Practically There

Small Screen Monkeyshines

It would seem that the advertisers sponsoring much of today's commercial "children's" television have the American family honed in their cross hairs and they have an itchy trigger finger. Although big business concerns are not necessarily the only antagonists in this campaign to bilk each and every domestic household out of their hard earned cash. Even the ever altruistic Public Television Stations have dirtied their hands once or twice, insinuating themselves into the family circle under the pretext of fundraising. Unfortunately, the upshot of this media blitzkrieg is a generation of "Gimme's" and a score of guilt ridden people who question their validity as parents if thy do not equip their offspring with the most up-to-the-minute "must haves".

On any given day, at almost any given hour, one may view programming with its foremost focus on the youngsters of the home. Often, children's programming, particularly that found on commercial television, is televised during hours in which the family should be, oh, maybe sharing a meal, creatively playing or simply delighting in a beautiful day. This timing all too commonly makes it an undemanding babysitter. Additionally, these shows are frequently broadcast well past a reasonable time at which most tots have, or should have, drifted off to into a deep slumber. Moreover, the content of said shows may, or more likely may not, be suitable for the audience for which it was intended ,though this is generally not the case with public television, where content, subject matter and substance are, by and large, of unsurpassed excellence and suitability.

Notwithstanding, the one thing that these shows do have in common is the barrage of "stuff" available to the well provided for child as much of the advertising is tied to the programming. Whether it is "Sponge Bob" action figures, "Digimon" dinner plates or "Scooby-Doo" fruit snacks, watchers are played well by the promotional puppet masters, inferring that if you don't "have" then you are not "in". This is where the slope gets a little slippery for the civic-minded people citizens at PBS. Even the pleasant and decent people in Public Television are culpable in this action having, in a recent fundraising drive, been heard to direct any children watching Sesame Street to "go into the other room and get one of your parents and tell them that you want to be a member of Public Television". Now this in and of itself is not a transgression, but when done so while offering up and adorable Tickle-me-Elmo doll or some such item as a gift in exchange for the parent's sizable donation, the message being sent gets a bit murky. Young children do not grasp the idea of reciprocity in fund raising. Heck, I'm not sure that I always get the picture either. Ha! Get it, picture - TV, TV picture??!! OK, enough. (And, yes I do understand that sadly this has become an all too necessary dog-and-pony show to get viewers to cough up funding in a culture where apathy holds sway and the idea of give-and-take has seems to have been re-phrased as take-and-take-some-more.)

Even still, if an item is not tied directly to a particular program, the placement of these ads and the control that they seem to wield over even the most enlightened and intelligent of individuals is staggering. The children are led to believe that if they do not eat, drink, wear, ride or have what ever the media has deemed "now", well then they are not "cool". The parents imagine that if they do not fulfill the wishes and desires of their progeny that they are not worthy, meanwhile, conglomerate profits grow, landfills overflow with what was "now" yesterday and too many family units further blur the distinction between want and need.

But, hey, that's just me talking.

(Now if you will excuse me I have to go and put on my "Meet the Press" Fuzzy Slippers, fill my "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" mug with some refreshing and "totally cool" Mountain Dew and watch "Law & Order", the Chris Noth years. Oh, baby!)

"What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish."
- W. H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand, 1962

***Thanks everyone for hanging in there with me - sorry for no postings in the last two weeks, I took a bit of a psychological sabbatical!!!****