As an only child, I often entertained myself by watching television, if not reading, not particularly enjoying playing with toys. I especially loved watching shows from the 90’s, namely Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Boy Meets World, and Scooby Doo. I would sit in front of the television for hours engrossed in the goofy dilemmas the main characters put themselves in watching as they miraculously found a solution, all within the thirty minute time slot of the show. Recently, Disney Plus has allowed me to watch my nostalgic favorites without having to worry about switching out DVDs to find the show I want to watch next. As I watched these I began to think of how much of an influence these movies have had on my life. As dramatic as it may sound. These shows were a part of me in many ways as a young kid. I remember thinking that I would find my own soulmate like Cory and Topanga did , that I would be able to accomplish any obstacle in my way like Sabrina, or that I would grow to look fear in the eye as Velma did, constantly proving there are bigger things in the world to fear than those who hide behind scary costumes. All these shows taught me genuine life lessons that I still hold with me to this day. I was in such awe of how much I enjoyed my children's shows that I began to wonder what shows were like now. I hadn’t turned the channel to Disney in such a long time that I had to satisfy my tiny curiosity and watch a few of the new shows. I was shocked however by how different they were from the shows we watched as children. Although the moral of the show may have arguably been there, the show itself was filled with silly forms of entertainment and left me baffled by what any child may have learned. I assumed maybe I had outgrown the children’s shows I once enjoyed, which is always possible, but could not grasp how different they were from my Disney favorites like Hannah Montana. In many ways it was upsetting. The thought that I have grown out of the children shows that I once enjoyed it. Or worse, the shows have grown with me.
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Scooby-Doo and Phineas and Ferb defined my childhood, as far as TV shows go. When I go back to Scooby-Doo and rewatch those episodes, I remember that feeling of accomplishment when they find that bad guy. And Phineas and Ferb? They were so creative and did everything that you could think of. And the best part? It always cleaned itself up! (I wish my room worked that way.) The one-sided crush of Isabella? That has stuck with me through middle and high school. I also loved that Dr. Doofenburg (sp?) put a self destruct button on every -inator. Seriously, he never learned.
I think that we see things differently as kids, and so I believe that part of growing up is looking at what we learned from those TV shows and saying, "I learned something there, but it was mostly mind-numbing fun." It is ok to not get the same happiness from those TV shows when you watch them now.
Also, I just want to throw in, some of the shows that still air are constantly changing, so they might have gone in a different (and bad) direction.
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