starred. It's about a runt piglet who wants wings.
9. Miss Nelson is Back - kids act up when they have a substitute teacher. oh, and LeVar gets great makeup.
8. Arthur's Eyes - the beginning of the Arthur phenomenon, I imagine. An aarvark that got glasses and dealt with the fear he'd be the geek of the grade.
7. The Bionic Bunny Show - another Arthur special, in a way. Arthur and Buster love Bionic Bunny, and the book talked about how a bunny was made-up to do the show. LeVar showed how he got dressed up for his Star Trek role as well.
6. Unique Monique - a private school has a dress code, and Monique is upset. But she finds a way to show off her style anyway.
5. The Patchwork Quilt - a little girl and her mother take on the family tradition of quilting after grandmother gets sick. It made me wish my grandmother did something really neat that I could learn. Perhaps that's how my interest in my grandmother's genealogy got started...
4. A Chair for My Mother - A family's apartment burns down and the neighborhood helps them save money to get new furniture. Meanwhile, LeVar and some other guys are rehearsing for a musical.
3. Mama Don't Allow - this is an all-time favorite of mine, and one I hope that my future children will love as well. The Weekend Special version also has a special place in my heart. It's set in a bayou of Louisiana, where animals play music (but not at the house, because Mama don't allow that).
2. A Three Hat Day - LeVar visits a hat shop. BUT, when you put on a hat you're transported to a place where someone would wear that hat. A jockey cap takes us to the horse races, an engineer's hat takes us to a model train place, and a goalie's helmet that takes us to the ice! The book is about a man who loves hats and meets his wife in a hat store.

My all-time favorite book that LeVar Burton featured was Meanwhile Back at the Ranch. A farmer is out of town, and we learn about his day while crazy stuff happens back on the ranch as his wife plants potatoes. I really find it hilarious. I can't find an audio, video, or even an image clip of the book, so I'm going to suggest you head over to your local library. The author's name is Trinka Hakes Noble. :)

Gidgits and Gadgets and Odds and Ends...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

...and even some old string!

That's what you get when you look into your Barney Bag, a staple on the PBS show Barney & Friends, which has been on constantly, since 1992 and does not show signs of stopping, as far as I can tell. I only watched the first season or so (I had an eighteen-month-old sister, so it was the perfect excuse), but the show has long been prey to criticism.

It's actually taped in Texas for the most part, and I have a friend whose older sibling appeared on the show. I'm not sure how PBS decides to keep the show going year after year, but I guess that's why I'm not in television production. While it does not have the concentration on reading and counting like Sesame Street, there is a heavy emphasis on the imagination and creativity. There are many episodes where you learn new songs and dances, and other life skills - taught at a preschool level, of course. Kids move away, become big siblings, and visit grandparents whom they've never met before. There aren't really any negative emotions though... stealing and cheating are ignored, as are death and illness. The most serious thing the show tackles might just be "should I pick my best friend to play on my team even though he sucks at sports?" But usually they just played musical instruments, played pretend, and dressed up, with a spinkling of crafts.

Besides Barney (the purple one, obviously), there's Baby Bop (a green triceratops) and her brother BJ (yellow... I've never seen him in an episode, just in promos), and their cousin Riff (who I just found out about this morning and have never seen, but apparently he is orange). There have been a ton of different kids on the show, some staying only one episode (like Kyla Pratt) and others who stayed on for years (like Tina and Kathy).

You may be very familiar with the "Barney Song" that starts out "I Love You, You Love Me," which I disturbingly found out is used by US operatives to break the will of Iraqi POWs.

In doing a little bit of research, I didn't find much that was interesting enough to share with readers, so we'll go ahead and jump right to the clip for the week... you get to see the stuffed animal "come alive" for the kids, Baby Bop as well as a couple of the many random Barney songs (including the snack song they sing often):

Hey, Hey, Hey...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

...it's Fat Albert! Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids ran for a whopping thirteen years, from 1972 to 1984 on CBS, and an additional year in first-run syndication. During this time, they only cranked out about 100 episodes, based on Bill Cosby's childhood memories. Cosby had roles at the beginning and end of each episode, and he also voiced the main character and a few of the others.

