to think children's telly these days is not a patch on telly from our childhood?

[gotogirl]

Am i being unreasonable to think that children's telly of our generation is better than what they are churning out for our kids? Or is this just rose-tinted nostalgia?

When my daughter started to get into telly at about age 2.9, I ought the DVD of In The Night Garden, which she enjoys and which I tolerate because it is gentle, pretty unoffensive, non-violent, non-frenetic with cuddly characters who go to sleep at the end of each episode. Good message, I thought.
Then I happened across the boxset of Trumpton / Chigley / Camberwick Green on Amazon, so I bought it for me her.

She now wants to watch Trumpton etc. at every telly time. ITNG has died an immediate death with her. And I can totally see why.

ITNG:
no storylines
little direct speech or narration
fantasy land which does not really ring true
weird superimposed images to achieve the effect of the characters being different sizes

Trumpton:
complex storylines (missed trains, emergencies for the fire brigade to respond to,
highly educational (ceramics demonstrations, anti-flyposting subplot, respect for the law of the land etc.)

OK, so there is an element of 1960s bigotry (there is a character called Mr Murphy who has got kids called Paddy and Mary, who is obviously meant to be Irish and he forgets to put the keys in the ignition - ie he's Irish, therefore a bit thick) but overall, I think the stories stand up today. There's Lord Belborough who is thoroughly posh and lives in a stately with a butler (ok, so far, so old fashioned) but Lord B pops on his overalls and he and his butler go out together on his private train having adventures.

My DD got on her scooter yesterday and told me, "I'm off to do my rounds, Mummy". I had no idea what she was on about until she explained, "Just like Dr. Mop in Trumpton who goes on his rounds!".
What did we get from ITNG? Runny grobbles and "isn't that a pip". WTF?

So, I don't think it is just me looking back and reminiscing as a child of the 60s loving the programmes that were special to me.
My DD actually prefers Trumpton too. And she's learning stuff. Like vocab. And following storylines.

AIBU?

YANBU
But I am a child of the '80s so what do I know

A agree that most modern day kids programmes aren't as interesting.

I put it down to the characters being designed by a committee of admen, desperate for merchandise and the storylines being designed by a committee of child development experts so both the stories and characters in them come out the other end as bland, boring, unempathetic and worst of all, educational.

YANBU, I can't stand most of the stuff that is shown on Cbeebies. I'm happy for DD to watch Show Me, Show Me, and Something Special - and I'll stretch a point for ITNG, although I dislike it,- but I definitely think many modern storylines are poorer, more formulaic and more obsessed with making things "relevant" to the child, usually at the expense of a good story. I hate this - things like Chuggington and Finlay the Fire Engine, where the main characters are obviously meant to represent schoolchildren and struggle with the same "issues". I think it's the programme makers being unimaginative and lazy - surely children can be engaged with something that they

DD likes Postman Pat, and I have bought her videos of the 80's episodes. They are so much better than Postman Pat Special Delivery Service - which has been so jazzed-up to make it exciting and modern and dramatic that it has lost all of its charm. I particuarly dislike the way that the schoolchildren in the modern postman pat now have to play such an overinflated role, spending their whole time helping the (clearly totally incompetent) postman deliver the letters before a ridiculous time-limit (imposed to heighten dramatic tension, no doubt), when they should be in school.

In the original Postman Pat, the letters are a side issue, the main story is the interaction between the different characters as Pat goes on his rounds (although adverse weather conditions are also a big part of the action).
In the modern Postman Pat, half the action is the would-be recipient of the parcel chafing impatiently and wondering where Pat is - they need their delivery before 11 o clock or some terrible disaster will befall them. Well in that case, they should have ordered it in a more timely fashion, to avoid all these last minute panics.

Long, confusing rant over

YANBU i totally agree with you op. What happened to Bagpuss,Playschool,Magic Roundabout (1970's version), Jakanory, Superted, Pink Windmill i could go on and on.

oooh my dd loves postman pat, Thomas the Tank, and Wombles too.

YANBU. There are a few programmes I don't mind, Show me Show etc. But I also don't like Chuggington and Finley because of the above mentioned reasons, even though my DS likes all of it.

I remember Button Moon. All they needed was empty washing up liquid bottles, wooden spoons and some wool and they had a programme! Although I did catch Rainbow the other day (having LOVED this as a child) and found it soooooo boring.

Thing is, if Oliver Postgate or Jim Henson were starting out today they'd have a battle on their hands to get through the marketing and child development experts i previously mentioned.

Nick Park is about the only person i can think of who has very much his own individual stamp on characters at the mo (and yes i know his stuff is merchandised to the hilt).

I miss 'garden shed' creativity...Perhaps it is out there (on the WWW) - it's just a matter of finding it.

I'm of the same opinion re late 80's and 90s children's shows. They were far better than anything that's shown now.

Yes but what about docor who, newsround, Sarah Jane adventures, Charlie and the bomb, raven, serious arctic, still doing blue Peter , blast lab, Smart etc etc

There is a lot of tripe too but you don't have to watch it!

Hmmm, maybe...

Although I don't think you're comparing like with like. ITNG is targeted at children younger than your daughter - children at the pre-verbal/emergent language stage, and it is perfect for them (in my opinion). Trumpton/Chigley was a lovely programme. We have the box set too. It was (I imagine) aimed at children with more developed language ability, knowledge of the world though. Perfect for 3 year olds.

In "our day", I don't think it was expected that tiny babies/early toddlers would be watching tv anyway, and they weren't catered for by programme makers as they are today. Whether that's a good or bad thing is debatable I guess. We're lucky though aren't we that we have dvds etc at our disposal, and have so much more choice about tv choices than people did back in the 1970s/80s.

Thundercats and Dungeons and Dragons were great!

YANBU.

There's just more if it now

I've no idea what Ludwig is/was.

Irish children's telly inthe 90's when I visited home with the US-born DCs was the best, and so completely different from the pablum/ mind control they watched on TV in the US. They used to put the leftiest of the lefties into children's tv production in RTE in those days, as far as I can tell, so you'd end up watching a Marxist interpretation of the nursery rhyme 'Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle' (I kid you not. The dish ran away with the spoon because of unfair work rules -- the cow wasn't supposed to jump over the moon... a long string of grievances was ignored by management...) Brill.

it hasn't helped that because alot of advertising was banned for children's tv alot of great was would/will never be made again.

great tv

Was Ludvig the egg who sat in a tree and played the violin?

Anyone remember Gideon? He was an egg too.