Board 8 > The 100 Dumbest Events In Children's Television History

(+) Yeah! (+)

I personally know people who were very upset over the Arthur thing. I've had this very conversation recently about "children's programming" and LGBT characters. Someone told me that Strange World contained 3 gay characters and they were the first 3 characters you see on the screen, so it just served as a real life example of gay panic. Because that statement is just completely false. It's so weird parents think gay people are controversial enough to shield children from. I asked this coworker if he never allowed his child to leave home, because gay people might be in the supermarket, the park, etc.. People are just convinced that if a gay person or character exists, they only do so to influence children to also be gay. Something merely exists isn't an attempt to indoctrinate anyone into anything.

You could probably make an entire list like this of just conservative parents getting upset at gay people in cartoons.

guffguy89 posted...

I doubt many of us here were around in the 60s when this initially aired. So for us millennials, who only watched this show on cartoon network surrounded by children's cartoons, the Flintstones essentially became a children's cartoon show to us, whether or not that was it's initial intent.

I watched Flintstones in the 80s, where it was not on a dedicated cartoon network, but it was still very much aired in the midst of other children's cartoons. I had no idea it was an adult cartoon until I encountered a question about it in Trivial Pursuit when I was like 30.

Gushers thought they were Capri Sun. Turns out turning into a silver liquid that vaguely reminds you of the Terminator was more cool than... what Gushers tried to do.

RySenkari posted...

#64: Well Excuuuuuse Me, Princess!

Apparently, that's the sort of thing that passed for humor in the late 80s/early 90s era of cartoons in which this was made, but it usually came off as more annoying than funny.

No. No, it didn't. I was the target audience for this, and I was embarrassed to watch it.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/9/AADIBqAAEoKr.jpg

One thing I can say about Buford and Jabberjaw is that their theme songs were memorable. I don't think I ever watched an entire episode of Buford, but I loved the harmonica bit. "Here comes help! Here comes action, here comes Buufoooord..." (Harmonica bit)

Gushers were awesome

I ate so many as a kid they started to hurt my teeth, so I had to quit the habit

Gushers weren't traumatizing. It was obvious to me that it was meant to be a pun. But maybe I'm just too old to have been traumatized by it. God I feel old now.

I almost wonder if people's feelings/memory of the gusher's commercials is in some way correlated to whether they enjoyed eating gushers. Just from seeing the handful of comments on here, it seems like people who liked gushers found no offense with the commercials, or even liked them, while people who didn't like gushers seem to find the commercials disturbing/unappetizing.

I thought the gushers commercials were weird but I wanted to get some cause of it.

guffguy89 posted...

I almost wonder if people's feelings/memory of the gusher's commercials is in some way correlated to whether they enjoyed eating gushers. Just from seeing the handful of comments on here, it seems like people who liked gushers found no offense with the commercials, or even liked them, while people who didn't like gushers seem to find the commercials disturbing/unappetizing.

This is assuming that you had already tried them prior to seeing any commercials.

Don't remember the commercial, but I do remember liking Gushers.

Dark_Young_Link posted...

Gushers thought they were Capri Sun. Turns out turning into a silver liquid that vaguely reminds you of the Terminator was more cool than... what Gushers tried to do.

Well, unless its Liquid Slam

https://youtu.be/eyd51lvu3xw

I only watched the Flintstone as a kid (due to my age in its heyday, but also the Flintstones advertise two different cereals, gummy snacks, vitamins, and surely more. I would expect most clothing that would be tailored to the show to be more for kids too.

We can say it's not a children's show, but it also has clear crossover for a children's audience.

Tag

I hope you have the Sears AC commercial playing during every episode of every cartoon of every channel for like ten years.

hey, the strategy worked. We all remember the ad and Sears is a thriving business to this day.

#50: Caillou

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/1/AAAG8cAAEoWb.jpg
Whoever came up with this show should be grounded grounded grounded.

