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Page 10A/The Record-Review
Friday, August 24, 2012
Family TV fare
Is wholesome content still on the viewing menu? By LAURIE SULLIVAN
I
s the age of innocence long gone on the small screen? Or are there still TV shows for your family to watch together? The answer is yes. And no. When my own kids said goodbye to “Sesame Street,” Mr. Rogers and the “Electric Company,” they graduated to shows targeted at families with older young kids. Back in the day, there was plenty of appropriate familyfriendly TV shows for all of us to watch, shows I didn’t have to worry would be filled with foul language or adult themes. We moved into the era of the adorable Olsen twins on “Full House” and the fictional, ultra-nerdy Steve Urkel on “Family Matters.” And, of course, who could forget know-it-all Alex Keaton played by Michael J. Fox on “Family Ties”? And let’s not forget “Seventh Heaven” and the wholesome “Partridge Family” from back in the day. Those days may long be gone, but there are still some family shows to watch together in 2012. Maybe not just the variety and quantity of the shows that existed back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s and even as recently as a decade ago — although you can still find plenty of these old school shows on cable TV. If you can tear your kids away from their handheld devices, computers and cell phones — which can all be a challenge for parents — and set aside a specific time for family viewing, you might just find there are still some interesting, appropriate and fun shows you can all enjoy, especially with the help of cable TV, DVRs, DVDs and on-demand programming, which has made family TV time certainly much easier. Thumbs up for TV Scarsdale’s Julie Gerstenblatt, who writes the column “On The Verge” for The Scarsdale Inquirer, recently published a “humorous novel” titled “Lauren Takes Leave.” Gerstenblatt is the mother of a 7-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son and monitors what her kids watch “once
they’ve finished their work,” much the same way she was raised. She explained that there are TV shows she approves of that she lets them watch “while I’m cleaning up the kitchen.” One of these shows called “Victorious ” is described on the Nick/Nickelodeon website: “[the show] follows the journey of Tori Vega, a 15-yearold” who escapes the shadow of her talented singer/performer older sister, who discovers her own star power. Gerstenblatt also allows her daughter to view anything on Nick Toons, which is on cable. “One of the good things about recording a show first is that they can do all their work and we can schedule a time where we sit down together to watch together,” Gerstenblatt said. She and her children generally watch TV together about three times a week. She gets recommendations from friends on shows to watch and doesn’t prescreen the shows, but feels that some shows are too sophisticated for her kids, including shows like “Modern Family.” Gerstenblatt said the closest show to old school family-friendly shows is called “Good Luck Charlie” on the Disney
channel that they watch together. She described it as a “wholesome show about a family.” “Charlie” is the nickname for Charlotte, the youngest of four Duncan kids, who is about 2 or 3 years old. Older sister Teddy tries to show Charlie what she might go through when she is older by making video diaries for future reference. At the end of each video Teddy or another family member always says, “Good luck, Charlie.” On one of the last episodes of the show that Gerstenblatt’s son watched before leaving for camp for the summer, it was announced that a new baby was expected. He made his mom promise to let him know whether the baby would be a boy or a girl. “The show really captures them,” Gerstenblatt said. “It’s very ‘Full House’-ish — there’s still humor and the family really works together and they’re very close. The teenage boy works at some food place and you learn about work ethics. It’s about family dynamics.” She added, “Everyone I know watches reality competition shows.” Gerstenblatt and her son watch “Chopped.” “At the end of each show
you’ve seen people work really hard and you’ve seen a winner,” she said. “I think it’s an OK way to watch [TV] with your kids.” After her daughter goes to sleep, she and her son watch something educational. “I don’t think she could sit through an hour of something, [although] she has watched the Food Network’s ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.’” Her kids are now watching a “new or newish” show from Australia called H20 about three mermaids in “either middle or high school” who keep their mermaid identities hidden from everyone except one friend. Gerstenblatt said her friend’s daughters who are aged 7-11 like it. Once her kids are off to sleep, it’s Mommy time, when Gerstenblatt gets to watch her shows that she’s previously recorded on DVR. When asked what parameters she uses to decide what shows are age appropriate for her children, she said, “I think it has to do with the channel it’s on. Nickelodeon and Disney [are appropriate]… most Continued on the next page
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