All TV shows aimed at children?

I've been watching a show called Criminal Minds recently. It's a successful series that has been on for 7 or so years now, I think. I never watched it until about a year or so ago, and have only recently taken up re-watching it. Not that I like it, particularly...it's just something to watch amongst the pap of reality shows that are on every other channel at the same time.

The show is disturbing in one way, as it deals with serial killers, all of them mentally abnormal (well, you'd have to be abnormal to be a serial killer, but the ones on this show are made as abnormal as possible.)

And most of the reasons why these people kill are because, according to this show, something happened in their childhood to warp them and make them kill - typically either abusive parents or abusive school mates.

And in real life, while abusive parents/peerse might not turn kids into psychotic killers when they grow up, it obviously is not going to do the kid any good.

And then I look at the cartoons and tv shows aimed at kids, that a great many kids watch as their "baby-sitter" - they are inculcated with this dangerous garbage six or more hours a day. And even if their parents don't allow them to watch such shows, there are always commercials that sneak in that can be damaging as well.

Now, what do I consider damaging?

Well, about 50 years ago, comic books came under attack for warping kids. In the 1970s, violence on TV had to be toned down. (I well remember this, there was a show starring William Shatner and Doug McClure called Barbary Coast, and because of the new rules all their fights had to be turned to comical effect, and of course no blood must be shown... pretty much ruined the show.

But what is worse for kid's TV - violence or sexual innuendo? I'd have to say sexual innuendo.

More on this in my next post.

The Change-up - Trailer and Movie

Lots of people wish they were someone else - they see someone who looks wealthy and sophisticated and think, I wish I was that person. Or it could be their own sibling, or what have you.

And there's been quite a few movies which deal with this premise. (Indeed, I think Thorne Smith's book, Turnabout, probably started the trend.

Turnabout (1931) Thorne Smith pits two thoroughly modern married people in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the nearly endless bickering and childish jealousy of a young man and wife (Tim and Sally Willows), an ancient Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on the two by causing them to switch bodies. After the wife impregnates her husband, things take a decided turn for the worse as they separately try to deal with the object of the former wife's affections — a deplorably predictable square jawed philanderer by the name of Carl Bently. The scene in which Tim, trapped in his wife's body, exacts an icy revenge on the unfortunate interloper is one of the unforgettable moments of Thorne Smith's peculiar humor.

Anyway, Freaky Friday was made by Disney in 1977, and remade in the 90s, about a mother and daughter who switch places. Then there was a movie with Kirk Cameron, I believe, that had a son and father change places.

Well, now there's a movie in which two grown men change places - one is single and apparently can get any woman he wants, the other is married and can get constant sex with his wife.

So the trailer shows the set-up - two grown men urinating into a fountain. Thankfully their backs are to us.

It's interesting that men don't think much of public urination. "When you gotta go you gotta go." It's also somewhat animalistic - they are "marking their territory." And of course if they live in areas that get snow, apparently trying to write their name in urine in snow is a popular past-time.

And what does the poster tell young men? Get married - you have to deal with diapers and squealing children and there are just nooooo rewards in that , and if you're single not only can you get two women, but you can get them at the same time.

That's not what our youth need to see, at a time when most children are born out of wedlock, fathers are absent, mothers live on welfare, and statistics show that such children have more psychological problems than do those born into a stable family environment. (Yes, there are always exceptions, but overall....)

AT&T Phone Service Commercial.

I'll have to update this post when I find out the correct name of the advertiser. All I really know is that it is some cellphone service...I think it is AT&T.

It's a commercial that perpetuates the stereotype of the dumb husband and the shewish/intelligent wife.

A nerdy-looking husband opens the door to the greenhouse where his wife is busy cutting flowers, and says excitedly, "Oh, I've got 500 minutes for our phones" or something of that nature.

The wife, in a rude, shrewish voice, says something like, "That's great. You dont think you should have consulted your wife about this? Where's the money for all those minutes supposed to come from? Mother was right, I should have married.... (so and so).

And the husband looks at his wife, stunned, and says, "The minutes are free."

Then cue the "funny" reaction shot from the wife, who looks up as she realizes she's just made a fool of herself.

