T.V. Show Recommendations

[zenjenn]

:rolleyes:My 3rd grader informed me this weekend that our highly restrictive television policy is making her feel left out, socially.

 

We have thus far taken the policy that she can only watch television with a parent, or from a selection of recorded, parent-approved shows on our DVR. She pointed out today that the only recorded show she still likes (i.e. - not too "little kid" for her) is Phineas and Ferb. Kim Possible was in the mix for a while but they stopped airing the show (and I think she's seen all the episodes at this point anyways. )

 

She is going to be 9 yrs old in a few weeks, and I think it is a reasonable request to expand approved television, also keeping in mind we have a 6 yr old in the house. I guess we can no longer rely on PBS kids and Playhouse Disney. :(

 

She wants to watch some of these tweeny sitcoms. I hate them. I think they are obnoxious and I'm not sure why little kids need to watch shows about teeny romances and crap. :rolleyes:

 

That said, I don't want to be a totally unreasonable parent and I do understand that she wants to relate to some of the cultural conversations with her peers.

 

Any recommendations for the *least* obnoxious tweeny shows? Right now I'm thinking of looking into A.N.T. Farm and Wizards of Waverly Place?

[zenjenn]

bump. This forum is both the worst AND the best place to ask this question. :D

[ma23peas]

:rolleyes:My 3rd grader informed me this weekend that our highly restrictive television policy is making her feel left out, socially.

 

We have thus far taken the policy that she can only watch television with a parent, or from a selection of recorded, parent-approved shows on our DVR. She pointed out today that the only recorded show she still likes (i.e. - not too "little kid" for her) is Phineas and Ferb. Kim Possible was in the mix for a while but they stopped airing the show (and I think she's seen all the episodes at this point anyways. )

 

She is going to be 9 yrs old in a few weeks, and I think it is a reasonable request to expand approved television, also keeping in mind we have a 6 yr old in the house. I guess we can no longer rely on PBS kids and Playhouse Disney. :(

 

She wants to watch some of these tweeny sitcoms. I hate them. I think they are obnoxious and I'm not sure why little kids need to watch shows about teeny romances and crap. :rolleyes:

 

That said, I don't want to be a totally unreasonable parent and I do understand that she wants to relate to some of the cultural conversations with her peers.

 

Any recommendations for the *least* obnoxious tweeny shows? Right now I'm thinking of looking into A.N.T. Farm and Wizards of Waverly Place?

 

 

One teeny show that I really enjoyed is H20..it's an Australian teen show about mermaids...I loved it...

 

We also like Dr. Who, (start with 2006), Robin Hood (BBC) and Merlin...

 

I did not like Wizards of Waverly Place, the kids love "Good Luck Charlie" and we like it, too...and we also love "The Middle"

 

Enjoy!!!

[abbeyej]

Well, I'm fond of iCarly. It's truly *absurd*, but there's also a level of cleverness there. There are things one could object to (most adults fall somewhere in the range of buffoonery), but the kids stick together, romance is mostly minimized (though as the kids get older, it's more of an issue), Carly herself is level-headed, smart, and hardworking. ...But it's very, very, very silly.

 

Wizards of Waverly Place is okay in that the family loves each other and despite sibling rivalry and occasional bad choices, etc, they always end up supporting each other. Alex (main female character) disparages school a lot and her "smart" brother gets a lot of mockery for that. There have been some romance storylines, but it's not the *main* focus. Mostly the kids try to use magic to make their lives easier, something goes wrong, their lives are harder because of their attempt to find a work-around, they fix it, everything works out...

 

Good Luck Charlie is okay. Another basically loving family set-up with occasionally buffoonish adults.

[Carrie12345]

A.N.T. Farm is pretty tame.

We like Wizards, but that one definitely does get pretty heavy in the teen relationship department.

Good Luck Charlie is pretty cute, imo.

[Carrie12345]

Well, I'm fond of iCarly. It's truly *absurd*, but there's also a level of cleverness there. There are things one could object to (most adults fall somewhere in the range of buffoonery), but the kids stick together, romance is mostly minimized (though as the kids get older, it's more of an issue), Carly herself is level-headed, smart, and hardworking. ...But it's very, very, very silly.

 

.

 

We love iCarly. In fact, my girls were sent to bed early tonight for being fresh, and I just sat and watched the new episode, myself. :tongue_smilie:

But... if the OP is shying away from teen romance, it's not a good time to be starting that show!

