Tuned In+Television | 31 days ago

JPTV Jr.: Tennessee Tuxedo, the iPad and Magic

By James Poniewozik

A prescient '60s cartoon showed that, even when computers were giant industrial machines that scientists used, we knew that handheld knowledge screens would represent a kind of magic.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 96 days ago

Reality TV: Bringing Families Closer Together

By James Poniewozik
NBC

When reality TV swept primetime, people had lots of guesses as to what would come of it. But I don’t recall anyone predicting that it would become the new family viewing.

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Tuned In+Television | 117 days ago

I Let My Babies Watch TV. And I Regret Nothing!

By James Poniewozik

The American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed a longstanding statement that children under the age of two should not watch TV. The AAP made much the same statement about a dozen years ago. I knew that. I was writing about TV professionally when my kids—now seven and ten—were babies. I let them watch anyway. And I would do it again.

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Tuned In+Tuned In | 143 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Terra Nova; Plus, What Is "Family TV," Anyway?

By James Poniewozik
FOX

In this week’s TIME comes my disappointed review (subscription required) of the two-hour pilot of Terra Nova, which premieres Monday. This is a good time to repeat the caveat that a review is not a prediction of ratings: I will be surprised if Terra Nova is not the highest-rated new-series debut of the season. It’s [...]

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Tuned In+Tuned In | 164 days ago

JPTV Jr.: 104 Days of Summer

By James Poniewozik

One of the most popular kids’ shows in this country today begins by giving its audience a cruel musical taunt. “There’s 104 days of summer vacation,” opens the lyric of Phineas and Ferb, Disney’s cartoon about the outlandish adventures of two stepbrothers, their family, their friends and their platypus, Perry, who unbeknownst to them is [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 340 days ago

Nostalgia Marches On: '90s Kid Classics Return to TeenNick

By James Poniewozik

Twentysomethings: welcome to old age! TeenNick—Nickelodeon’s teen channel, formerly The N—is planning to bring back a block of Nickelodeon kids’ shows from the 1990s in a late-night block, aimed at the original fans who are now college-aged, or older. Much older—like me, because I went through a period of obsessive fanhood for the surreal, indie-rock-laced [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 362 days ago

Arthur Goes to Washington: The War Over Public Broadcasting Begins, Again

By James Poniewozik

As the debate over the federal budget intensifies in Washington, Republican lawmakers have targeted—again—funding for public broadcasting. Those who want to make the cuts would like the public to see them as taking on a group of privileged elitist liberals, who do not deserve taxpayer dollars to chat about their Volvos and congratulate one another [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 825 days ago

How Sesame Street Taught Kids to Watch TV

By James Poniewozik

Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary today, and as I noted last week, some fans of Fox News have been marking the occasion by suddenly getting offended over a two-year-old sketch from the show. One point I neglected to make in my post, but that should be obvious, is that complaining about Sesame Street doing [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 843 days ago

Soupy Sales On

By James Poniewozik

Though he was once a Detroit TV personality, I have only the faintest childhood memory of Soupy Sales and his pies-in-the-face. Fortunately, TIME’s Richard Corliss has applied his encyclopedic pop-culture knowledge to an appreciation of the kids’ funnyman of early TV. It strikes me that Soupy was once an example of what used to be the most common [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 860 days ago

From the Comments: The Definitive Word on The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.

By James Poniewozik

One thing I love about blogging, and my commenters, is that every once in a while a new and amazing comment will straggle in on a post I put up long ago. Over my last vacation, I posted an obscure, little-read remembrance of an obscure, little-watched kids’ show from the 1970s: The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 866 days ago

Elmo, Michelle Obama to Indoctrinate Your Kids With Veggies

By James Poniewozik

To usher in Sesame Street’s 40th year on air starting Nov. 10, First Lady Michelle Obama will be appearing on the show to continue to spread her radical/Marxist/fascist message about planting gardens and eating vegetables. Having successfully turned an American city trying to get the Olympics into a partisan political issue, Obam-antagonists now have a [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 893 days ago

Robo-James' Time Machine: The Kids from C.A.P.E.R.

By James Poniewozik

Before The Jonas Brothers, before iCarly, before Hannah Montana—yea, even long before Saved by the Bell—there was the Saturday-morning live-action kids’ show. Like any good child of Generation X, I have chunks of my brainsphere better reserved for remembering physics equations and American history instead stuffed with memories of Electra Woman and Dyna-Girl, Lidsville and [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 948 days ago

There's a Party in Central Park's Tummy!

By James Poniewozik

Because TIME is a national magazine and the Web is worldwide, I try not to post much regional news here. But because Yo Gabba Gabba! is a personal obsession of mine (even though the Tuned In Jrs. rarely watch it now), I must tell any Tuned Inlanders in the New York area that DJ Lance [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 991 days ago

Is Kids' TV Sexist?

By James Poniewozik

  Is iCarly a good role model for girls? Is JONAS a weapon of male oppression? Will Handy Manny ever learn that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house?  These questions and more are addressed by the organization TrueChild, which has posted a set of report cards analyzing how the two genders are represented in [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1007 days ago

Will PBS Neuter the Cat in the Hat?

By James Poniewozik

PBS Kids announced yesterday that it’s debuting, in fall 2010, an educational animated series starring Dr. Seuss’ most famous character. In The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, the giant feline takes six-year-olds Nick and Sally “on a magical journey to all corners of the globe to make natural science discoveries,” in [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1027 days ago

Greenhouse Rock! The '70s Return for Earth Day

By James Poniewozik

  I recently spent a week’s vacation home with my kids, who were off for spring break. That meant a lot of visits to museums and the like, which, if you are a parent, you know means repeated exposure to the message that they, you and the rest of humanity are a plague on the [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1055 days ago

Corporate Press Release Theater: Cartoon Network Scooby-Does It Again

By James Poniewozik

Cartoon Network announced a host of new series and specials at its upfronts this morning. The most problematic for me: Scooby-Doo–Mystery Inc., yet another series in the unkillable dog-detective franchise. The Tuned In Jrs. are just winding down from a major obsession with the various generations of the series, which I’d just barely made my [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1133 days ago

Some Pig

By James Poniewozik

  Buried in mail, expense reports and yet-unwatched screeners right now, and yet I had to share the news that Nickelodeon is bringing one of my favorite modern-day children’s books to TV. Olivia, based on the books by Ian Falconer, debuts Jan. 26.   I haven’t seen the show yet—and I’m a bit worried about [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1336 days ago

A Knight's Tale: Fear and Teething at Backyardigans Live

By James Poniewozik

The cast of Tale of the Mighty Knights, sadly overlooked by the Tony Awards. / Nick Jr. Despite having been the father of American children for nearly seven years, I had somehow managed to escape that singular phenomenon known as the adapted-from-a-TV-cartoon stage show. That streak ended when I was offered tickets to take the [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 1375 days ago

Dept. of Does Not Exactly Surprise Me

By James Poniewozik

ABC News reports that college students get high and watch Yo Gabba Gabba!, the most awesome kids’ show on TV. (Via TV Tattle.) Makes sense to me—I get high by watching Yo Gabba Gabba!, but same difference. It only takes a few minutes watching the show’s surreal images, wacky monsters and talking food to draw [...]