Caillou is a Canadian children's cartoon that made its way to PBS Kids a few years after its Canadian debut. It didn't take long once it came to America for parents to notice that unlike in other children's shows, where the protagonist learned a lesson, Caillou was frequently a spoiled brat who didn't get punished or learn anything from his actions, and spent most of his time whining or tormenting his baby sister Rosie. Whenever Caillou wasn't being a brat, he engaged in boring flights of fancy that did little to entertain young audiences, while parents had to endure some of the most torturous, boring scenes ever placed in a children's television show. The supporting cast isn't much better, and oftentimes episodes just consist of a series of boring sequences and activities that barely have any overall relevance or theme. Though the show proved to be a hit, which is why it lasted so long both here and in its native country, this only served to anger parents further, and Caillou has been unfavorably compared to shows like Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious, both of which have drawn ire from parents as well, but not nearly to the degree that Caillou has. Of course, Caillou might perhaps be best known for its crudely animated parody videos created using the website GoAnimate, and despite these videos making even less sense than Caillou, they're also a hell of a lot more entertaining. When Caillou finally ended in 2010, parents rejoiced, though the show lives on in reruns to this day, introducing new generations to this spoiled little bastard.

"Caillou is bald not because he has progeria, but because his body recognizes he sucks and doesn't deserve hair or happiness or love" - whoever said this

#49: Butch Hartman's Fall From Grace

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/5/5/AAAG8cAAEoWf.jpg
The man who created your childhood... then ruined it!

Butch Hartman is an animator whose distinct artstyle and writing have allowed him to produce a string of animated hits, mostly for Nickelodeon. These include shows like The Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, and TUFF Puppy, and despite criticisms of each of these shows circulating through many animation circles, he's cultivated himself a fandom of millions who grew up on his shows and enjoy his work. Indeed, he's still working today... but despite his continued success, he's also managed to cultivate a reputation for controversy that has followed him for a number of years, mostly due to his rather strict and strange views on Christianity, including a professed belief in faith healing that some have decried as advocating for quackery. He also started a streaming service called OAXIS that many people donated to, not realizing it was a front for a radical Christian streaming service and ministry. OAXIS, despite reaching its goals, has not yet been launched, causing some to accuse Hartman of fraud. He's also made disturbing remarks on topics such as voice actor Mary Kay Bergman's suicide, including a statement in which he blamed Tara Strong for the tragedy. He may or may not have been joking, but even so, that's a really fucked up joke to make, especially considering his longtime friendship with Strong. He's also been accused of tracing and art theft, perhaps most infamously plagiarizing another artist's work to create an Attack on Titan commission, which eventually led the artist to file a lawsuit. These controversies, among numerous others, have devastated Hartman's reputation in the animation community. Despite all this, he continues to get work, and recently produced a live action remake of The Fairly OddParents for Nickelodeon (the latest of several).

NFUN posted...

"Caillou is bald not because he has progeria, but because his body recognizes he sucks and doesn't deserve hair or happiness or love" - whoever said this

That was sports writer Spencer Hall.

The other weird thing about Caillou is the framing device. Within the show, Caillou is supposed to be a story being read to some kids. This is why theres always a wavy white border around the screen. Its already a fictional story to begin with, why was that extra metafictional level necessary to add? And theres yet another layer where sometimes there are puppets and I believe one is supposed to be Caillous pet. And on top of that there are sometimes segments with live-action kids doing stuff! Too much going on in this shitty show.

NFUN posted...

"Caillou is bald not because he has progeria, but because his body recognizes he sucks and doesn't deserve hair or happiness or love" - whoever said this

Good cause Caillou fucking sucks

All I know about Caillou is John Oliver insulted him once.

I would have never known how to pronounce Cayou if I hadn't lived briefly with someone who had a small child and had a Caillou book. I had no idea the property was anything people reviled, though.

Hartman turning out how he did is such a disappointment. I loved Danny Phantom growing up, and honestly still do, and even watched a bit of his YouTube stuff. It's just a really bizarre turn

I've yet to meet a parent who doesn't hate Caillou and doesn't want their kids to watch it

#48: Ted Turner's Temper Tantrum Dooms SWAT Kats

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/8/2/AAAG8cAAEoW6.jpg
He was the only villain they couldn't beat.

SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron was a popular action cartoon in the mid 1990s, appearing in both syndication and on the TBS cable network. Its mix of nonstop action and fun characters made it one of the best received cartoons of its day, critically and commercially. Though it wasn't quite as popular as its contemporary action shows such as Power Rangers and X-Men, its fame was building with every passing month, and 1995 was set to be a full-on marketing blitz for the show, with toys and other merchandising tie-ins ahead of a planned third season. However, that third season never materialized, because the show was canceled in early 1995 despite its high ratings. Fans searching for answers soon happened upon a Congressional hearing and later interview conducted by Ted Turner, who was at the time the man in charge of all Turner programming, including animation. Turner had repeatedly railed against the level of violence on contemporary kids' shows, and according to some reports, had SWAT Kats (among other shows) canceled in order to save face and to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy. It's not confirmed that this was the entire reason: Turner may have been railing against other shows such as Beavis and Butthead and Power Rangers, and may not have canceled SWAT Kats entirely for those reasons. However, given the show's ratings and incredible merchandising potential, it does seem that Turner's anti-violence crusade was at least part of the reason. Of course, given the fact that Captain Planet had been running for years before SWAT Kats, and The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest would be signed off on less than a year later, it still seems hypocritical of Turner to pull the trigger on this show so rashly. Was this just a spur of the moment decision, a mad scramble to look good in front of Congress? Ted Turner's not someone who's known for always being level-headed. If so, the cancellation couldn't have come at a worse time. With Power Rangers about to plateau (and eventually decline), Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series both starting to wane in popularity, and Cartoon Network about to enter millions more homes, SWAT Kats was poised to become perhaps the biggest action show of the second half of the 1990s, a potential flagship show for Cartoon Network's upcoming Toonami block and a merchandising juggernaut. While we'll never quite know Ted Turner's exact rationale for pulling the plug on this show, it remains one of the most baffling cartoon cancellations in history, and one of the worst timed as well.

I remember SWAT Kats fondly, and that is all I remember of SWAT Kats.

#47: Mr. Meaty

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/5/AAAG8cAAEoXb.jpg
As if Ren And Stimpy wasn't bizarre enough...

Mr. Meaty started its life as a series of shorts airing between Nickelodeon programs in the mid 2000s, much like how Pete and Pete got its start in the 90s. And, also like Pete and Pete, those shorts proved popular enough to make into their own show... a show now considered to be one of the weirdest, grossest, worst shows Nickelodeon has ever put together. Inspired by teen comedies like Beavis and Butthead and The Ren And Stimpy Show, Mr. Meaty is a puppet-based show that takes place in a fast food restaurant, and follows the surreal adventures of two teenagers who get into all sorts of shenanigans while dealing with the typical teen concerns. The show quickly became infamous for its bizarre, nonsensical episodes, including but not limited to: a girl's nose getting blown off in a zit cream accident and replaced with meat (which causes everyone to want to do the same, believing it to be a new fashion craze), one of the boys getting a tapeworm infestation, a viral video that causes one of the boys to die of embarrassment (literally), one of the boys summoning aliens to get revenge on their childhood bully... and just so much random, mean-spirited and gross humor that it's a shock the show lasted as long as it did. Mr. Meaty has been largely forgotten today, but those who remember it have been left with bad memories and gross nightmares.

Despite never having watched it, the Mr Meaty tapeworm lives long in my memory

Mr meaty has a higher rating on IMDB than I expected based on that summary

Love that Caillou got its own writeup, what a terrible show that I ended up watching way too much of.

Wasn't aware of the Butch Hartman stuff, or even who he was really, but that's disappointing to hear about some of my favorite shows growing up.

Oh god...I definitely blocked Mr. Meaty put of my head and I still don't remember anything about it. But I distinctly remember that green puppet so I definitely have seen it before.

#46: Bizarre Anti-Drug Commercials

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/4/AAAG8cAAEoYC.jpg
If you're seeing snake men walking in the street, you've had too many drugs already.

Back in the 80s and early 90s, the powers that be launched an all-out assault on drugs in America, believing that there was a radical epidemic of drug use threatening America's youth. This meant that kids watching Saturday morning cartoons were bombarded with a slew of anti-drug commercials, some straight forward, and some just plain bizarre. Amongst the most memorable (and terrifying) was a commercial where a drug dealer gradually transforms into a snake, because of course all drug dealers look scary and otherworldly, right? There was another commercial where a bunch of kids parade around singing "drugs, drugs, drugs!" in an upbeat, sing-song tone, apparently this commercial was supposed to help kids differentiate between "good" drugs (i.e. medicine), and "bad" drugs (i.e. coke and weed). Seemingly, the only real effect this commercial had was to send kids into school hallways marching in a line and singing "drugs, drugs, drugs!", so... good job, I guess? Then there was that series of commercials with a variety of celebrities amidst a serious black backdrop, talking about the serious effects of drugs (particularly crack). There was one particular commercial in this series that relates to an incident we may read about further up the list, so I won't spoil that one... but these are just a few of the most memorable and wacky anti-drug commercials that embedded themselves into kids' memories. And... look, of course they were well-meaning, nobody wants kids doing illegal drugs, but in their haste to scare kids straight, the people who came up with these commercials really didn't think about how kids might interpret them, and it truly shows in some of the wildest and dumbest anti-drug commercials of the time.