[Farrar]

I can't stand those tweeny Disney shows (and luckily my boys have no interest in them... Phineas and Ferb all the way, though) so I have no advice there. But two other ideas for expanding her TV options... consider kid-friendly reality TV - animal shows like Meerkat Manor, cooking shows like Iron Chef, etc. My kids enjoy that kind of stuff. Also, we love watching some of the BBC family shows together - Merlin, Doctor Who, etc. - but you might have to be a family of geeks like us to be into that. :)

[Mommy22alyns]

The girls like Scooby Doo.

 

I'm still adamantly against the "teen" Disney shows.

[justamouse]

One teeny show that I really enjoyed is H20..it's an Australian teen show about mermaids...I loved it...

 

We also like Dr. Who, (start with 2006), Robin Hood (BBC) and Merlin...

 

I did not like Wizards of Waverly Place, the kids love "Good Luck Charlie" and we like it, too...and we also love "The Middle"

 

Enjoy!!!

 

 

We're Old Skool cartoon watchers. The Perils of Penelope Pittstop, Toma nd Jerry, you name it.

 

Do you have netflix streaming? My kids love the Nat Geo movies, and all of the animal movies.

 

My fave, which they took off the air of course, is Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

[Disney Dreaming]

iCarly

Good Luck Charlie

Scooby Doo

Wizards of Waverly Place(not crazy about it but I do think Selena Gomez is a good role model so I ok it)

ANT Farm

Full House

So Random

Shake it Up

 

You need to watch them to see if they are ok with you. Everyone is different. I have no problem with my dd watching Disney shows. She has a 22 yr old sister and an 18 yr old brother and she is already seeing some of these kinds of things first hand. I don't allow PG 13 or TV 14 but anything PG and under is fine with me.

Edited August 14, 2011 by ugamom11

[Lady Marmalade]

I'll echo the iCarly vote. Much of the humor in that show is actually pretty clever- we end up watching it as a whole family most of the time. I would suggest getting the DVD's of prior seasons or watching on Netflix streaming to get going with it. Right now two of the main characters are exploring a relationship- there have been several seasons to go through before you come to that though. We've been watching iCarly from the beginning- so DS was 4 or 5 when we started watching it. It's never been too content heavy for him, and we all get a good laugh from the show.

 

Pair of Kings on DisneyXD isn't bad either. I'm not really digging the new A.N.T. Farm, but it might fit the bill for your DD. Hmm... Good Luck Charlie is cute too.

 

It's too bad Sonny With A Chance was replaced with So Random. Sonny was good- if you could find episodes of that on Netflix that one would be good too. So Random just hasn't lived up to the expectations yet.

[nono]

My kids are 7 & 4. We are finding good luck with the old shows. Currently, two favorites are Get Smart and The Mothers-in-Law.

[twoxcell]

Little House on the Prairie

My kids love this especially my 8 year old ds. We borrowed the first 5 seasons from my sister and they watch at least one everyday after school. We do not have the Disney channel and I do not know anything about tween shows.

[Hedgehogs4]

This does not help with the tween junk. I'm with you--I think they are obnoxious, and I figure if I don't want my kids emulating that stupid behavior, why expose them. I am the parent, and they will not die.

 

We simply don't have t.v. cable subscription. My kids watch everything from netflix, and they LOVE Leave it to Beaver, Dick VanDyke, Cosby, Pink Panther, old cartoons, stuff like that. I would love to show them I Love Lucy, but at the moment they're on a Dick VanDyke marathon. :001_huh: You could spin it that they are getting to enjoy stuff that their friends have no clue about, but that are special to mom and dad from when they were kids, etc. Point out the differences in manners and values--this kind of stuff makes an impression on my kids...

 

As my mom always said, "Good manners never go out of style"--and the shows are genuinely funny!

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I don't let my DD watch the tween Disney shows either. She does like watching old shows on Netflix that I used to love and still do. Tonight she's been watching old black & white episodes of Dennis The Menace.:) I also bought her all 8 seasons of Little House On The Prairie. After she finished one season, we would go buy another.

 

For us, the Disney shows are just way too heavy on the relationship stuff, or they talk really obnoxious.:001_huh:

[justamouse]

This does not help with the tween junk. I'm with you--I think they are obnoxious, and I figure if I don't want my kids emulating that stupid behavior, why expose them. I am the parent, and they will not die.