And this ending is supposed to be funny, but I'm thinking, if I were that husband, I would be extremely hurt and filing for a divorce the next day, and refusing to give the wife alimony because she's clearly not in love with him and thinks he's stupid.

Just an unpleasant commercial all around.

Burger King's "Buddies" Commercial

I've seen this commercial a couple of times today - I'm watching CSI Miami on the A&E channel.

There's apparently some new product they are advertising, Burger King buddies. You get two tiny hamburgers for the price of one big one.

How are they advertising this? By having characters humorously steal one of the two hamburgers.

So an older kid points and says, "Look there" and makes off with a hamburger when the younger kid looks.

Two women are sitting on a cement park bench, one pushes off the other's backpack and as the other woman bends down to pick it up, the first woman steals her hamburger.

And so on.

And I'm like...I suppose it looks funny. But apart from the smaller kid who is probably used to being bullied by his sibling, just how would these adults react to someone else, even a friend, stealing their hamburger?

Adults might realize that this commercial is all in fun and no one in real life would do this, but kids? They probably think it's the height of cleverness.

Trollz - cartoon

According to the NY Times article I share below, this TV series is aimed at girls from 4 to 8! 4 to 8! And what did the episode I saw teach these kids from 4 to 8? That in order to attract boys, a girl must be able to stick her hip out and flash her buttocks at him as she walks by, or lean against a wall casually and (presumably) thrust out her non-existant breasts.

And we wonder why more and more girls as young as 13 are having sex these days. They're taught by the media from the age of 4 onward that that's all that they're for.


I've turned on Trollz, a cartoon on the Cookie Jar TV network. It came on at 9.30 am. There are adult cartoons - which air in the evening, like the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, etc. And then there are cartoons for kids, which air in the mornings and have audiences of well, kids.

And Trollz is not suitable for kids. It's not suitable for anyone really!

There are 5 main characters - all girls. The only difference between these Trollz and human characters is that all these characters have very big, multi colored hair. And they have magic gems with which they can cast spells.

So today, apparently some imp is trapped in some other dimension, and in order to get free he has to cause dissension between these five girl trollz. So they have a party, and the imps servant transforms himself into a handsome male troll, and he goes around the party trying to cause trouble. Once the five troll girls are angry with each other and decide to break up their "best friends for life" friendship, he'll be free.

So we've got this one girl troll, interested the fake male troll, and so first she tries "disinterest" - just leaning against a wall trying to look sexy. That doesn't work, so she tries, "Mystery." Turning her back and tweaking her butt up a little to show "mysteriousness" (but really just showing her butt in what is apparently a sexually attractive pose to men) and of course he walks by again.

Then we get the insults. "Your hair makes you look like you're wearing a toielt brush on your head."

Finally the trollz get so angry that they decide to dissolve their BFFL, and take out the magic gem to accomplish it. But fortunately they hear the laugher of the fake troll, realize they've been tricked, and become friends again. Yes, such a good message to teach little kids watching this show.

Just think what they've learned. How to attract men. (Or in their case, I suppose, boys).

Trollz has been in existence since 2005 - I just saw a commercial for it a couple of days ago.

Here's the news - they actually profiled this piece of garbage in the New Yor Times.

BURBANK, Calif. - In a nondescript office building near the Ventura Freeway here, and in far-flung studios in Luxembourg and China, as many as a thousand animators, editors, sound engineers and the like are hard at work on what they intend to be the next obsession of 4-to-8-year-old girls.

Their handiwork involves an unlikely makeover: They are reinventing Trolls, the big-haired dolls once compared by the comedian Jimmy Fallon to Don King on Viagra, as Trollz, saucy little creatures who borrow a dollop of Phoebe from "Friends" and a dash of Summer from "The O.C.," as well as pinches of Eeyore from "Winnie the Pooh" and Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City."

Trollz come prepackaged with an ethic, summed up as "B.F.F.L.": Best Friends for Life. And they certainly have a look. "Instead of doing the post-Janet Jackson, Britney Spears thing, we went for Avril Lavigne, Hillary Duff, Jessica Simpson," said Estevan Ramos, a stylist who worked with Ms. Spears and Christina Aguilera before he was hired to help create Trollz for DIC Entertainment.

