Shows Babies Watch

[Rogar Demonblud]

Given that was a half season, I'm wondering if there was a batch of behind the scenes stuff that cost them several episodes of development.

Personally, the first two seasons are the only ones I'd rewatch willingly. But mine have gotten old enough they don't care any more, so now I'm subjected to things like Bunk'd and Andi Mack.

[LibraryOgre]

What, nobody's mentioned MLP yet? Is it too good to hate?

The Boy really likes MLP, and has been requesting a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) recently. He's not into Transformers: Prime, so Daddy watches that alone.

[An Enemy Spy]

Why not just read them books instead?

Reading the same book three times in a row because they shout "Again!" is torturous.

[theMycon]

Why not just read them books instead?

For me, "Baby" mean >2 years old.

Actually reading books is not practical until they're old enough to grasp the concept of reading.

Before a certain age, kids have figured out that you're supposed to turn the pages, but not that the words you're saying are related. So they see you read to them, and they grab at the book, giving you the choice of "let them rip it to shreds", "give up on reading the story", or "listen to them scream and cry because you stopped them from turning the page".

Baby books have thick slabs of cardboard for pages, so you only have options 2&3. And lots of bright colors and moving parts on the pages (and a bare minimum of words), so you can drill into their minds that what's ON the pages is interesting, while sorta-reading while using the right voices & cadence. So you can ease them into being read to.

[Psyren]

Why not just read them books instead?

Short attention spans.

I don't know about other kids, but in the case of my niece the TV is mostly background noise that she occasionally watches while playing. Usually she asks to watch a kid kid show or movie (her words not ours ) and then plays on the floor. It's only the adults in the room that aren't part of what ever she is playing that really pay much attention to the show. We do read to her when she wants to read a book and she gets a bedtime story every night.

Adding to the "background noise" benefit, it's an activity the parent can more easily multitask during while still engaging with the child. Reading them a book or playing minecraft with them (for slightly older kids) while cooking or cleaning or fixing something is tricky at best and can even be dangerous if your attention is divided too long.

[Elanasaurus]

My Little Pony jumped the shark in season 3 when they randomly and abruptly gave Twilight wings, not as part of an arc or a thing that was foreshadowed, but as something that randomly came up in the second act of an episode. They also had a bunch of other random poorly written stuff happen throughout the season.

Yeah, yeah, also A Canterlot Wedding, the Derpy controversy, Equestria Girls, Starlight Glimmer, and Slice of Life (in which they literally jumped a shark). But is the show too painful to watch with the kids?

[Bohandas]

Yeah, yeah, also A Canterlot Wedding, the Derpy controversy, Equestria Girls, Starlight Glimmer, and Slice of Life (in which they literally jumped a shark).

especially since Canterlot Wedding could have been good if they dropped the whole "royal wedding" angle and focused more on shapeshifters

[Metahuman1]

You know your ragging on My Little Pony in a world were Teen Titans Go is getting a theatrical movie, has 5 seasons, and that theatrical movie is possibly what will determine if the old Teen Titans series ever get's a proper anything, right?

[Bohandas]

Teem Titans Go isn't so bad. It's probably doesn't deserve a movie but it isn't so bad. I think that at some point they need to do an episode where they bring in the Joker to berate the fans of the old show for being too serious

[Rockphed]

My headcanon is that the child watching is Daniel Tiger's imaginary friend.

We banned Daniel Tiger after it started teaching anti-social behaviors to children. Specifically, there was an episode where when the kids got mad they were supposed to stomp 3 times. I'm all for people expressing their anger and angst, but screaming and stomping I don't approve of.

The Boy really likes MLP, and has been requesting a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) recently. He's not into Transformers: Prime, so Daddy watches that alone.

My eldest liked Transformers: Rescue Bots. I spend at least half the time she was watching it complaining. It was either "that's not how science works!" or "what kind of horrible town is this that the [stupid thing of the week] isn't immediately destroyed?" It was like the whole town was contractually obligated to be as stupid as possible! I mean, sure, the robots got more screen time saving people, but some of the plots were just atrocious.

After she watched it all, I tried to get her into Transformers: Prime, but it is a bit dark (one of the characters dies gruesomely in the first episode). I like it, but I can't bring myself to finish the series. I peeked at the descriptions for the last season and am worried that it is going to get really dark.

I have to give a shoutout to "Animal Mechanicals" for being truly mind numbing. It's like the characters are trying to be dense.

[Bohandas]

Which Transformers series was the one where the girl turned out to be a human-cybertronian hybrid cyborg? Because that was my favorite Transformers

[Jayngfet]

Speaking from a mostly technical perspective one thing I've noticed in the last five years is that CG, especially bad or cheap CG, has become far more commonplace. My mentor was a lead on such a project just before this period and I understand the crews involved have to make a lot with very little in the way of resources but every year it seems the actual act of making the show gets a bit harder and more of a scrape as everything from the writing to the animation to the modeling gets a bit more bare bones.

