Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 11, 2005 0:41:27 GMT 12
I am pleased to see that TV One has finally started to show some educational shows in the afternoons for children again. For years Kiwi kids were only given violent Asian cartoons and total nonsense.
In my day growing up in the 1970's and 80's, we had entertainment on TV of course, but in my opinion it was much better - cartoons from the UK and the USA, like the Smurfs, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Willo The Wisp, Count Duckula, Mickey and Donald, Bugs Bunny, etc, and some great animations like Cosford Hall's The Wind In The Willows.
We also got some fantastic drama and comedy series from Britain made for kids and younger adults, from Our House to Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest, to Worzel Gummage, etc.
But amongst all this entertainment, we also got a healthy smattering of excellent shows for expanding the mind. One favourite was "Don't Ask Me" with Magnus Pyke and David Bellamy. Another was the art series "Vision On" with Tony Hart and Morph.
And we also got some great serious kids shows from NZ itself, like "The Video Despatch" which was news especially for the younger audience, but without any patronising idiot presenters or annoying techno drum beats behind every track. It had proper newscasters like Dick Weir, Lloyd Scott and Chris Harrington.
Another was a quiz show called "W Three", which stod for who, what and where, with Selwyn Toogood. It later had [cough] Lockwood Smith [pah!] as presenter if I recall right...
That was really a interesting show though as you learned as well as watching kids your age trying to succeed. And they were polite and not obsessed with being competitive unlike today. These days the gane shows on the likes of Sticky TV or What Now don't use knowledge base, they do things like dares to see if the kid will eat something disgusting, and involve lots of gunge being poured on people.
(Did you realise that gunge stuff they use is actually a food additive!!
)
Another fantastic series for younger people but equally good for adults was "Wild Track" which began life as "Wild Trek", with Peter Hayden and some girl whom I have sadly forgotten. The whole show was about New Zealand's wildlife and environment, and it taught kids so much about nature, and trees, birds and conservation. As well as showing things, they got kids involved with community projects and competitions so they really got into saving the environment. It was quite revolutionary at the time. Do we see anything like this now for kids? I think not.
Good on TV One for reintroducing a number of educational shows to the afternoons, but you'd have to go a lot further to be as good as we had it I think.
Cheers
Dave
[feeling old... I'm only 34 for goodness sake!]
In my day growing up in the 1970's and 80's, we had entertainment on TV of course, but in my opinion it was much better - cartoons from the UK and the USA, like the Smurfs, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Willo The Wisp, Count Duckula, Mickey and Donald, Bugs Bunny, etc, and some great animations like Cosford Hall's The Wind In The Willows.
We also got some fantastic drama and comedy series from Britain made for kids and younger adults, from Our House to Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest, to Worzel Gummage, etc.
But amongst all this entertainment, we also got a healthy smattering of excellent shows for expanding the mind. One favourite was "Don't Ask Me" with Magnus Pyke and David Bellamy. Another was the art series "Vision On" with Tony Hart and Morph.
And we also got some great serious kids shows from NZ itself, like "The Video Despatch" which was news especially for the younger audience, but without any patronising idiot presenters or annoying techno drum beats behind every track. It had proper newscasters like Dick Weir, Lloyd Scott and Chris Harrington.
Another was a quiz show called "W Three", which stod for who, what and where, with Selwyn Toogood. It later had [cough] Lockwood Smith [pah!] as presenter if I recall right...
That was really a interesting show though as you learned as well as watching kids your age trying to succeed. And they were polite and not obsessed with being competitive unlike today. These days the gane shows on the likes of Sticky TV or What Now don't use knowledge base, they do things like dares to see if the kid will eat something disgusting, and involve lots of gunge being poured on people.
(Did you realise that gunge stuff they use is actually a food additive!!
)Another fantastic series for younger people but equally good for adults was "Wild Track" which began life as "Wild Trek", with Peter Hayden and some girl whom I have sadly forgotten. The whole show was about New Zealand's wildlife and environment, and it taught kids so much about nature, and trees, birds and conservation. As well as showing things, they got kids involved with community projects and competitions so they really got into saving the environment. It was quite revolutionary at the time. Do we see anything like this now for kids? I think not.
Good on TV One for reintroducing a number of educational shows to the afternoons, but you'd have to go a lot further to be as good as we had it I think.
Cheers
Dave
[feeling old... I'm only 34 for goodness sake!]
