Mr. Rogers believed this. Never talk down to children. Speak simply, but not stupidly. Instead of crappy kids show music, he ended each episode with some really first-class jazz piano. Go look some of them up on YouTube, they’re fantastic.
The secret to understanding crappy American kids TV is that nobody is watching it. Only kids, and how do they know what’s good? These shows provide badly needed employment to incompetent people who nonetheless require that they work in media. They’re arty people, see? They can’t work in an office! Their creativity must be acknowledged!
A lot of “quality” American TV is built on an understanding of history or literary allusion.
You can’t make a Sporanos For Kids, because nobody under the age of 12 is going to understand any of the references. You can’t do 24 for kids who don’t understand The War on Terror. You’re going to struggle to do modern readaptation of Romeo and Juliet for kids who never learned it the first time. You can’t make a movie about Elvis for kids who have never heard his songs.
A lot of good kids TV is itself making allusions, but to things a kid would understand. Recess is about the power dynamic in elementary school. Looney Tunes regularly makes fun of period music and popular TV of the era. SpongeBob makes jokes about fast food work and cleaning your room. MLP is an extended metaphor for social conflicts kids regularly encounter.
But many adults don’t appreciate these more child centric concepts for the same reason kids won’t get adult drama. There’s very little frame of reference.
Avatar the Last Airbender has the staying power it has because it took kids seriously and gave them a real story that can still be enjoyed by adults.
They never explicitly state how many firenation spines were crushed by oppa’s large teeth, drowned, died from falling off a mountain, etc, but the stakes are implied.
I’ve been saying that shows that’re grimdark or edgy are made for babies, but that’s me.
Maybe i’m just biased, but the 90s were terrible for this. So much wanting to grow up fast through consuming frankly horrible/traumatic media.
I think that went on a bit further than the 90s, probably up to at least the late 00s. I remember watching Elfen Lied a few years after it came out when I was in middle school and thinking wow, this is high art, I’m so sophisticated and grown up for having watched this! lmao
Looking back on it now, all I can think about is just how embarrassing that show was. The only nice thing I can say about it was I guess the intro was pretty dope
Possibly related: we have an old Sharon Lois & Bram CD in the car because the kids like it, and the instrumentation and cover art might be a bit goofy, but there are some deep cuts in there. Stuff from the 1910s that only a musicologist or a very serious hobbyist would know about (artfully cleaned-up for modern audiences when required.) More jazz chords and less repetition than 90% of the adult-directed pop music currently on the radio. Not a trace of stupidity or a moment of low effort (and Lord knows I’ve heard that thing enough times that if there were any I would have picked up on it by now.) How many kids’ youtube channels can boast that?