This is just my opinion as a childless nobody that occasionally works on the OTHER side of the TV but I did see a few comments to the above effect and just wanted to give my two cents. Can any parents or sitters weigh in on how noticible this is to them or their kids or how it affects what they actually want to watch in terms of tv and movies?

[Rockphed]

Speaking from a mostly technical perspective one thing I've noticed in the last five years is that CG, especially bad or cheap CG, has become far more commonplace. My mentor was a lead on such a project just before this period and I understand the crews involved have to make a lot with very little in the way of resources but every year it seems the actual act of making the show gets a bit harder and more of a scrape as everything from the writing to the animation to the modeling gets a bit more bare bones.

This is just my opinion as a childless nobody that occasionally works on the OTHER side of the TV but I did see a few comments to the above effect and just wanted to give my two cents. Can any parents or sitters weigh in on how noticible this is to them or their kids or how it affects what they actually want to watch in terms of tv and movies?

I haven't watched something with bad CG in years. I think it has actually gotten to the point where the bad CG floor is about where the good CG ceiling was 20 years ago, but I'm sure somebody will pull out an example of really, eye-bleed inducingly bad CG that was made in the last year.

[Jayngfet]

I haven't watched something with bad CG in years. I think it has actually gotten to the point where the bad CG floor is about where the good CG ceiling was 20 years ago, but I'm sure somebody will pull out an example of really, eye-bleed inducingly bad CG that was made in the last year.

You probably aren't wrong. Bad CG now, still looks better than good CG even a decade ago, and I know for a fact the system's have gotten easier to use by leaps and bounds. Such shows only really exist because bad visuals just means ok visuals in a modern context and good visuals mostly mean incremental improvements the audience rarely notices, if ever. It's not like kids or parents really care about the fidelity of simulated cloth or hair and techniques to fake both have long since been proven.

[Keltest]

Teem Titans Go isn't so bad. It's probably doesn't deserve a movie but it isn't so bad. I think that at some point they need to do an episode where they bring in the Joker to berate the fans of the old show for being too serious

Because all of the other episodes that made fun of fans of the original were such good ideas.

Note my sarcasm.

[t209]

My Little Pony jumped the shark in season 3 when they randomly and abruptly gave Twilight wings, not as part of an arc or a thing that was foreshadowed, but as something that randomly came up in the second act of an episode. They also had a bunch of other random poorly written stuff happen throughout the season.

And the recent seasons' first two episodes adapted Accepted but with less-capable faculty that we should sympathise (because evil racist school board) despite all, except Twilight, are not trained teachers and not sure if the writers remember that they also have full time job.
Also somehow they decided to have three underage children as school professors.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Which Transformers series was the one where the girl turned out to be a human-cybertronian hybrid cyborg? Because that was my favorite Transformers

Transformers Animated, which was nearly killed by the Bayverse.

[Elanasaurus]

Because all of the other episodes that made fun of fans of the original were such good ideas.

Note my sarcasm.

Agree with your point, but I actually enjoyed The Cape.

And the recent seasons' first two episodes adapted Accepted but with less-capable faculty that we should sympathise (because evil racist school board) despite all, except Twilight, are not trained teachers and not sure if the writers remember that they also have full time job.
Also somehow they decided to have three underage children as school professors.

Oh yeah, I missed that. Didn't hear a lot of complaints about it, however.

Underage? They're already running a kindofa business.

[Rockphed]

What, nobody's mentioned MLP yet? Is it too good to hate?

I suspect that the sorts of people who watch My Little Pony with their children have significant overlap with the people who comment in the pony-thread. I, personally, can't stand watching My Little Pony, so my daughter has never seen more than 1 episode.

Speaking of children's shows I can't stand, what are people's thoughts on True?

[Metahuman1]

Because all of the other episodes that made fun of fans of the original were such good ideas.

Note my sarcasm.

My point precisely. They were right up there with that one M. Night Shamalan Movie were he kills the rather blatant stand in for people who were critical of his more recent at that time movies post Signs.

[LibbyLishly]

I suspect that the sorts of people who watch My Little Pony with their children have significant overlap with the people who comment in the pony-thread. I, personally, can't stand watching My Little Pony, so my daughter has never seen more than 1 episode.

Speaking of children's shows I can't stand, what are people's thoughts on True?

I couldn't even get through five minutes of True because the songs hurt me.

Meanwhile, I watch plenty of My Little Pony with my small children. Other solid shows for the 2-4 crowd are Sarah & Duck, Puffin Rock (I don't know why this isn't a phenomenon yet; it's SO GOOD), Treehouse Detectives, and Beat Bugs on Netflix. There are also seven "best of" "seasons" of Mister Rogers on Amazon Prime (meanwhile, Daniel Tiger is banned from my house). I think the only regularly played show my kids like that I don't is Clifford, which I try to play sparingly because his friends can be terrible influences, and the it has about five plots that get recycled over and over. I also have two DVD sets of Darkwing Duck that get played sometimes.