Reminds me of the DARE program and some studies showing it actually increased drug use for participants compared to the general populace. It's one of those things where young, curious minds are probably better off being left ignorant if possible.

#45: Nick Or Treat

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/2/AAAG8cAAEoYU.jpg
This is why every drama professor's first lesson is to "enunciate".

From 1985 to 2002, Nickelodeon intermittently ran a promotion during Halloween called "Nick Or Treat", in which kids would send in postcards to register to be called during a three hour window during the week of Halloween. If called, and the kid said "Nick Or Treat", they'd be given the chance to win cash and prizes. These phone calls would run live on Nick alongside Halloween themed programming, and overall, it was a pretty fun and memorable promotion, a great way to get people watching Nick. Seemed harmless enough, right? Well... let's rewind a bit, and think about that phrase, "Nick Or Treat". Now, we all know that kids aren't the best at enunciation, and if you get a call on Halloween when you're thinking you're going to win a prize, you're going to be talking all fast and excited... and when you're fast and excited, words tend to run together... and... yeah. You could honestly hear every year some kid accidentally saying a very bad word, and sometimes even the ANNOUNCERS would say it. There's a memorable video from 1992's Nick or Treat where the announcer, who sounds a lot like Don Pardo (it might've even BEEN Don Pardo, way to jeopardize a legendary career by the way), DEFINITELY slurs the first two words together and honestly I'm amazed that didn't kill the promotion then and there. This thing went on as recently as 2002... in all that time, no one caught anything, no one said anything... you do notice in later years of the promotion that at the very least the announcers and hosts are sure to enunciate and make sure they say "Nick... OR... Treat...", but some of the kids still get a bit too excited and turn Nickelodeon's live broadcast into Xbox Live for a few seconds. The promotion quietly ended in 2002, when either it ran its course or someone finally said "Hey, uh... if kids don't say it right it sounds REALLY bad and could get us in a lot of trouble". Honestly, when I was a kid even I didn't notice until I saw a video later on and said "holy shit" to myself. The fact that this was allowed to go on for so long and nobody ever said anything is honestly one of the luckiest breaks Nickelodeon has ever had, this thing should've been caught in 1985.

Nicker treat? Knicker? Are people sneaking a D in there at the beginning? Saying nicotine?

Thinks for another minute.

Oh.

#44: Sesame Street Moves To HBO

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/9/6/AAAG8cAAEoYs.jpg
Though I WOULD be willing to pay the monthly fee just to see Cersei become a regular on the show.

Sesame Street has been a staple of children's television ever since its inception in 1969. As one of the most important shows in the history of PBS, Sesame Street has entertained millions of children and their parents, and has accomplished a number of groundbreaking firsts throughout its history. From its beginning, the show has been focused heavily on trying to reach as many underprivileged and marginalized children as possible, and has been available on free public broadcasting for its entire history, funded with donations and public money, so that any child with a television set can view it and learn from it. That changed in 2016, when Sesame Workshop announced that the show would begin airing first run episodes on HBO, a premium cable network only available for a monthly fee. Though all episodes would eventually be available on PBS, this was obviously seen as a harsh blow to children whose families couldn't afford HBO and would have to wait to see the new episodes, with much of Sesame Street's promotion now focused around the pay TV network. With the move to Max, a paid streaming service, in 2020, Sesame Street has become even more exclusive, and while all new episodes are still shown on PBS eventually, the move to pay TV stands as a slap in the face to everything the original show stood for. It's both a sign of the increasingly troubling lack of funding for public broadcasting in this country and also the tendencies of companies to chase the money no matter who gets left behind, in this case the very marginalized childen that Sesame Street was created for in the first place.

Hey Nick or Treat was awesome, why is it on this lis.....

Oh

azuarc posted...

Nicker treat? Knicker? Are people sneaking a D in there at the beginning? Saying nicotine?

Thinks for another minute.

Oh.

Ditto

Hmm, I knew of Caillou but never watched it myself (I believe it was after my time). I never knew that it was disliked among children's shows. I thought that it was one of the standard shows of the next generation.

#43: The Kids On Liberty's Kids Don't Age

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/3/AAAG8cAAEoY9.jpg
Wait a minute, I thought there could only be one Highlander!