 

We simply don't have t.v. cable subscription. My kids watch everything from netflix, and they LOVE Leave it to Beaver, Dick VanDyke, Cosby, Pink Panther, old cartoons, stuff like that. I would love to show them I Love Lucy, but at the moment they're on a Dick VanDyke marathon. :001_huh: You could spin it that they are getting to enjoy stuff that their friends have no clue about, but that are special to mom and dad from when they were kids, etc. Point out the differences in manners and values--this kind of stuff makes an impression on my kids...

 

As my mom always said, "Good manners never go out of style"--and the shows are genuinely funny!

 

I don't let my DD watch the tween Disney shows either. She does like watching old shows on Netflix that I used to love and still do. Tonight she's been watching old black & white episodes of Dennis The Menace.:) I also bought her all 8 seasons of Little House On The Prairie. After she finished one season, we would go buy another.

 

For us, the Disney shows are just way too heavy on the relationship stuff, or they talk really obnoxious.:001_huh:

 

And, I forgot I Love Lucy! We LOVE that. And I'll have to find Dennis. Cosby is always a fave here, and yes, the Pink Panther. I don't mind relationship stuff, but it's the angst and DRAMA (handtoforehead) over the relationship stuff that bothers me. That's why I can't stand the Disney stuff.

[abbeyej]

I'm sort of amused at people suggesting "old" shows when your daughter's complaint was about connecting with peers -- not really about "more tv time".

 

I'm pretty sensitive to this because I was home schooled myself and pretty seriously sheltered. From ages 8 to 11 we lived in a semi-rural area, went to a small and relatively conservative church where nearly all of the children were home schooled, had no tv reception so the only things we watched were Disney movies from the 60s... ;) It was a lovely childhood and I have no complaints about it, but when, at nearly 11, I moved back to a city where my church was larger and all the kids were in school, etc, etc... I was pretty out of it. :) And yes, it stung. Especially in those middle years -- I was just completely missing a lot of the touchstones my peers had. (I was well-read, but had also missed out on typical tween fare like Judy Blume an others...) It took me years and years to regain enough pop culture knowledge to be able to connect with peers in that way. :)

 

And dh and I still joke about how I "spent the 80s under a rock". (He likes to ask me about 80s music and 80s tv just to give me a hard time...) ... It was a very pleasant rock though. :)

 

But it does make me sensitive about not *completely* cutting my kids off from the pop culture of their peers. Yes, a lot of it's worthless and I don't want them completely submerged in that. We have limited screen time, etc, etc. But I also try to make sure I'm not saying "no" to certain tv shows or movies just for the sake of it. We listen to contemporary radio (not everything that's out there and I torment the poor kids with plenty of NPR, but they do *hear* some contemporary music and recognize contemporary artists). When there are shows that I think aren't *harmful* and that we have time for, etc, I try to let them watch -- even if they're sometimes a little insipid. ;) Ds has argued that he needs to read Entertainment Weekly (ironically, lol, my mother sends it to me, hehe) so he'll know what the other teenage boys in his Scout troop are talking about. ;) Having been his age and clueless once, I decided it was a fine argument.

 

Anyway... I certainly respect parents who shelter their kids more than I do mine. And by many standards, my kids are still extremely sheltered! ... But I also understand making sure that just because kids are home schooled, they aren't completely cut off from the wider peer culture -- at least in ways that I consider morally acceptable...

[Coffeetime]

I'm sort of amused at people suggesting "old" shows when your daughter's complaint was about connecting with peers -- not really about "more tv time".

:iagree:

My kids like Good luck, Charlie. :) It's cute. If you have Netflix, several of those shows are available for instant viewing on there and you could do some previewing. ;)

Edited August 14, 2011 by Coffeetime

[nono]

I'm sort of amused at people suggesting "old" shows when your daughter's complaint was about connecting with peers -- not really about "more tv time".

 

 

Ah, but it looks like my kids can hang out with justamouse & Hedgehogs4 kids just fine. :tongue_smilie: (Mothers-in-Law is a great lead into I Love Lucy, gals -- the last show that Desi Arnaz directed.)

 

Well, I don't know that I'm about sheltering my children, as they went out on Thursday night (at 9 pm) to an outdoor cafe/bar to eat and hang out with people drinking and enjoying the live band, singing popular songs across the decades.