Why, no, we don't have regular broadcast TV at my house, why do you ask?

(Also, yes, I read books to my kids daily. It's not an either-or situation.)

[Bohandas]

I haven't watched something with bad CG in years. I think it has actually gotten to the point where the bad CG floor is about where the good CG ceiling was 20 years ago, but I'm sure somebody will pull out an example of really, eye-bleed inducingly bad CG that was made in the last year.

I've seen really bad CG as recently as two years ago, but it wasn't on a kids' show, it was on the Ratchet & Clank movie, which somehow managed to look worse than the game (like the first game, way back on the Playstation2)

[Telonius]

My daughter's 8 now, so she's kind of outside that range, but watching shows with her wasn't too long ago for me. She grew out of Caillou pretty quickly. Two that always annoyed me: Fireman Sam, and Max and Ruby. Fireman Sam: my headcanon is that shortly after the show ended, the insurance agency dispatched the two girls from Trigun to see just what in the heck was going on with that redheaded kid. Max and Ruby: the eternal question of where in the world their parents are.

The worst of all: LaLaLoopsy. Dear gods, it was impossible to make it through a single episode. I just went catatonic after about four minutes. The idea was to get the kid to want to take a nap, not to put me to sleep.

MLP was wondeful for both of us to watch. So was Phineas and Ferb. (Side note: daughter is going to be the first girl ever in her grade school's robotics club next year). WordGirl made a valiant attempt, but never captured her attention.

[LibraryOgre]

For clarification, while I'm dealing with a pair of toddlers, this is mostly about anything you watch where you're way over the target age.

So, my son is recently into the Wild Kratts, which is... ugh.

So, the Kratt Brothers, who are real people, have fictionalized, younger, versions of themselves, who travel around to save animals from a whiny inventor and a hefty chef (who goes by the name Gourmand), and one other, whose thing I think is fashion, but I've never seen an episode starring her. They travel in a high-tech turtle-shaped ship with their inventor friend, Aviva, who can program special suits they wear to gain the powers of any animal... but you have to touch the animal to get the powers of it.

It's just badly written. They have about one and a half plots, and they repeat them endlessly.

It's another that they're not allowed to watch when my wife is home, she hates it so.

[Adderbane]

Teem Titans Go isn't so bad. It's probably doesn't deserve a movie but it isn't so bad. I think that at some point they need to do an episode where they bring in the Joker to berate the fans of the old show for being too serious

I think I already saw them do an episode along those lines (There was a clown making fun of the older, disappointed fans at least).

On the other hand, the new live action show's trailer makes Go look good.

In regards to the actual thread topic, there's not much to be done except wait for them to grow a bit...

[LibraryOgre]

I think I already saw them do an episode along those lines (There was a clown making fun of the older, disappointed fans at least).

On the other hand, the new live action show's trailer makes Go look good.

In regards to the actual thread topic, there's not much to be done except wait for them to grow a bit...

On the contrary: I can bitch about it. ;-)

[Rockphed]

On the contrary: I can bitch about it. ;-)

Or you can make them watch the things you enjoy and tell them deal.

I think I got through 4 seasons of Gummy Bears before I couldn't find any more episodes.

[Metahuman1]

I think I already saw them do an episode along those lines (There was a clown making fun of the older, disappointed fans at least).

On the other hand, the new live action show's trailer makes Go look good.

Yes, they did, and the episode was a terrible attempt to claim any and all critiques of Go were intrinsically invalid on the grounds of who was pointing out objectively true things about Go.


Also, while the live action trailer does make it look like they got EVERYTHING wrong about it by going too far in the opposite direction, doesn't make Go look good.


The Spanish Inquisition were horrible, but it doesn't mean Joseph Stalin looked good by comparison, just cause one group were religious extremists and the other was a secularist extremist dictator.

[Bohandas]

One thing disappointing about Teen Titans Go is that they never did the obvious, for a silly lighthearted DC Comics TV series, move of having an episode where Adam West makes a cameo reprisong the role of Batman. And IIRC I think he died sometime over the past year or two so now they no longer have a chance to do that

[Metahuman1]

One thing disappointing about Teen Titans Go is that they never did the obvious, for a silly lighthearted DC Comics TV series, move of having an episode where Adam West makes a cameo reprisong the role of Batman. And IIRC I think he died sometime over the past year or two so now they no longer have a chance to do that

I could have forgiven them a LOT of there BS if they'd done that. But they didn't, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that that was willful on there part. Given how invested they are in telling anyone who has anything other than mindless praise to heap on there show to suck there unmentionables and thank them for the privilege.