So, as usual I’m up at 3 in the morning and channel surfing and I run across the Disney Channel and Hannah Montana is on. I’ve studiously tried to avoid this whole tween thing, because it’s stupid and makes me feel old. But I say, hey let’s see what all the kids are raving about*.
Boy, what a suckfest.
Just comparing it to kid tv it is bad. The entire show consists of Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana staring at the camera and saying stock phrases along the lines of “WOAH DAD YOU ARE SO UNCOOL!” and her father, played by her real dad Billy Ray Cyrus says “I AM A HICK WHO LOVES MULLETS”. Cue canned laughter.
The bar for kid sitcoms is pretty low. And yet, somehow this show is bad. Considering the stuff I grew up on: You Can’t Do That On Television, Pete & Pete or even more recent kidvid like Rugrats or Jimmy Neutron, the Hannah Montana show is really insulting to kids. It says, you are children and as such we’ll offer you substandard entertainment. What the heck?
Now get off my lawn so I can watch Danny Phantom and Fairly Oddparents.**
*I watch all sorts of TV. I like wrestling, PBS, network sitcoms, kids tv, news, dramas of all sorts except Studio 60.
**(Shows I actually will watch. Fairly Oddparents has a fairy that’s a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, that is quality freaking television)
I’ve met Oliver Postgate and (seperately) Eric Firmin and his daughter Emily. The former, sometimes with the latter, were responsible for the formative childrens programming of my youth. I don’t even know if you’ve even heard of the following; “Bagpuss”, “Ivor the Engine”, “Noggin the Nog”, and the truly beautiful “The Clangers”.
First of all, “You Can’t Do That On Television” rock.
Second, “Hannah Montana” is better than a lot of kids shows on TV right now. I say that as someone who reviews DVDs as part of my job and has seen way too many kids shows. Check out The Naked Brothers Band or Suite Life of Zack and Cody to see my point.
I tend to think any kids program geared for much younger audiences is going to look stupid.
Granted I’m a cartoon dork, but as far as kid’s programs that adults can love I can’t stop recommending Kim Possible (which has tragically now ended but is still in reruns and digital cable). But I recommend it to parents too, especially ones with young daughters. And I would highly recommend it to you, Oliver, since one of the major characters on the show is, well… a hyper-intelligent husky black kid who helps everyone out by looking up information on the internet for them.
CS, as the father of two wee ones, I’ve seen them all, and while the two you’ve listed are particularly vomitous, they’re all pretty bad. It’s like the writers only previous experience with TV was watching the worst three episodes of Three’s Company and Gilligan’s Island.. Dreck.
I don’t know why the animation is so much better, but it is.
“Granted I’m a cartoon dork, but as far as kid’s programs that adults can love I can’t stop recommending Kim Possible (which has tragically now ended but is still in reruns and digital cable).”
Kim Possible rocks. I also like Fillmore! There’s something about watching The Streets of San Fransisco set in an elementary school that is just entertaining.
Can’t believe you don’t catch Olbermann and Jon Stewart, Oliver. Do we take those for granted? Or are they too much like what you yourself do at work?
Oh, I always watch KO, Colbert and TDS. And I like Kim Possible as well.
What ever happened to stuff like Speed Racer? Are the cartoons that boring now?
I miss Animaniacs. Now there was a show that adults could watch as well as kids. Animals jumping up and down on Winston Churchill’s belly … good times.
I once spent a very unproductive babysitting session trying to figure out the sexual politics of Bob the Builder.
A.
within the next few years, we’re gonna see all sorts of tabloid speculation on Miley Cyrus. she’s the next lindsay lohan.
I can’t for the following headline: “Has Hannah Montana lost her virginity????..?”
imagine all the hoopla..
“Saved By the Bell” was awful and stupid, too, and its reputation survives only on the basis of nostalgia. Why should we expect more from Hannah Montana?
“‘Saved By the Bell’ was awful and stupid, too, and its reputation survives only on the basis of nostalgia. Why should we expect more from Hannah Montana?”
Hannah Montana is ten time better than Saved By the Bell.
Quality television?
Quality. Television.
Sorry, I don’t see the connection.
Hannah Montana is ten time better than Saved By the Bell.
