To think kids TV is shite now?

[GoodnightAdeline]

DD has just discovered the delights of Come Outside with aunty Mabel on YouTube and it’s taken me down a kids TV nostalgia wormhole. What strikes me is how gentle the programs were - ‘today we’re going to find out how soup is made’ - compared to today’s dopamine-fests like Bing and Cocomelon.

AIBU to wish kids TV was a bit more gentle and educational and less hyper?

CBBC is worth every penny of the licence fee to me (even with the price hike).

Numberblocks - amazing. Colourblocks too. Sarah and Duck, Hey Duggee, Bluey, Ranger Hamza's Eco Quest and Let's go for a Walk, What's on your plate?... I could list for hours the stuff on there that my kids adore that is gentle and educational and lovely.

The Nickleodeon/Netflix/Amazon Prime shows are rationed in our house as comparatively they are awful. Ideally YouTube kids would be banned, except that it's the only interface that my little one can work himself so he loves it and in a pinch I'll let him watch it for a quiet life... Not proud of it though!

There is plenty of choice and as pp have stated much of CBeebies is gentle.

Tiny Pop, however is just adverts with a few kids shows in between imo and is very limited in our home. CBeebies and Netflix is preferred here. DS2 loves Aliens where it’s from the perspective of Aliens visiting Earth and learning about humans and the things they use and do.

I discourage the Peter Rabbit travesty show on CBBC though because it's far too hyper and stimulating - bizarre given the gentleness of the source material.

Yes! Looked it up. Thank you for the reminder.

It probably was terrible. The only reason it sticks in my memory is that we all used to do Charles Cheese squeaky voices when it was on.

Ben and Holly is hilarious and gentle. Bluey lovely.
Cocomelon is godawful though.

Cocomelon is only on CBeebies as individual songs, with slower frame rates. The actual show has been proven to be addictive and far too overstimulating for children. It’s faster than the guidelines for children’s TV; and rivals TikTok, which was designed to get adults addicted.

Bing is pretty tame; though…

And I’d agree that there’s loads of good stuff.

And that Waffle is bad!

My kids are all well into adulthood so I don't know todays kids TV, and im even older but just putting it out there...Children of The Stones..😂

Love CBeebies! Bluey, Hey Duggee, Octonauts, Ranger Hamza, Waffle, I could go on! And don't forget all Justin's programs. I think we have some of the best homegrown kids tv in the world. High quality, original, entertaining for parents.
Agree that Cocomelon is lazy crap.

Scarred a generation of children! (Actually, one of the best TV productions ever made for children.)

I have a feeling that many younger mums on MN would object to it if it aired now. But we were made of sterner stuff!

We absolutely love "Come outside Bricks". The world would be a better place if Auntie Mabel was in charge.

I think you are wrong! Kids TV is great now (Bluey is one of my all-time favourites) and was also great back in the day. Just different. Come Outside was fab - should be permanently on - but not-gentle TV has been a thing for a long time! Cracker Jack, Mallet’s Mallet, Rod Hull and Emu, Why Don’t You to name but a few.

We also enjoy the old episodes of Postman Pat on youtube. "Postman Pat Snow" is my favourite.

Couldn’t agree more. My kids don’t even watch TV half the time and we’re a ‘always on as background noise’ family.

Ive more recently been putting on older shows and some firm favourites here are:
Original bob the builder
Tots TV
Little Bear
Original Bananas in pyjamas
Original Balamory.

They just don’t really like watching the super
animated newer stuff. Although it’s very brightly coloured so catches their eye for the first few minutes. They seem to pay much more actual attention to the original things.

Foggy Day was always my favourite!

It has.

Even my friend’s DS prefers the claymation Fireman Sam to the CGI version.

Plus she has bought various DVDs of stuff we watched as kids - Button Moon, Thomas the Tank Engine (Ringo narrating), Count Duckula, Superted, Bananaman etc and he loves them.

Bing - a dopamine fest. They should use that as their strapline

In the mid 00s, me and my ex watched an episode of Boohbah. It was on whatever channel we last watched something. WTF? Farting coloured fluffy blobs with freaky noises when move their eyes. Slept in fluffy white ladles. Then the family is another story

@inappropriateraspberry our of interest why is coco melon lazy crap?

I know there was an article about its frame rate causing adhd or some rubbish but I thought that was widely disputed/ click bait rubbish.

genuinely, why is cocmelon worse than other stuff?

There's a lot of good stuff out there: Numberblocks, Roo and Harper's Wonderworld, JoJo and Grangran, What's on your plate?, Cbeebies theatre shows. I rate a lot of Cbeebies.

DS is 17 now but God, I loved some of the programmes he used to like. They were reshowing some 90s shows like Balamory, Tweenies and Roly Mo at the time, too.
A few were crap. I loathed the one where they did yoga and called the kids 'Cheebies', it was so wet!

Do you mean something like this?

Don't let her watch the one where Pippin goes missing - DS sobbed for hours 😂

Bluey and Hey Duggee are top tier.

Oh wow - thank you, thank you!! I watched this show but didn't remember what it was called, and noone I have ever talked to about it knew what I was thinking of! I've been wondering for YEARS what it was. I still remember some scenes from it to this day (particularly the last episode), and I only ever saw it once. We actually watched it as a class at (middle) school, one episode a week in the AV room, in the dark. Made it very atmospheric (read - scary)! I was fascinated and would love to see it again. Looks like it might be on YouTube, although I'd hate to spoil my memory of it. After all, I haven't seen it for 45 years!

You are welcome, I did watch it on YouTube, and it's still as weird as hell!! 🤣