If you have kids, you know that the junk programming on television targeting their fine minds is loathsome.
I haven't had cable in almost six years. That should tell you something.
The majority of programming for the eighteen and under crowd on the television today is junk. I mean serious junk. It romanticizes characters you'd rather your kids didn't know about doing things that you'd rather your kids didn't do and getting away with things you're hoping they won't get away with until they're out of the house for at least a decade or two.
I'm about to feel like I'm entering middle age here, because I'm going to say it. What happened to the good old days? What happened to Rainbow Bright and Strawberry Shortcake and Steve Urkel? When did reality clog up half of my viewing time and overly-violent cartoons fill up the other half?
And...Hollywood Movies are Just as Bad
Going to the movies is a big event in my family. We'll spend at least fifteen minutes pouring over the listings at the local theater trying to decide what we want to see (and easily twice that long standing in line at the snack bar). It's something we look forward to for weeks.
Now your family is all set and sitting in their seats waiting impatiently for the show to begin. Once it does, you feel like getting up and leaving. The movie is poorly written, once again overly dependent on special effects and offers very little in entertainment value. The dialog probably consists of a hundred one-liners that you really don't want to have to explain to your kids.
At this point, you should look into the movies of yore. The classics that had real writers, actors and directors and no special effects, maybe not even color. We are not talking here about tepid remakes of the classics but the real thing, the originals.
Companies are finally taking advantage of the benefits of playing in the public domain and making that happen. See, a lot of the films you loved all those years ago were copyright protected, making it difficult to find them as retailers arched an eyebrow at those pesky licensing fees. But now...now these films' copyrights have expired, and they're floating around freely in the public domain.
Now classic film aficionados and companies can find the best (and the worst) of the classic films and put them on their websites to be accessible by anyone who cares. These films are in the original form, not remakes or altered in any way.
What a Break for Film Lovers
Now we can get these wonderful old flicks out of the public domain and into our home theaters. Next family movie night, turn on one of those classic movie channels and see what goodies are in store for you. Actual films without special effects, gore or violence right in front of you to enjoy together.
And, in doing so, you can rescue your kids from the misguided belief that what they see on TV is all that Hollywood has to offer and open their eyes to a whole new world.
I haven't had cable in almost six years. That should tell you something.
The majority of programming for the eighteen and under crowd on the television today is junk. I mean serious junk. It romanticizes characters you'd rather your kids didn't know about doing things that you'd rather your kids didn't do and getting away with things you're hoping they won't get away with until they're out of the house for at least a decade or two.
I'm about to feel like I'm entering middle age here, because I'm going to say it. What happened to the good old days? What happened to Rainbow Bright and Strawberry Shortcake and Steve Urkel? When did reality clog up half of my viewing time and overly-violent cartoons fill up the other half?
And...Hollywood Movies are Just as Bad
Going to the movies is a big event in my family. We'll spend at least fifteen minutes pouring over the listings at the local theater trying to decide what we want to see (and easily twice that long standing in line at the snack bar). It's something we look forward to for weeks.
Now your family is all set and sitting in their seats waiting impatiently for the show to begin. Once it does, you feel like getting up and leaving. The movie is poorly written, once again overly dependent on special effects and offers very little in entertainment value. The dialog probably consists of a hundred one-liners that you really don't want to have to explain to your kids.
At this point, you should look into the movies of yore. The classics that had real writers, actors and directors and no special effects, maybe not even color. We are not talking here about tepid remakes of the classics but the real thing, the originals.
Companies are finally taking advantage of the benefits of playing in the public domain and making that happen. See, a lot of the films you loved all those years ago were copyright protected, making it difficult to find them as retailers arched an eyebrow at those pesky licensing fees. But now...now these films' copyrights have expired, and they're floating around freely in the public domain.
Now classic film aficionados and companies can find the best (and the worst) of the classic films and put them on their websites to be accessible by anyone who cares. These films are in the original form, not remakes or altered in any way.
What a Break for Film Lovers
Now we can get these wonderful old flicks out of the public domain and into our home theaters. Next family movie night, turn on one of those classic movie channels and see what goodies are in store for you. Actual films without special effects, gore or violence right in front of you to enjoy together.
And, in doing so, you can rescue your kids from the misguided belief that what they see on TV is all that Hollywood has to offer and open their eyes to a whole new world.
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