In the coming months, said Andy Heyward, DIC's president and chief executive officer, the company plans to unleash its progeny in a "carpet bombing" of media that begins with their debut on the Web, at Trollz.com in March. At the site, children will be able to explore Trollzopolis, play games, chat with and cast spells on their friends. Books and toys follow in July, with cartoon collections on video and DVD coming in September from Warner Home Video. In October, a cartoon series will begin broadcasting, and by next Christmas, if Mr. Heyward is lucky, a pop phenomenon will have taken the world's children by storm.


A troll of yesteryear

In a more innocent era, the rages for Cabbage Patch Kids and even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still had something accidental about them. But today's fad-makers leave little to chance when stitching style, attitude and narrative into glittering commercial packages that can hardly fail to capture the eye, if not necessarily the imagination, of the young, at least for a little while.

At times, the competition for the attention of preadolescent girls looks like something of a downward spiral on the moral values - not to mention taste - front. After MGA Entertainment swept the field with its naughty-almost-nasty Bratz in 2001, Mattel responded last year with a trampy line of its own famous dolls, called My Scene Barbie. Now, Mr. Heyward and company are entering the fray with a multimedia product that is not exactly wholesome but that steps back from the sexual precipice.

"We will have Trollz explore the kinds of things that intrigue young girls," Mr. Heyward said during an interview in a conference room at DIC Entertainment headquarters, where he was surrounded by computer-generated storyboards for the Trollz Web site and cartoons.

Unlike Bratz, the provocatively dressed, multiethnic dolls that were one of this season's best-selling Christmas toys, Trollz would never be caught, said Mike Verrecchia, DIC's senior vice president for marketing, seven or eight at a time, in a Jacuzzi together. (This happened in a Bratz television commercial.) "We don't want children asking their parents, 'What are they doing in the Jacuzzi?' " Mr. Verrecchia said.

But there is a bit of the vamp in the round anime eyes of Trollz and in their anorexic waistlines. And there is something unnerving about the miniature gemstone that begins to glow in the belly of each girl Trollz when, in the videos and cartoons, she comes of age and acquires "special powers," which boy Trollz never will have.

Parents may find it difficult to connect the frizzy little monsters of their childhoods with the Topaz, the ditsy blond Trollz, or Onyx, the world-weary Goth "antifashionista," with purple lipstick and multiple piercings. But the creatures share a kinship.

Trolls originated with the Thomas Dam - an impoverished fisherman, bricklayer, baker and woodcarver - on the desolate island of Gjol in Denmark, where he carved his first elfin troll, inspired by local lore about creatures that dwelled in the Nordic forest, as a birthday present for his daughter. "He modeled its ugly face after a local butcher," said his son, Neils Dam. "My father owed this man money, and this was his revenge."

One winter, to supplement his meager income from shoveling snow, the only available work, Dam peddled his carvings door to door. When they sold out, he made figurines for displays in department store windows and more troll dolls, which he named Good Luck Trolls. In 1959, he began mass producing the dolls, making them out of rubber instead of wood and gluing on carded wool hair that had been dyed white, black or carrot orange. He began exporting them in 1960. Tens of millions sold. They were selected by the Toy Industry Association of America as the Toy of the Year in 1961.

Unschooled in business, Dam had not adequately protected his copyright in the United States, and he was unable to stop dozens of companies when they flooded the marketplace with counterfeits. In 1965, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Trolls were in the public domain. Mr. Dam continued to make and sell Good Luck Trolls, but the Dam Company earned only a small percentage of the estimated $4.5 billion made from Trolls throughout the world.

Dam died in 1989, the year the United States joined the Berne Convention, which paved the way for individuals and companies to gain copyright and patents abroad that they held in their home countries. That, and the Uruguay Round World Trade Organization agreement in 1994, allowed the Dam Company to take knockoff manufacturers to court. As a result of a series of successful lawsuits, the Dam Company once again owned the worldwide rights to Trolls.

But by then Trollmania had subsided, though many children still played with the dolls, particularly in families in which parents handed down their tangled-haired menageries. In addition, collectors were buying and selling Trolls on eBay, where a white-haired sailor Troll with the face of an ape, from the mid-1960's, recently went for nearly $400.

