My son Levi, much to my frustration, has never been a big TV kid. For years, I’d put on an episode of Paw Patrol or a newish Disney movie, but nothing seemed to stick. Either he’d come to me halfway through to report he was bored or he’d be entertained enough to finish but would never request a second viewing or talk about it afterward.

I attributed this to a personality quirk or insufficient attention span, until the day, when he was 7, that I showed him Gene Wilder’s 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Now this “family movie” he loved. Same thing with The Wizard of Oz (1939). And then with an old children’s TV show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse (1986–90).

Or maybe the difference is that you put on Paw Patrol and left the room while instead sitting with him to watch Willy Wonka and PeeWee.

Back in the 1980s—the era of children’s media that I, a person born in 1979, am most nostalgic about—children’s television filled Saturday- and Sunday-morning time slots that otherwise held little value for networks.

It just so happens that he only likes all this media created decades before he was born? Or perhaps he likes spending time with his parent and this is all that his parent likes to watch?

[–] calliope@retrolemmy.com 19 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

This is the same thing I thought!! I got here

All the movies and TV shows Levi is drawn to have a psychological ambiguity mixed with a psychedelic silliness that seemed hard to find in much of today’s popular kids’ content.

He liked watching the stuff with someone, you schmuck.

Why are you obsessed with plopping your kid down in front of bullshit TV?

Slate is never sending their best.

[–] randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

This! I remember watching king kong (1933) and abbot and costello meet Frankenstein (1948) with my Grandmother as a small child. These movies predate her but she loved growing up with these things.

The era doesn't really matter as time for humans on this earth is actually very short. It's not about what you watch, it is about who you share it with.

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 days ago

This is definitely some part of it, but even then - quality also plays a role that we should not ignore.

The reason why we remember certain shows and movies from our childhoods is because they were actually great. The rest of the slop we watched has long since been forgotten.

Even comparing modern kids shows, there is a massive gulf in terms of quality (and honestly memorability) between Bluey and Peppa Pig, let alone the giant gaping chasm between those two and the Cocomelon-level slop being fed to them.