Liberty's Kids ran on PBS from 2002 to 2003, but even though it only got 40 episodes, that was by design: the series was meant to chronicle the American Revolution from the perspective of three children: James, Sarah, and Henri. Apart from a few unfortunate missteps (Aaron Carter rapping during the opening theme for example), the series was a critical success, and remains a staple of classroom history lessons to this day. It's a great show and probably one of the best educational cartoons ever made, which makes one creative decision by the writing staff glaringly stupid: the three young protagonists don't age (or barely age, depending on if you squint) throughout the entire series! While 12 years of war and revolution and politics go on all around them, the three kids remain the same age throughout, learning a few life lessons along the way but not maturing at all. In a series that strove for realism and historical accuracy, this breaks immersion in a spectacularly glaring way. And, yes, the show is called Liberty's Kids, so it makes sense to have the protagonists stay kids, but in that case, why not introduce younger characters later on and have the original three take on mentor roles? Maybe later in the war James becomes a soldier in the American army himself? In a show that took great strides to show its work, a show that spared no expense on bringing in guest stars and celebrities (Walter Cronkite was a series regular, for goodness sake), bringing in three new young characters should've been no problem. Keeping the three protagonists the same age throughout the series not only breaks immersion but also is a waste of excellent story opportunities that they could've involved the older group of kids in. Overall, Liberty's Kids was a success regardless, but the decision to have the protagonists apparently be immortal Highlanders or something is a glaring pimple on the face of an otherwise beautiful educational cartoon.

That's a bad complaint and any time someone uses it against any show I call it a bad complaint.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

That's a bad complaint and any time someone uses it against any show I call it a bad complaint.

This is not The Simpsons. This is a show where the whole idea is that 12 years of history has passed.

RySenkari posted... #43: The Kids On Liberty's Kids Don't Age

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/3/AAAG8cAAEoY9.jpg
Wait a minute, I thought there could only be one Highlander!

I don't know what this show is, but from the image I thought it was Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego

#42: Voice Actors And NFTS

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/3/AAAG8cAAEoZH.jpg
TARA! *presses face into window* TARA, NO! DON'T DO IT! *bangs head against window* TARA!!!

NFTs, or "non-fungible tokens", got a lot of press a few years back, most of it quite bad. A form of blockchain currency, NFTs use the blockchain to generate a unique "token" that can be freely transferred via a digital medium, with a secure record of ownership that can't be forged or altered due to the intense data calculations involved in its creation. They're INCREDIBLY bad for the environment, due to the massive amount of computational resources involved in making them, but while crypto enthusiasts have been searching for a way to make them more environmentally friendly, they remain quite controversial, seen by many as an exploitative cashgrab even beyond the environmental concerns. So, when several popular cartoon voice actors, including Tara Strong, Troy Baker, and Michaela Dietz started mulling them over, their fans were... quite upset, to say the least. Criticism poured in, and while Dietz relented quickly, doing more research and backing out of her plans to do NFTs, Baker doubled down for weeks until finally agreeing to back off his project. Tara Strong, on the other hand, continues to work with NFTs, alongside longtime co-star/friend Greg Cipes. Despite both actors on the record as being environmentally aware, they've continued to push these NFTs, though there's been no recent word on any of their projects as of late. NFTs have been soundly rejected by the overwhelming majority of cartoon fans, and though tech companies and influencers continue to push them, there's not been any real news of a cartoon NFT project getting off the ground, making these voice actors' decision to back them extra baffling.

I don't get what it is about NFTs that suckered in so many people that otherwise seem reasonable.

By far the most important celebrity NFT thing is Seth Green's trailer for his NFT TV show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5mjiz0Cd34

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Scooby Doo was just a misguided attempt to ripoff Lupin III anyways.

Actually, thats Inspector Gadget.

No, seriously, Inspector Gadget was supposed to be a show about a futuristic descendant of Lupin III before being retooled as Maxwell Smart but even more incompetent.

RySenkari posted...

#43: The Kids On Liberty's Kids Don't Age

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/3/AAAG8cAAEoY9.jpg

I had completely forgotten about it because it's been years, but this post has unlocked the memory of watching three or four of these in school one year and even back then thinking it was awful.

KamikazePotato posted...

I don't get what it is about NFTs that suckered in so many people that otherwise seem reasonable.

I always imagine that it's something to the effect of:
-Get money from the dumb people
-Use that money to entice the smart people

Liberty Kids was awesome! I was actually just reminded of it a couple hours ago before it got brought up here coincidentally enough.

Sesame Street on HBO is sad. And I never looked into NFTs or anything about them but even then I knew it was a dumb idea.