I first watched Fat Albert in the 7th grade, as it came on after Channel One in homeroom. At home, my brother and I were also big fans of the show, and caught it on the local school board channel, which in St. Lucie County was Channel 13. It doesn't seem to be all that well-known, especially in comparison to some of the other things I've showcased. This might be because you just flipped over it when you watched it (whether that was on the original Saturday mornings or some other time in later years), seeing how it was about a bunch of young boys living in poverty who hang out at a junkyard in North Philly. They played up the "ghettoness" of the show, too... even the instruments they played in their band were pieced together from garbage. The show was nominated for just one Emmy, which is something I don't really understand. It was educational (yet didn't run on PBS) and targeted an audience that was often overlooked by Saturday morning programming... minorities.

Characters:
Fat Albert was the conscience of the group, was the big guy, and wore an orange sweater.
Mushmouth was the one you had a hard time understanding. He actually uses the Pig Latin-ish language Ubbi Dubbi when he speaks, it's not gibberish. Cosby also voices him.
Dumb Donald is the one with the pink ski mask on his face. As his name suggests, he is the dimwit of the group.
Bill is based on Cosby, and Cosby voices him. He spends a lot of time keeping his little brother (Russell) out of trouble. He's the one in the jeans and white shirt.
Russell is the tiny guy in winter wear. He always tells it like it is.
Weird Harold wears the blazer and mismatched socks. He's Fat Albert's best friend.
Rudy is the one in the pink vest and orange hat. He seems to be a little better off financially than the rest of the group.
Bucky is the one with the overbite.

The episodes covered a lot of different topics, and the gang usually learned a lesson, which they often sing about in the end. Some of the stuff covered includes crushes, gun violence, racism, skipping school, con artists, child abuse, drugs, medical problems, alcohol, abduction, and white supremacy cults. They also made Christmas, Halloween, and Easter specials. The hooky episode is a little ridiculous, because the gang realizes they don't miss much and they have a lot of fun, but two bums tell them that since they didn't finish school they can't read, so the guys go back and start thinking school is cool. In another episode, Dumb Donald finds out his parents are having another baby, he freaks out, he gets used to the idea, and the baby is born all in the same episode. There are a couple divorce episodes, which do a decent job at looking at different aspects of the split. There's a funny episode about a kid who looks good, but doesn't know about personal hygiene, so the gang has to talk to him about not smelling, haha. They also have an integration episode, where the kids are bussed to a different school. There are a few gang-related episodes, and death is a big effect. And, in true 80s fashion, there's an episode about a kid who makes it to high school without learning how to read. (This and other shows with similar episodes intrigue me, since the "football star" aspect clearly wasn't an issue in first grade, so how did they pass back then?)

The did a movie in 2004, starring Kenan Thompson. I have yet to see it, but I've been meaning to for quite some time. The plot seems to be about the group helping out a teenager (Kyla Pratt) who is grieving over her grandfather. And, of course, Bill Cosby makes an appearance to give advice.

I can't find any of my favorites on YouTube, but I did find a very short episode from the later years, where the guys tour a prison and learn about how much it sucks to get arrested for a felony.

When Babies Aren't Cute

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

When I moved to Florida and had cable television for the first time, I discovered Rugrats during a Nickelodeon marathon. My first thoughts were not that positive (it was the episode where the parents lose Tommy and Chuckie in the Toy Store - the first episode in Season 2), but after getting sweaty playing outside, I retreated back to the living room and the marathon. After a few more episodes, both of my siblings and I became fans. The second film premiered a week or so after I got my driver's license, and that was the first movie that I drove to see.

Basically, the show features a bunch of babies and their parents. Tommy Pickles, the main character and the leader of the group, usually ends up in some sort of trouble. Malapropisms abound, and it's quite entertaining that the adults in the show cannot comprehend what the television audience can. I guess that's what you get when you have kids between one and two years of age. Three-year-olds Susie and Angelica can understand and communicate with both the babies and the adults. In almost every episode, the parents never even realize that the kids have gone missing or are doing something they shouldn't, and the babies are able to return to their original destination and activities by the end of the show.

