SciFi Realms Forum: SciFi Realms Forum -> 1st Officer's Blog

What the hell has happened to educational children's programming? And by that I'm not talking about any of these toddler videos designed to get the brain juices flowing before they even hit school. I'm talking about good wholesome cartoons that taught you something about life in a way that was both interesting, entertaining, and didn't singe your optic nerve with horrible sub-standard animation.

This entry falls under the "retro" category because I'm talking about shows that were around in the 1950s, 1980s, and early 90s. The shows I'm mainly going to address are The ORIGINAL Superman TV show starring George Reeves, The ORIGINAL Transformers, The ORIGINAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the 1990s Spiderman Animated Series.

Although the local networks pretty bad, the cable networks are the biggest offenders here. Other than the occassionaly Scooby-Doo rerun, almost every show consists or Horrible animation that I honestly am amazed kids don't have nightmares about, characters that are shallow, arrogant wiseasses, and are very combative in nature, poorly developed stories that would make Shakespeare break down into tears, ......the list goes on.

Optimus Prime of the Transformers in my opinion is one of the all around best leaders. He was a strong, powerful, and confident leader, but also had a kind and gentle heart. He led the Autobots through many battles and hardships, and through it all, Prime led according to the principles of morality and honor. He lways put the needs of the many ahead of himself and in the end sacrificed himself to save earth. Besides, what kid would want to be a transformable tractor trailor?

In my personal opinion, George Reeves has portrayed the best Superman. While I have nothing against Chris Reeve, or Dean Kain, or any of the others who have stepped in to the blue suit, Reeves I felt represented Superman's fight for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" the best. He was strong, courageous, fearless, and taught the bad guys everytime without fail, that crime doesn't pay. Superman was an iconic hero that embodied all of the best qualities of men and the American Spirit, but more importantly, the human spirit.

Spiderman and leonardo kind of fall into the same catagorey. Both went through many a crisis of faith or had failed in tasks and wanted to throw in the towel. However, Spiderman always was able to pick himself back up remembering advice from his Uncle Ben and Leo always had Splinter to show him the path to truth. The character of Splinter especially was a great "teacher" for kids. If you really think about it, the advice or knowledge that he passed down to his students(The Turtles), they are really life lessons that are legit and valid for not only kids, but adults as well.

Each of the above shows, above all other differentiating factors, had one main thing modern cartoons do not. A Moral. Each of the cartoons I've listed above have strong leader characters that are meant to inspire kids to do the right thing. Although there is always an "awe" and almost divine aura surrounding these characters such as Optimus Prime, Leonardo/Splinter, and Peter Parker/Spider-Man, each of these characters also made mistakes and showed the fact that they were indeed "human", or a close approximation of human, and it was ok to make mistakes. The key is in how these heroes showed the veiwers how to properly deal with these situations and were guided by a strict code of doing what is honorable and right, not "step on your face and look at ya.".
Today, the focus is more on fast action, stupid violence, and quirky characters rather than building character and giving kids a general base of morality.

Now I'm sure some of you are reading this are probably thinking "what the hell are you saying? Are you saying that modern cartoons are the reason our kids are going literally and figueritivley nuts? What are you smokin?"

Of course, cartoons are not the answer, but I do firmly beleive that in terms of what kids are into watching, or doing, or playing, what have you, these key factors are missing and this is detrimental to these kids. We are seeing a kids in record numbers, and even adults, on all kinds of mood altering drugs, filled with undirected general anger, and more easily fall victim to immoral/illegal acts because they are fed nothing but dogma and indoctrination expressed in hateful terms be it in school or through the media and various other activities. Not to mention the fact that family life is thrown on the back burner and/or beging torn apart from the inside out, but that is another entry.

So yes, we need Optimus Prime, YES we need Superman(George Reeve's 1950's Superman where the "American Way" part is still part of Superman's character), YES we need Splinter, because if the schools, parents, and drive-by media won't help these kids, someone has to!!!!

Will Riker

As we all know, Ford has recently suffered the companies worst loss of $12.6 Billion last year. Ford's response including shifting some personel, selling Aston Martin, and a variety of new models. Ford had major hits with the classic redesgins of the Thunderbird and Mustang. The T-Bird was low production and a bit on the expensive side, but the Mustang is the crown jewel of Ford's collection. The new Mustang is probably the first super hit that Ford has had since the introduction of the Mustang in 1964. While this is good news, Mustang sales have begun to decline, because most who wanted one, HAVE one. (Including me. YAY! )

The being said, we move on to Ford's other issues. Ford has always been a truck company and I beleive one of their biggest problems is that they are having to make a major switch from trucks to fuel efficient sedans. So with slumping Mustang and Truck sales what does Ford have left? Well it does have a few tricks left up it's sleeve.

First off is the Fusion. Although I have never personally sat in or driven one, I've read alot about them and have seen enough of them to know that this is a quality car that is catching up to it's competition, Camery and Accord, and is gradually winning over buyers because of it's better styling, better handling, higher power output, and "fun to drive" factor that the others lack. (This according to a Car and Driver test done with actual consumers on the three vehicles. This was done in DC and LA and the Fusion won by a vast margine both times.) Also, the Fusion is competitivley priced at $17,995 for a base 4 cylinder engine and FWD up to about $25,000 for a fully loaded V6 AWD.

Next is the redesgin of the Ford 500 which will now be called the Taurus in 2008. Ford is reworking the car to make it more luxurious, have more features, and is mainly working on brand/name recognition here. Although the 500's first year in 2005 was successful, in 2006 sales dropped dramatically. I'm suprised at this myself because this car, which I HAVE personally sat in and riden in, is one of the only cars out there today built for AMERICANS. What I mean by that is it's a solid car that has a lot of space which promotes driver comfort if you are a tall person or have that little middle-age spread. I hope that with the redesgined front end, feature addition, and name change, Ford can breath some life back into the 500, although personally, I like it the way it is now.

Next are the Taurus-X and Edge crossovers. The current Ford Freestyle had the same issue with sales as the 500. So......time to change the name to Taurus, change the front end, and give it more features. It will get a similar rework as the 500. The Edge Ford seems to beleive will be their savior. It has a fresh desgin and lots of goodies to make most happy, and gets decent fuel mileage for a CUV for it's size. (25 hwy) This market is important because, with the gas price issue, most people who like SUVs are moving to crossovers because they are cars with truck bodies. Theat means you get the benifits of better fuel economy and versatility, while perserving the abilty to hual all your crap.

Well, I'm a Ford man myself so I really do hope that these models can continue to get Ford some much needed traction. They do have some pretty cool ideas between the Edge and the GT500 Shelby Mustang....but will it be enough?

Will Riker

Here are some links:

Ford Edge

Ford Fusion

Ford Five Hundred

Ford Mustang

Ford Freestyle

Remember my friends. Be it Ford, GM, or Chrysler, Think American, Buy American!