SciFi Realms Forum: SciFi Realms Forum -> What happened to the great kids heroes?

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