Rugrats has done an excellent job intriguing the eyes of older children and parents, particularly with its well-known Hanukkah and Passover episodes (Tommy's mother Didi is Jewish, while his father Stu is Christian). In the teenage spinoff, Tommy is attending classes in Hebrew to prepare for his bar mitzvah. Perhaps one of the reasons why the show finally died out is that the older viewers could just no longer relate, and the younger viewers were turning to crappy shows like Spongebob Squarepants. Or maybe it's because there are only so many things that babies can do, LoL. But somehow Klasky and Csupo were able to write enough scripts to keep the show flowing for years. I personally don't know how, as the babies were unlike any cutesy toddlers usually seen in shows, and all seemed like misfits in some way. Anywho...

Rugrats ran from 1991-2004, making an impressive fourteen years. It is the longest-running Nicktoon, and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2001). It had four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Children's Program and four wins for the Best Cartoon at the Kid's Choice Awards. It also had a spinoff (which began as the ten-year anniversary special Rugrats: All Growed Up) and two theatrical-release movies (that each added a new character to the show). In 1998 with Rugrats: The Movie, the group added a three-month old to the how who has no communicative abilities, Tommy's brother Dil. In 2000, with Rugrats in Paris, Chuckie's dad gets remarried, adding a stepsister for Chuckie: Kimi. (There was technically a third theatrically-released film, but it was a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys, which I am not a fan of). From 2003-2008, the spinoff All Grown Up featured the characters as preteens and teens, with a total of 55 episodes. Now, technically there is a second spinoff, which only began about a month ago, but I have yet to see an episode so I don't know that I can really speak to it. If you're interested, it is called Angelica and Susie's Preschool Daze, and apparently runs on Nickelodeon at 6am on Sundays. Four episodes have aired thus far. There were also a bunch of video games... PlayStation's Rugrats: Search for Reptar is definitely a fun game though. The levels were based on various episodes, and you got to play as several different characters, including Spike the dog. And in case you didn't know, Reptar is a green T-Rex that the babies love.

Viacom has removed pretty much every clip of Rugrats on the internet, but here's a few pictures to show most of the main characters.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This week I will address Power Rangers for two reasons. One, I did NOT realize that this show was still on! And two, because with the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of the year where the Power Rangers action figures were the hot item. Everyone was sold out, and there were tramplings at the local Toys R Us. My brother received two from an unknown source - they just showed up wrapped on our doorstep (with other toys we probably received from being underprivileged or something similar). While I was old enough to not get captured by the pop culture hit, both my brother and sister were big fans of the show, and definitely ended up with a ton of merchandise from Saban/Bandai. When my sister was four or five, my mother made her a spectacular Pink Power Ranger costume. She cut up my pink parachute pants and windbreaker to make it, but it was much better than the crappy plastic suits that were being sold at Wal*Mart at the time.

Anyway, the show began in August 1993, with movies in 1995 and 1997. The characters are mostly known by the color of his or her costume, which often dominated his or her wardrobe, as well. Red (Jason, T-Rex), Blue (Billy, Triceratops), Yellow (Trini, Saber-Toothed Tiger), Pink (Kimberly, Pterodactyl), and Black (Zack, Mastadon) were the basics. Tommy, the Green Ranger, with a Dragonzord, entered in a 5-episode arc during the first season (and later became the White Ranger). They can't use their powers for personal gain and can't reveal their identities to the general public. If you break the rules, you lose your powers. Zordon and Alpha 5 were the good guys, and Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd were the bad guys. The actors came and went like it was nothing, although a few have remained much longer than the others.

The show is based on the Japanese Super Sentai series, and many of the fight sequences have been dubbed. Because of this, the writers of the American series had to write storylines to fit those scenes. Over the course of 15 seasons, there have actually been 13 separate series! However, if you missed the in-between seasons (like I did), there's not much hope of seeing them on television... reruns are rare because the show does not meet FCC regulations on educational content in Children's Shows.

Kimberly was probably my favorite, mostly for her gymnastic prowess. The actress has been in several other things, and is now a singer. My brother was a Tommy fan, and my sister flipped her allegiance on and off from Kimberly to Trini. What is of note is that my next-door neighbor was really into martial arts, and pretty much had the kids in the hood convinced that he was the green/white power ranger. Haha, it stil makes me laugh to think about.