 

For me, the problem is crap v. quality. I'm trying to teach my children to enjoy good TV as well as good music. Then, as they are exposed more to contemporary TV and music, they have a standard against which to judge. There are 100s, 1000s of old shows. The ones mentioned are ones that stood the test of time. They would be a good intro while zenjenn's child ages a bit.

 

I guess the unspoken in my previous post is that 9 is a little young for a lot of those "tween" shows. Maybe not by 10. Heck, the child can invite over her friends and watch the "old" shows together. My kids have done this, and the kids were amazed. "Where did you get this stuff???" asked one boy. Like it was illegal as it was so good. :lol:

 

But, your point is taken. :)

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I'm sort of amused at people suggesting "old" shows when your daughter's complaint was about connecting with peers -- not really about "more tv time".

 

That said, I don't want to be a totally unreasonable parent and I do understand that she wants to relate to some of the cultural conversations with her peers.

 

 

Sorry, after reading through the other post, I forgot the original question and was just thinking you wanted some ideas for other things to watch besides the tweeny stuff.:tongue_smilie: Definitely disregard my input.:lol:

[JennyD]

I was home schooled myself and pretty seriously sheltered.

 

Entertainment Weekly (ironically, lol, my mother sends it to me, hehe)

 

I have nothing to contribute to the larger conversation, but this made me LOL.

[Mama Bear]

I have nothing to contribute to the larger conversation, but this made me LOL.

 

Me either (larger conversation), but my mother, who refused to allow Barbie in the house when I was a child, purchased them as birthday gifts for my girls. Heh.

[Jeannie in NJ]

my dc , age 16 and 14, watch Wizards of Waverly Place but just to let you know the lead character ALex (Selena Gomez) is somewhat proud of the fact that she does so bad in school and hates and makes fun of reading. I watch the show with my kids and just roll my eyes at Alex's "non-reading" comments.

 

Our favorite show is Good Luck Charlie.. There is some romance in there but it is not the main focus, the family always sticks together. The kids try to outsmart the parents but always get caught in the end. And Charlie is the cutest baby, now toddler.Actually I think she just started part time preschool (good episode about how hard it was for the mom to let her go). We watch all the reruns from the very beginning also, about from 4 years ago.

 

I really liked Sonny with a Chance when it was on. It's replacement So Random I do not like. I don't care for ICarly, my dd hates it but my ds likes it , it is his favorite.

 

My dc don't watch ANT Farm or Shake it Up so I can't give an opinion on those.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Jeannie in NJ

[Desert Rat]

We like iCarly, Good Luck, Charlie, and Victorious. Victorious might be too teenish for some people though. My 8yo is the youngest so he watches a few shows that ds11 wouldn't have watched at the same age. It's not bad, just different.

Cartoon wise lots of kids watch Avatar The Last Airbender. My boys watch Pokemon, Phineas and Ferb, and Jimmy Neutron.

[Lady Marmalade]

We like iCarly, Good Luck, Charlie, and Victorious. Victorious might be too teenish for some people though. My 8yo is the youngest so he watches a few shows that ds11 wouldn't have watched at the same age. It's not bad, just different.

Cartoon wise lots of kids watch Avatar The Last Airbender. My boys watch Pokemon, Phineas and Ferb, and Jimmy Neutron.

 

Victorious is spectacular for a kids show. We watch regularly, and I am impressed with the humor- as well as the fine arts education my kids are really getting. The episode on method acting? Brilliant- they wouldn't learn that nearly as well going to a workshop on method acting at our state one-act festival.

 

However, it's not what the OP is looking for at all- it's definitely got the teen drama and relationship stuff going on.

[zenjenn]

Thanks for all the recommendations! Yes, I was aiming for new shows, but I got the same kinds of responses on my FB page (Cosby Show, etc.)

 

We watched a couple episodes of ANT Farm, I don't care for it.

 

I haven't heard one negative thing about Good Luck, Charlie so far, so I might record that, and see if I can find H2O on the DVR.

 

Part of me is wondering if I am being reactionary because my mom hardly supervised my TV time at all when I was a child and I watched crap like Three's Company. :glare: No, I don't think it ruined me, but it did send me some confusing messages.

[roxanne23]

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Edited January 4, 2023 by roxanne23