My parents have digital cable. Literally hundreds of television channels. Included in this is YTV, TVO, PBS, Treehouse, BBC Kids, Teletoon, and a couple other childrens' channels I can't remember the name of right now. Between all that, you'd think there'd be at least a handful of shows I remember watching when I was a kid, right?
Wrong.
PBS still shows Sesame Street (although presumably newer episodes), and YTV airs Pokemon (which became popular at the tail end of my childhood). Aside from that, every show on these networks was created after I outgrew it. This means no Reboot, no Groundling Marsh, no Under The Umbrella Tree, not even any Sharon, Lois & Bram or Mr. Dressup reruns.
And this isn't right.
But lo and behold, Channel 284 is something called 'Teletoon Retro'. It looks promising on first glance - Rocky and Bullwinkle, followed by Woody Woodpecker and some Looney Tunes.
However, throw in the Flinstones, the Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and - clearly for no reason other than CanCon regulations - the Raccoons - and that's their entire lineup.
The same handful of shows, all of which (minus the Raccoons) are old enough that they were popular when my parents were kids.
Are people really more likely to watch this limited schedule over and over again, rather than one which offers more variety? And it's not like cost is much of a factor here - if there was a bidding war going on for Dudley The Dragon, it would already be on TV somewhere.
It's not that the shows themselves were great - they're mostly worse than the ones Teletoon Retro is already showing - but people will be willing to watch them once in a while out of nostalgia. And right now, dozens of television programs I liked as a kid are sitting in a closet somewhere, collecting dust. That's not right.
--Ryan
No comments:
Post a Comment