The Dam Company was approached by Disney, Pixar and other entertainment groups that wanted to license the characters for the sort of expansive, all-media treatment that has become routine for fantasy figures in recent years. Mr. Heyward got in touch Dam in 2003.

A 55-year-old businessman with silver hair brushed straight back and rose-tinted tortoise shell glasses, Mr. Heyward began his career as a writer and story editor at Hanna-Barbera Productions, before moving to France, where he worked for DIC Audiovisual, a production company that specialized in children's animated programming. In 1982, Mr. Heyward returned to Los Angeles, where he led a management buyout of DIC, which was acquired by ABC/CapCities in 1993, which in turn became a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company in 1995. In 2000, Mr. Heyward bought back DIC, which has one of the world's largest animation libraries, from Disney.

While watching his daughter play with an eraserhead Troll doll, Mr. Heyward became fascinated. "She couldn't stop touching the hair," he said. He contacted the Dam Company and arranged to meet Neils Dam, and the company's president, Calle Ostergaard, in London. "Every major entertainment company came to us, but DIC had the most comprehensive plan," Mr. Ostergaard said.

Once he secured the license, Mr. Heyward began to orchestrate a Troll revival. To serve the nostalgia and collectibles markets, he made a deal with the Play Along toy company to sell original Trolls, though he put most of his efforts and DIC's resources into Trollz. After creating the characters and an initial story, he approached toy, book, apparel and entertainment companies, and, he said, he was inundated with offers.

Hasbro won an auction for the rights to produce the dolls. Neither Mr. Heyward nor Lorrie Browning, Hasbro's general manager of girls' toys, would reveal the winning bid, but Mr. Heyward said that Hasbro offered not only the most money, but also a full commitment to showcasing the dolls in its showrooms and catalogs. "We loved the updated and funky look," Ms. Browning said.

That look includes midriff-revealing shorts and tops. And the Trollz have an attitude to match, uttering platitudes like this one from the series pilot, which was overseen by the company's head writer, Eric Lewald: "Friends are even more important than hair gel."

It remains to be seen if young girls will be won over, or if the makeover will backfire by erasing the essential quality of the original Trolls. "Like Cabbage Patch dolls, Trolls were so ugly they were cute," said Denise Van Patten, author of the "Official Price Guide to Dolls," to be published in April. "You wanted to take care of them." Might Trollz prove to be too stylish for their own good?

Trollz, though dressed up, retain the originals' signature hair, though their coiffures can have, for example, puffball pigtails, a permanent wave or puce-colored sea-urchin spikes. And it is the hair that may be the key to preserving the appeal of their forebears. "Hair play is essential in these characters," Mr. Heyward said. "You watch girls with these things and they can't stop touching the hair. It's a visceral, maybe even primordial reaction. We're banking on the hair."

From Wikipedia, here are the descriptions of the five trolls. Again, remember that this show is targeted towards girls from 4 to 8:
The protagonists in the series are collectively known as the "Best Friends For Life".

Amethyst Van Der Troll: She is a pretty young troll who loves her friends and would do anything with them. Amethyst is also considerate and gives good advice to her friends. Her gem is a pink heart. She wears a purple top with a matching skirt,a hot pink sash and a bracelet spell beads. She also wears hot pink pump shoes with straps. Her hair is pink with a wave at the top and she has a purple heart-shaped activation gem. Her boyfriend is Coal. She is voiced by Britt McKillip.

Ruby Trollman:. Ruby is the leader of the BFFL. She is really bossy and cares about her looks little too much. If she really wants something she will do anything to get it. Her hair is red and star-shaped and her gem is a red star. She wears an off shoulder white top with a green star on it, jeans, and green sneakers. She has red spell beads. Her boyfriend is Rock. She is voiced by Chiara Zanni.

Sapphire Trollzawa: Sapphire is a smart sweet troll. She is the smartest in the group. When the friends have sleepovers Sapphire just wants to study. Her gem is a blue flower. She wears a long sleeved blue shirt with white cuffs coming out, a pink skirt, ankle socks, and pink flats with a blue flower on top of it. Her hair is blue and tied in a ponytail by a pink bow. And she has glasses on top of her head. Her spell beads are blue. Her boyfriend is Alabaster. She is voiced by Alexandra Carter.