It won't let me embed today's clip, but here you can see a great visual history of the first three seasons. It shows the bad guys, the characters, the morphing process, and how the Dinozoids change and form the Megazoid.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Another Monday, another long-running television show. I decided to go with another PBS show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Like last week's Sesame Street, this show also is geared toward children, has puppet sequences as well as live sequences, and often shows clips from factories and galleries to help viewers understand how things are made. A main difference: no new episodes are being made; the final episode aired in 2001.

There is never a plot, and storylines only half continue from episode to episode. The Mr. Rogers segments do not continue, but the Neighborhood of Make-Believe sections can carry for days. Mr. Rogers often breaks the fourth wall by recapping the puppet sections for the audience, and discussing what went on. Fred Rogers himself was one of the show's puppeteers, and with him viewers imagined themselves on the trolley to and from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Characters: King Friday, Queen Sara Saturday, and Prince Tuesday; Lady Elaine Fairchild; X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat; Daniel Tiger (who lived in the clock); Corny the inventor; Grandpere the tiger (who lived at the Eiffel Tower); the Platypus family (little Ana was so cute!); and Harriet Elizabeth Cow (the schoolteacher). Oh, and of course Mr. McFeely, Mayor Maggie, Chuck Aber, and Lady Aberlin.

Fred Rogers wrote over 200 songs for the series, and sadly, I doubt that the new generations will be privy to learn them all. While there is a campaign to make Mister Rogers a part of daytime PBS scheduling once again, it is currently only airing once a week or so in most parts of the country. There were some great episodes, and I learned about a lot of different things, including how toothpaste is made, LoL. "Jospehine, the Short-Necked Giraffe" was my favorite sequence, but it seems that I cannot find a good video clip. It was a three- or four-day sequence, and extra time was allotted to the musical play than the usual middle segments. Josephine was a giraffe, and she had a friend, Hazel, who was an elephant. Hazel played the trombone, and there was another giraffe who played the "hoof organ," which was similar to the floor keyboard in Big. And a snake who learned to hiss. The main theme (I believe) was to accept and love your differences.

The clip below gives a good view of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, introduces several characters, and begins with Mr. Rogers in the sandbox, one of my favorite live-action settings.

Quite the Attention Span

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

This will be part of a series I'll do on Mondays for a while: Long-Running Television Shows. For the purposes of this blog, I will be ignoring Soap Operas and Meet The Press -type shows.

It seems appropriate that I'll start off with Sesame Street. This show is about to hit the 40-year mark, and holds the record for longest-running children's program on American television. The name recognition is unbelievable, it is shown in 120 countries, and has won over 100 Emmy awards. As one of the 77-million or so adults who watched Sesame Street as a child, I can vouch for its ability to maintain an audience. Combining live action sequences with puppets and animation, the short segments are designed for preschoolers' short attention spans.

It always bothered me that their "letter and number of the day" did not go in sequential order. One day it could be "H" and "13" but the next it would be "V" and "9." But, it did increase letter and sound recognition, as well as basic math skills. They taught me how to properly cross the street, shapes such as pentagons, how an elephant bathes in dust, and daily words in ASL (a major feat, as Linda was the first deaf actress to appear as a regular on a television show) and Spanish. "Special" episodes that come to mind include Mr. Hooper's death, Snuffy becoming more than Big Bird's imaginary friend, Slimey going to the moon, and the more-recent "hurricane week" episodes and the grease fire designed to help children deal with the tragedy of 9/11.

Gordon and Susan, Maria and Luis, Miles and Gabriella. Molly the mail lady, Mr. Hooper, Linda. Just a few of the more memorable (to me) "real" people in the show. Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Snuffy, Oscar, Slimey, Elmo, Telly, Roosevelt Franklin, the Dinglehoppers... the list of muppets is endless. I mean, The Count, Grover, Guy Smiley, the Twiddlebugs, Cookie Monster, the two-headed monster, baby Natasha, Herry Monster, Prairie Dawn, Barkley, they just keep coming to me.

Big Bird in Japan, Big Bird in China, Follow that Bird, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, specials with princesses, the Boston Pops, and several celebrities... tons of Sesame Street expanders that came on during Primetime or even on the big screen. Follow that Bird was a scary special for me, because I felt like I could get kidnapped just as easily. I have always loved Christmas Eve on Sesame Street and look forward to watching the DVD with my future children.

Anyway, Celebrate Sesame Street!