CHILDREN'S HOURS NO LONGER RELEGATED TO SATURDAY MORNING, NETWORKS EXPAND REACH FOR HIGHLY DESIRABLE KID VIEWERS.Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer THE MORE experts decry de·cry tr.v. de·cried, de·cry·ing, de·cries 1. To condemn openly. 2. To depreciate (currency, for example) by official proclamation or by rumor. the harmful effects of television viewing on children - be it increasing their propensity toward violence or transforming them into slothful sloth·ful adj. Disinclined to work or exertion; lazy. See Synonyms at lazy. sloth  ful·ly adv. couch potatoes - the more programming there is for children. This fall, there are roughly 400 hours of kid-targeted programming on broadcast and basic cable in an average week, including Disney Channel's ``Even Stevens'' at 2:30 a.m., PBS' ``Reading Rainbow'' at 6:30 a.m. and the Cartoon Network's ``Tom & Jerry'' at 11:30 p.m. For 6-year-old insomniacs, life is good. ``Saturday morning has really changed from the good old days when Saturday morning TV was what God intended it to be,'' said Robert Thompson Robert Thompson may refer to:
 Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. , Cartoon Network For Cartoon Network outside of the United States, see .Cartoon Network is a cable television network created by Turner Broadcasting which primarily shows animated programming. , PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, and all these other options, you don't have to wait for Saturday morning to get your dose of kids' programming. ``The question isn't finding something for your kids to watch. The question is which is the best of it for your kids to watch.'' Why the big change? There are thousands of programming hours to fill in the broadcast, cable and satellite universe, and kids like repetition more than even the most dedicated ``Lucy'' lovers. For media conglomerates, children's programming has performed very well in what the suits like to call ``repurposing,'' such as when Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. weekday block shifts to Viacom sister network CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. on Saturdays. Also, advertisers' methods are evolving to keep pace with viewer habits. In the past, companies hawking toys and sweet cereals aimed for mom's attention and later appealed to kids who nagged mom to buy the product. But recent studies show children and teens have more spending money and greater say in family purchases than ever. So advertisers get their messages out, repeatedly and widely, to the 56 percent of 8- to 16-year-olds who have televisions in their bedrooms or the tots who, experts say, can develop brand loyalty by age 2. The Washington-based TV-Turnoff Network reports that 92 percent of toy advertising Toy advertising is the promotion of toys through a variety of media. Advertising campaigns for toys have been criticised for turning children into consumerists and are regulated to ensure they meet defined standards. dollars go to television commercials. Donna Friedman, executive vice president of Kids' WB!, says one of her biggest challenges is building and maintaining awareness for her 14 hours of children's programming, which goes up against around-the-clock kids' shows on cable channels. But she says competition has been good for her field. ``Overall, kids' programming is getting better and better,'' Friedman said. ``With the amount of competition, the bar has really risen in terms of the quality of the shows.'' At least a smattering of credit for the kid-show boom goes to the Federal Communications Commission's implementation six years ago of the Children's Television Act The Children's Television Act was enacted in 1990 in the United States to enhance television's potential to teach the nation's children valuable information and skills. The Act requires each television station that offers children's television programming in the U.S. of 1990, which ordered licensed stations to carry at least three hours a week of ``designated educational or informational programming for children,'' programs whose ``significant purpose'' is to educate or inform kids. NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. has risen to the occasion in a big way, exchanging its tween-oriented TNBC TNBC The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993 movie by Tim Burton) TNBC Teen NBC (National Broadcasting Company, NBC) bloc, which emphasized pretty faces over substance, for a Discovery Kids package debuting today that combines cable faves like Steve ``Crocodile Hunter'' Irwin and TLC's ``Junkyard Wars'' franchise with other worthwhile shows. There's ``Prehistoric Planet,'' which brings nicely animated dinosaurs of different shapes, sizes and appetites to life; ``Scout's Safari,'' another fish-out-of-water drama series from Tom Lynch (``Caitlin's Way''), this one about a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of teen sent to live with her mother in Africa (and, hey, it's filmed in the real location!); and ``Strange Days at Blake Olsey High,'' an adventure series that actually makes a bunch of Science Club nerds interesting. PBS, which invented truly educational television for children with ``Sesame Street'' and ``Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Mister Rogers' Neighborhood or Mister Rogers is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ,'' stays true to that mission with the new show ``Liberty's Kids,'' an animated series that centers on three teenage apprentices in Benjamin Franklin's printing shop. It gives viewers a youthful perspective on key Revolutionary events and the debates that shaped our nation - many of which continue today. There's a gem in the PBS Kids bloc that probably is doing more to teach preschoolers how to read than some preschools do. With 10 fresh episodes added this fall, puppet-populated ``Between the Lions'' drills phonics and simple spelling concepts with charming and funny songs, dances and skits that little ones soak up like sponges. Just how much they've learned will hit them in grade school when songs like ``Sloppy Pop,'' ``W Trouble'' and ``Double-O Ooo'' pop into their heads at reading time. Not every show beamed at children need be instructional, of course. There are plenty of productive, well-adjusted adults out there who were weaned wean tr.v. weaned, wean·ing, weans 1. To accustom (the young of a mammal) to take nourishment other than by suckling. 2. on ``Popeye,'' ``The Flintstones'' and ``Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats are a fictitious rock band created by Dan DeCarlo. They have been featured in a number of different media since the 1960s:
Generation X parents probably get the warm fuzzies when they see their own kids glued to 25-year-old ``Scooby-Doo'' episodes on the Cartoon Network. This season, Kids' WB! has ``What's New Scooby-Doo?'' which brings Shaggy, Velma and the rest into the present. Old fans may be jarred by the updated theme song as well as snowboards, cell phones and the onboard navigation system in the Mystery Machine, but they'll get over it. Fox this year has farmed its children's bloc out to 4Kids Entertainment, one of the more successful marketing concerns in TV, and redubbed it Fox Box. With titles like ``Ultimate Muscle,'' ``Kirby: Right Back at Ya!'' and ``Stargate Infinity,'' the target audience is boys 6 to 11, which could more accurately be defined as boys who, if you don't make this show really exciting right now, will switch to video games instead. Avoiding a monopoly Syracuse University's Thompson says he doesn't like the idea of Fox relinquishing its children's time to one source - and not because of the overmerchandising issue (shows based on video games or video games based on shows). That, he notes, has been a common practice for three decades, since fans of ``Strawberry Shortcake'' and ``The Smurfs'' could ``sleep on the show, eat the show, wear the show.'' His complaint is that one program source dilutes the variety of programs and leaves fewer opportunities for innovative newcomers to break in. Thompson said it could be a bad move for Fox if the ratings don't hold. ``If the magic touch of that company falls apart, a network could be left with nothing.'' Thompson said overall, ``There is more good kids' programming on the air now than there ever has been. Of course, there's more of the bad stuff as well. ``But there's way more good kids' programming out there than the number of hours per day that your kids should be watching TV anyway.'' Cream of the cartoon crop Life is too short to watch bad TV. Here are a few of the best shows for kids: ``Fillmore!'': Fillmore and his friends are hall monitors extraordinaire ex·tra·or·di·naire adj. Extraordinary: a jazz singer extraordinaire. [French, from Old French, from Latin extra , rooting out misdeeds at their middle school and helping to bring the troublemakers to justice in the principal's office (ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , 8 a.m. Saturdays). ``Tokyo Pig'': A major hit in Japan, here's another anime cartoon with stilted stilt·ed adj. 1. Stiffly or artificially formal; stiff. 2. Architecture Having some vertical length between the impost and the beginning of the curve. Used of an arch. movements and a range of three facial expressions per character (pleasure, surprise and anger bordering on demonic possession). Spencer is a boy blessed - or cursed - with seeing even fleeting fantasies from his overactive o·ver·ac·tive adj. Active to an excessive or abnormal degree: an overactive child. o imagination come to life, including the title porker porker the class of pig judged to be most suitable for conversion to pork. The target age and weight vary too much between localities to make a general statement worthwhile. who becomes his companion. The names and voices are Anglo-American, but the series retains its Eastern flavor, such as when Spencer pulls out a notebook and places his pencil at the top right of the vertically lined page (ABC Family, 10 a.m. Saturdays). ``The Pet Shop'': Now in its second season in syndication, this studio show has Marc Morrone bantering about pet care while surrounded by several household critters, some barely a link away from each other on the food chain. He works without a script, but no one can expect him to focus on a prompter while a parrot is pulling his hair and a snake is heading up his sleeve (KTTV Channel 11, 12:30 p.m. Saturdays). ``Max & Ruby'': The precocious preschool-age bunny and his mother hen-ish big sister from Rosemary Wells' books are lovingly adapted to TV for the Nick Jr. morning preschool bloc, which airs without commercials (Nickelodeon, premieres Oct. 21, 10:30 a.m. weekdays). ``Ozzy & Drix'': The WB series from Peter and Bobby Farrelly, based on the animation-live action film ``Osmosis Jones,'' takes place inside a kid's body, with the title characters a bug-fighting white blood cell and his nasal-drip arresting over-the-counter sidekick. Looking beyond all the icky bodily-function jokes (which most kids love), there is something to be learned here: what symptoms mean and how different parts of the body work to fight disease. Some moms might actually figure out that kids don't get colds because they forget to wear sweaters (Kids' WB!, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays). - V.K. CAPTION(S): 8 photos, box Photo: (1 -- 4 -- cover -- color) Clockwise from top: ``What's New Scooby-Doo?'' on the WB, ``Between the Lions'' on PBS, ``Max & Ruby'' on Nickelodeon and ``Tokyo Pig' on ABC Family. (5 -- color) ``Between the Lions Between the Lions is a PBS children's puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting. ,'' KCET KCET Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (Japan) KCET Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology , 10:30 a.m. weekdays. (6 -- color) ``Ozzy & Drix,'' Kids' WB!, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays. (7 -- color) ``The Pet Shop With Marc Morrone,'' KTTV Channel 11, 12:30 p.m. Saturdays. (8) Sigourney Weaver and Leona help children learn to read on an episode of PBS Kids' ``Between the Lions.'' Box: Cream of the cartoon crop (see text) |
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