The Ugly Side of Kids TV

*Notes and Corrections (…of which there are many)* 1. Thanks again to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video nordvpn.com/paperwill and coupon code paperwill for a 2 year plan with 30 day money back guarantee. Down at the bottom of this comment you’l find some of my favorite region-restricted Japanese music. 2. As always, I got some stuff wrong. Here's a list of my dumb, dumb mistakes. A) When the Flintstones originally aired, it turns out that it was geared more towards families than just kids. That rebranding happened a couple years later, so grouping the show into "Kids TV" was a mistake. B) OMG is apparently a super common vape flavor of orange, mango, and guava….all of which are clearly visible on that product box. Whoops. (Although I stand by my statement that Puffbar targeted young users, as there were ads from the company talking about how you could take a break from “parental texts”.) C ) Keiko the orca’s reintroduction to the wild was much more complex than I went into here. Despite some problems, their quality of life was still given a massive step up and shouldn't be viewed as a bad thing. It had ups and downs, and while not necessarily a massive success, it was still better than the alternative. D) In the video, I argued that most internet theories about Dan Schneider were speculative. At the time, there had yet to appear a direct allegation by a former child star or performer that had worked with him to substantiate these rumors. But a couple of days after this video’s release, Jeanette McCurdy (a Schneider show veteran) released her new book “I’m Glad My Mom Died”. This memoir is easily the most damning evidence against Schneider we've ever seen, and I’d encourage everyone to believe McCurdy’s account as well as to ignore my outdated video info. You can find her book here: www.amazon.com/Im-Glad-My-Mom-Died/dp/1982185821 3. Wanna see some bloopers? They’ll be appearing over on Paper Will’s Garbage Can, my sub channel! www.youtube.com/channel/UCw6W11eNE-cwaDoSjjIstvQ/v… 4. If you like my stuff and are in a financially stable place, consider joining my Patreon where you'll find more behind the scenes stuff and production updates. But as always, nothing on my Patreon is behind a paywall, so if you're curious, take a look! www.patreon.com/paperwill Finally, here’s that music! A) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVIHyj9qVy0 This is called “Happy Wedding” and it’s from one of my favorite groups, Yabai T-Shirtsyasan. It’s a song about a couple on their first date, being pushed to go get married at the local city hall by the band. B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4uCpGumoJw Another great song from them about being failures in life. Fun! C) https://youtu.be/c6N4uBKZeeU　Kuroki Nagisa's "Hone". My absolute favorite song of all time, and I promise it'll be one of yours if you listen start to finish. The ending around 03:05 is killer. This song's apparently also a bit less restricted (some have said it's region locked for them, others have said it's not) but you should check it out regardless.

The thought of a room of adults having a serious meeting to talk about Tinky-Winky being gay propaganda has always been hilarious to me.

Fred Rogers was so powerful he made a politician feel empathy. What an absolute specimen.

If you think kids television is bad, imagine how bad online children's content is. We literally have a generation being raised off YouTube Kids and other streaming services as we speak.

Fun fact: the reason why the Muppet Show pilot was called "sex and violence" is in part because of what Sesame Street did to Jim Henson's reputation. Puppetry was generally regarded as something for kids, and although Jim loved entertaining kids he wanted his work to be something more (which is why much of his earlier work was on nighttime talk shows and coffee advertisements), he was afraid that anyone would see a pitch for a puppet show by the guy who made Sesame Street and assume it was a children's show. So the pilot was named "Sex and Violence" specifically in the hope that such an outrageous and adult name would cause people to take a second look rather than brush it off.

When you brought up the Muppets right after the animal mistreatment, for some reason my first thought was "Oh God no, they abused Muppets???"

The Flintstones had cigarette ads because it wasn't a kids' show in its time, it was a primetime show like the Simpsons is today.

I went several minutes thinking "eating children" was a euphemism for something that you usually expect the average predator to want. But no, he actually wanted to EAT kids. that's mental

I met Fred Rogers when I was 5 in the 80s. My babysitter and I took a train and two busses for me to sit in the audience for a live recording at the Boston Museum of Science. They didn't show this part on the television show, but he would spend hours with the kids in his audience. He would just hang out with us in a room full of the kids and their parents/etc. I remember really clearly how little he talked while he was with us. He just listened. And when kids would interrupt or be impatient he would be so gentle and say I'm so excited to hear their story too, can you help me listen? God, he was a saint of a man. Looking back it was like he was imparting empathy lessons to us by just showing us how to exist together.

I remember my parents prohibited me to watch The Fairly Oddparents because people in church said they made kids be "disrespectful" and it "mocked" parents, when in retrospective, Timmy had Cosmo and Wanda because his parents didn't even want him and neglected him 💀

Something I love about Mr. Roger's speech to senate is that when he says the first line of the song "What do you do with the anger you feel?" He clarifies to the senator "That line came straight from a child". What makes people who work on children's tv so amazing is that they understand kids have complex feelings that they express in what simple vocabulary they have.

I've gotten to a point in my life where I can't hear the first notes of "It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood" without tearing up a little. What a precious soul he was. An example for us all. It was always and still is my dream to create children's entertainment. Though my audience will be a bit older than Mr. Rogers was, I'm aiming more for the tween market, he's the example I will follow in terms of always being kind, empathetic and highlighting what makes everyone special.

That part at the end with Fred Roger actually made me cry. It was like it was literally like a movie moment, where the main villain just wanted someone to speak with them genuinely

"Gay people love purple" Sir I dont have a single valid argument against that

As a child who was abused and neglected, that Mr. Rogers bit made me actually cry. I never had anyone to tell me I matter. In fact, I had several people insisting I didn't matter. Or much worse. Something like that is so much more important than most people know.

NGL I think you glossed over Dan Schneider a little too quickly. Instead of focusing on the foot thing, I wish you could have spoke about his abusive tactics on set, inappropriate relationships with underage cast members (like buying them alcohol and pressuring them to drink it), the sexist behavior towards his female staff and so much more. I appreciate your content though!

Damn Mr. Rogers single handedly saved pretty much the entire industry of kids TV. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have really anything we know today

Mr Rogers was a great man an it's honestly heart breaking how many adults, especially parents, didn't like him. They hated that he was giving kids confidence and telling them that each one was special because they "didn't earn it". They felt like those kids were gaining a sense of entitlement because the nice man on TV was being too kind to their children. All Fred Rogers wanted was to help kids grow and learn and have confidence in themselves. And that speech in this video proves it. Long live Mr Rogers.

Guys I’m not even kidding when the daughter said, “This is my favorite picture, it has my mom and Gillian and I love them so much.” I STARTED TEARING UP 😭😭😭

Used to love teletubbies between the ages of 3-4, which I conveniently actually remember. I don't think I even perceived the teletubbies as having a gender. Like in hindsight I just... never looked at a teletubby and went "ah yes that is a girl teletubby". Anyways the appeal was definitely the aesthetic. Child me just enjoyed watching them do stuff and look a specific way. It was all atmosphere.