Topaz Trollhopper: Topaz is also sweet and cares about her friends. She loves shopping and a fashion expert. Her gem is a yellow diamond. She wears a white shirt with a pink top over it, a green miniskirt, leg warmers, and multi-colored sneakers. Her hair is yellow and curly. She wears a green scrunchy. She has yellow spell beads. Her boyfriend is Jasper. She is voiced by Leah Juel.

Onyx Von Trollenberg: Onyx is the punk troll of the group. She has a liking for poetry. Her gem is a dark purple cresent moon. Onyx wears a black long sleeved shirt with a white tank top with pink polka dots, a black skirt, pink tights, and black boots. Her hair is dark purple and in two ponytails which are held by pink buckle scrunchies. Her spell beads are dark purple. Her boyfriend is Flint. She is voiced by Anna Van Hooft.

Sarcasm and Condescension Are Counter-Productive

I read the blog and message board of a man whom I dont' really care for. But he's a soundtrack CD producer, this is a topic that interests me, so I read it, even though I cringe with embarrassment at the "voice" he uses when he writes his blog, and on occasion I have told him so - pointing out what I'm going to point out below - but to no avail. He is always right, everyone else is always wrong, on any subject you care to name.

So apparently a company named SAE has brought out a Blu Ray (or Blue and Ray as this guy insists on callin it) of a movie called The Egyptian and people on BlueRay.com were trying to figure out how many copies were left by some sort of complicated alchemy.

So my guy posts that what they're trying to do won't work. Now, if he'd said this in a matter-of-fact way, pointing out his name (he's writing there under a pseudonym, and it is not his usual pseudonym) and that there aren't as many copies of it as they think, etc. the people whom he was correcting would very likely say, "Oh, I see. Thanks for the information."

But he never, ever makes a straight-forward correction in this manner. Every single sentence in his posts (and he made several) reeks of sarcasm and condescension, so much so that if he said this type of stuff directly to someone's face, they'd either slap him or punch him depending on if they were a man or woman - he is that offensive.

SO, he makes his first sarcastic and condescening post, saying he knows it all because he's friends with the producers concerned, and no one believes him because a) we all have read message boards where someone pretends to be a big shot or to know a big shot and b) he's just so sarcastic that people automatically assume he's flaming them instead of actually trying to be helpful.

So after several posts, he finally proves his point, apparently, but gets no apology. And as he posts on his own message boards, in a condescending manner, "No one ever apologizes." As if he really expects people he's subjected to his condescension to want to do anything but puthim on the [IGNORE] list. It's he who should be apologizing to them for being so condescending, and wasting everyone's time with 6 posts when 1, matter of fact post would have accomplished his purpose.

But try as you might (and I'm sure a few folk on his message boards have emailed him privately and pointed it out to him) he just can't or won't realize that it's his own fault that people will never apologize to him (even on those occasions when his facts might have been right). And this puzzles him.

Yet if someone ever posts something sarcastic or condescending in response to one of his announcements (of one of his soundtracks, for example) he goes ballistic. Or really, hysterical and shrill would be a more descriptive phrase.

But of course this guy is not alone in his self-deception, which is why I'm posting this to begin with. Read a sports message board, the sarcasm and rudeness is rife.

The differnece is that the guy *I'm* talking about is 60 years old and you would think he wouldn't be quite so childish at age 60, and the fact that he's a very successful record producer and you'd thus think would be above such childishness...but I guess the truth is that people don't grow out of this childishness, if they indulge in it when they're 20 they'll do it when they're 40 and when they're 60.

Unless they learn, early enough, that their sarcasm just...doesn't....work.

Cartoon Network's Shows for Kids

I'm watching Scooby Doo movies on the Cartoon Network, at 4.47 mountain time.

Just saw an ad for a cartoon that airs tomorrow - the Regular Show. First, it's got something called the Wedgie Ninja. A ninja creeps up on people and gives them wedgies. This evokes a lot of mirth from a green faced character. Then there's some other character who knocks people over, and lays on them until they fart. Another blast of laughter from a green faced character who thinks these jokes are just hilarious.

Not sure what time this show is on...but my god.

And I've just seen a commercial for the Cartoon network. The green faced character acts like he's throwing up, does throw up, but what he vomits up turns into antother cartoon character that turns into another - none I recognize but all who must have shows on the Cartoon Network.

