The New TV Landscape

by Adrienne Lee

Having spent much of my formidable youth in front of the television, my week (my life) highlighted by ABC’s TGIF, I can’t help but wonder if the current procession of elementary-aged viewers are experiencing the same quality of TV that I did. What college-age student doesn’t look back in yearning nostalgia to the good old days of Nickelodeon’s prime and the foremost era of the family sitcom? I could go on about the culmination of enlightened kids’ programming of the ‘90s, and today’s sparse family show versus Full House, Pete and Pete, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Growing Pains, etc. To make a concrete evaluation of TV’s changes since then, let’s look at popular programming from both periods.

Rather than ramble off names of the dozens of shows that shaped my adolescence, I will ramble off a sample of shows popular exactly ten years ago—specifically in prime-time network TV. According to the Parents Television Council, the most family-friendly shows of the 1996-97 season were: Second Noah; Touched By an Angel; Home Improvement; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; The Parent ‘Hood; Cosby; and Family Matters. Top kid-inappropriate shows included Married…with Children; Friends; Melrose Place; and Beverly Hills 90210. Compare this with the most recent list of the top prime-time shows from the ’05-’06 season: most suitable being Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; Deal or No Deal; American Idol; and Dancing with the Stars. Least suitable include: Lost; House; Prison Break; Family Guy; Desperate Housewives; and C.S.I. Somewhere in the middle dwell: Survivor; America’s Got Talent; So You Think You Can Dance; and The Biggest Loser.

In examining today’s lineup, a definitive shift is evident. Nearly eliminated are the adored family values-oriented shows in both the drama and comedy formats. Nearly infesting the Top-20 entirely are the ever-insufferable, utterly-addicting “reality” programs; it seems that every other show on the air features some kind of “contestant.” That older audiences are watching and competing on these gimmicky programs like Fear Factor is amusing because these adult reality game shows were not prevalent a decade ago; what was popular were juvenile challenges like Family Double Dare, Wild and Crazy Kids, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and others.

For a kid, TV-land of the 1990’s was just a more meaningful place to grow up. Peers I’ve conversed with would watch Salute Your Shorts over SpongeBob SquarePants any day of the week. Our unfailing classics—Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, Doug, and Captain Planet, have been replaced by teenybopper Disney Channel programs and weird cartoons that I don’t understand. Has the quality of adolescent-targeted television deteriorated? Or are we all just in denial about actually becoming that un-hip older generation? (You know, the one droning about “When I was your age….”) Just because most of us are wistful about the death of TV as we knew it doesn’t mean that we necessarily had it better. But, then again, these kids missed the era of the classic Disney musicals; they are growing up without Urkel and Screech!

The biggest problem is the absence of meaningful kids’ programming that families can view together. The Lizzie McGuire Show doesn’t hold a candle to The Wonder Years. From fun family sitcoms, scripted TV has generally split into extremes of trivial kids-only shows or intense, high-concept adult dramas or sitcoms. Emphasis on the family dynamic is diminishing. The Parents Television Council says that Dancing With the Stars emphasizes positive values for children, but I still think that we progenies of the ‘90s know better. To them I say: it’s Friday night, and the moon is bright. Gonna have some fun, show you how it’s done….

(The Family Matters promotional photo of Jaleel White playing Steve Urkel courtesy of Warner Brothers Studios via the Internet Movie Database.)

Children’s Television
Television
Family Viewing
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