You must be mad. Saved By The Bell was horrible. But it was good horrible. Plus it brought us Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffany Amber Thiessen. How bad could it really have been?
And yes, I think Miley Cyrus is going to turn out to be the kind of tabloid celeb where we talk about Britney Spears’ relative sanity.
“You must be mad. Saved By The Bell was horrible. But it was good horrible.”
No, it was just plain bad.
“You must be mad. Saved By The Bell was horrible. But it was good horrible. Plus it brought us Elizabeth Berkley and Tiffany Amber Thiessen. How bad could it really have been?”
Really, really bad. God awful bad. Even when I was a kid and in the target age group I knew that show was shit.
“And yes, I think Miley Cyrus is going to turn out to be the kind of tabloid celeb where we talk about Britney Spears’ relative sanity.”
I kind of doubt it. So far I haven’t seen the evidence that she’s a wild child; I’ve only seen evidence that the media wants to create a scandal.
I kind of doubt it. So far I haven’t seen the evidence that she’s a wild child; I’ve only seen evidence that the media wants to create a scandal.
The Vanity Fair spread didn’t give you the willies? Besides, isn’t she still only 15? Give her .
That last sentence should read: Give her time.
As a fellow fan of animation, I also appreciate FairlyOddParents.
However, if you really want to look at something relatively new, but drawn in the spirit of old Hanna-Barbera action cartoons (think Johnny Quest) look no further than the amazing, excellent SAMURAI JACK on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late night block.
It’s hands down, some of the best animation I’ve seen in years. BTW, Samurai Jack’s creator, Gennedy Tartakovsky, was tapped by no other than Lucasfilms to do their Star Wars Clone Wars animated prequel shorts they used to hype the prequel movies.
I miss Pete & Pete. That was quality with a K.
Lotta good cameos on that show.
Debby Harry, Iggy Pop, Jill Sobule.
Whenever my daughter and I have ribs, she’ll look at me and say, “Moisty Nap?” to which I will reply, “Not necessary.”
Oliver Postgate fucking RULES. The man is a GOD. And so is Peter Firmin.
“The Vanity Fair spread didn’t give you the willies?”
No. Absolutely not.
First of all, I don’t equate nudity and sex. Secondly, when did someone’s back become something that needs to be hidden? Backless dresses are quite common. She showed less skin then she would in a bathing suit appropriate for most 15-year olds.
The folks upset about Ms. Cyrus’ photo shoot have apparently never seen a production of Romeo and Juliet.
“The folks upset about Ms. Cyrus’ photo shoot have apparently never seen a production of Romeo and Juliet.”
There are also more than a few who are freaking out not because of the content of the photos, but because where their minds went when they saw them.
Nimrod, Emily Firmin was the little girl who woke Bagpuss up with her incantation. She still owns the original saggy old cloth cat.
“The clangers”: when the Iron chicken gives the Soup dragon a dragon baby to cure her depression, that episode always leaves me with a lump in my throat and “something in my eye”.
American childrens programming is excellent, but it’s Max Fleischer’s work I love.
It’s shows like Hannah Montana, and pretty much any show made by CN (Adult Swim excluded) made after 2002. God I miss the 90’s. Why can’t we have another Animaniacs, Pinky & The Brain, or Freakazoid?
if you really want to look at something relatively new, but drawn in the spirit of old Hanna-Barbera action cartoons (think Johnny Quest) look no further than the amazing, excellent SAMURAI JACK on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late night block.
Samurai Jack is 10 years old. They’re rerunning it. However, if it’s Johnny Quest style you looking for, The Venture Brothers rules all.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Xmen and Batman: The Animated Series. Someone told me once long ago that most of the Batman cartoon was drawn on black paper, though I never confirmed that personally. I remember thinking the art was exceptional at the time.
Though I suppose on further reflection that this is a whole other Thundercats/Dungeons and Dragons thread of dorkery, separate and distinct from that which has been previous discussed.
As a side note, the popularity of the Hannah Montana show is utterly inexplicable to me.
Miley Cyrus has already jumped the ’shark’. Get over it. Britney 2.0 was ‘active’ with Granpa around 13. Why does Nick still have her show? For kids, yet.
CN went for cheap crap and has watched their Q drop. Maybe they use the tube for babysitting.