And their catch phrase is enough to make your teeth grit.... "Yeaaaaaaa-ugh." Pronounced Yay - uh.

No wonder American kids today have absolutely no ambition and no manners. God it's sad.

England's Media

Although I have ragging on America media for most of this blog, the truth remains that the media of other countries are far worse.

Go to Germany, for example, and girls age 13 can be buying magazines focused on advice for girls, and they get a male center fold in the middle. (I saw this ten years ago when I was in Germany.)

Japan's television is awful - you can see naked men and women having wheelbarrow races, etc.

And then we've got England, whose papperazi make our papperazi look like choir boys. Most recently of course is the News of the World scandal, where apparently for several years, reporters would hack into the phones of dead people - most recently, a murdered teenage girl. A reporter hacked into her phone and deleted messages - apparently the inbox was full - in hopes that more people would call the phone and leave messages that they could then publish.

But of course what this guy did was make it seem like the girl was still alive (who else could delete messages from phone?) and give her parents false hope when she'd actually been dead for sometime.

Billy the Extermnator - ad

I'm watching some channel... Criminal Minds is on. KCNC, whatever that is, perhaps something out of Colorado.

Anyway they showed an ad for Billy the Exterminator - a guy's "dead body" - cockroaches crawling all over him, one even comes out of his mouth, then the guy smiles. He's not dead, he must be Billy.

How sick is that? How sick do you have to be to like to watch someone exterminating bugs? Not quite as sick as someone who will let the bugs crawl in and out of your mouth, but close. What an awful reality series.

Can that corrupt people who watch it, or do you have to be corrupt before you'd even want to watch it?

Advertisers for Mark Levin

I live in Cheyenne, WY and have just tuned in to a streaming web site for 77 WABC Radi. I thought it came out of Wyoming, but an advert I just heard said New York.

Anyway, prior to that ad came one for the Mark Levin program.

The ad had excerpts from Levin's show which were presumably used to encourage new people to tune in to show.

So - what were these excerpts? "Who is the worst commentator on MSNBC.com?" He then disses Chris Mathews, and various other people whose names I don't recall (I don't watch MSNBC), making snide comments about each one.

Is that why Mark Levin is so popular? Because people tune in to hear him insult others? Is that why Rush Limbaugh is so popular? He doesn't really insult people, just makes fun of them...

But it's interesting - and sad - that radio advertiser makers know that if they want to attract people, they need to have advertisements that consist of people insulting each other or making fun of them.

Every single media covering the Casey Anthony Trial

The top story at Google News, from ABC News, has this headline: "Casey Anthony Trial: Jury Deliberates as Anticipation Grows"

What anticipation? Faux anticipation. (And no, I'm not making fun of Fox news.)

There has been TV coverage of this trial since its inception - no one cares. (Or ghouls care, same difference.)

Now the jury is deliberating...and I'm sure if there was a way for news media to get their cameras in there, they would. I also have no doubt that a few jurors are planning to write a book about their experience, and I'm sure some other authors are writing books about the case themselves.

And it's just ridiculous. The woman killed her child. Lots of women do (either themselves or by standing idly by while their boyfriend or husband does the deed, either quickly or over a period of time - i.e. constant abuse, either physical or mental).

Just more contribution to the coarsening of America.

Captain Morgan Rum (I think) Commercial

I've always found the Captain Morgan Rum commercials offensive, with guys - always guys - doing something stupid and then lifting up one leg as if they were standing on a keg of beer or something.

I saw a commercial yesterday which I'm pretty sure was a Captain Morgan commercial - lots of guys dressed in pirate costume relaxing in a boat with lots of beautiful wenches lying on top of them, then another, smaller boat - same thing, and finally, a very tiny boat, with one man in it, not looking happy, rowing them all toward shore. He is the designated driver.

What message is this commercial sending to kids?

That being a designated driver is not fun. That if you're a designated driver you won't get a woman. That if you're a designated driver you have to do all the work while everyone else gets to enjoy themselves.

That's just a bad message.

What they should have done was have a wench in that single row boat, and each time the rower leans forward to row, the wench gives him a kiss on the lips.

But that didn't occur to 'em.