Should PBS take advantage of the situation?

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Whittles

New member
For years, PBS and it's kids line-up has been the home to toddler friendly shows like Sesame Street. That was great back in the day, but seeing as they are currently the only network airing kids shows in the morning and after school then shouldn't they take advantage of that and try to appeal to a wider audience? As for the whole E/I thing, we've discussed the loop holes many times.
 
PBS is never going to go non-educational because they're PBS. As long as viewers like us are paying for PBS's airtime, "quality" programming is all they're going to carry. No parent is going to pay their pledge money so that their kids can watch noisy rock videos and cartoons about kung-fu ninja cyborgs with no educational value.
 
I never said they should (or are) gonna go un-educational. What I said was that there are loop holes. For example, look at Ned's Declassified on Nick. PBS could do a show like that.
 
I saw a PBS ad where they were bragging that they are the safest place for children on television. Taking advantage of loopholes doesn't seem to fit in with that mission statement.

They've got shows for slightly older kids, like Word Girl, Fetch and Maya and Miguel.

But I guess you mean they should go after the tween and early teen audience. They'd face some pretty tough competition in that because it seems to be what Nick and Disney focus on exclusively. And there's no reason to air shows for older kids while they are in school, so their window would be 4 p.m. to dinnertime. Which is when they air Word Girl and Fetch on my local station.

They used to do things like Ghostwriter, too. When I was a teen I was probably too old for it, but I used to love Square One, especially the Mathnet segments. If they did do a new tween or early teen focused show, they'd probably do it themselves and make sure it had some educational content the way those shows did.
 
Tween audience is not really what I meant. I mean, come on, if you are over the age of 5 there's no reason to watch PBS. Even shows like Arthur would seem kinda lame to kids past kindergarden. Especially when those kids have shows like Spongebob and Ben 10 that they could watch. PBS should find a way to attract that audience, but at the same time follow the E/I rules.
 
I remember some sort of shows aimed at teens one of my local PBS affiliates where they would discuss teen issues and interview celebrities and such. I only watched those sporadically (if I wanted celebs I would have been watching music videos).

When I was junior-high age, shows I loved were Ghost Writer, Carmen Sandiego, Bill Nye, Wishbone, etc. It was pretty much any time I was home afterschool that I'd watch X-Men or Gargoyles or whatever other show interested then I'd put it on PBS. I guess the current programming might be a reflection on the local channels, where there are no kid shows morning, afternoon or weekend anymore. Nobody wants to compete with cable for that tween market. I personally don't know whats on PBS anymore though. Haven't really watched it in a couple of years. Used to watch after my cousins some days and put it on PBS but I just felt bewildered by current Sesame Street (it was like an hour long Elmo commercial to me). They just stuck to Disney and Nick after I got my satellite hooked up.
 
I get your point. The shows I mentioned (plus Cyberchase which I forgot) are what they currently aim at those older kids. Maybe they're not as good as the shows we used to watch, but they are making at least some effort.

I just think it would go against their mission statement if they did fill their block with clones of Ben 10 Alien Force that just happened to have, say, a science segment on astronomy, jammed into them so they could get around the E/I. They could make more exciting programs, but they would need to deeply integrate the educational content the way they do with Wordgirl.

And what other posters have said about the rise of cable is right. PBS has its niche and it knows it. It's unlikely it's going to take down Spongebob even if the people behind it wanted to, so it focuses on gentler, more educational programming and younger kids.

And they don't actually care as much about being competitive or ratings as cable networks do. PBS is government and viewer supported, so the thing that gets them the money they need to operate is putting on programs that they can point to as examples of worthwhile, educational content.
 
I don't know, even in its far-degraded state, I find Sesame Street more consistently entertaining than the average kids' show on TV, even something like Ben 10 (which I could never get into).

I'm also thinking that this would be a better fit on the Entertainment Board, since it's not necessarily all about animation.

-- Ed
 
No. Sorry, but I can't agree with that.

Shows like Fetch, Cyberchase and even Arthur constantly keep me entertained more than most Nick, CN and Disney shows.
 
It's because Barney, innocuous as he is, still puts preschool butts in seats. True, there's not much to learn from Barney & Friends, but PBS has to air something while the "big" kids are in school.
 
I don't know. The pre-adolescent market is already pretty saturated, what with Nick, Disney and CN all consciously aiming their programming toward that demographic. I'm not sure if PBS even feels that there's a need for them to try and get a piece of that action, especially since they're not as ratings conscious as those aforementioned networks. Not to mention that any kids' show airing on PBS has to maintain an E/I requirement, so I'd tend to think that a PBS spawned Spongebob or Ben 10 type show would just come off looking like a watered down wannabe. Kids are smarter than the Suits give them credit for; they'd see right through something like that.

I expect the closest thing to CN/Nick/Disney Channel type shows on PBS that we could expect to see would be something along the lines of the Discovery Kids shows.
 
They're starting to branch out to be honest...the shows have to have some educational value to them, though. Like mentioned before WordGirl, Cyberchase, Arthur...those are shows that are basically Sat. morning cartoons, but they need that little lesson at some point. If you've seen that new show Martha Speaks, about the talking dog, I recommend it. The people behind Johnny Test write for it, and it's pretty hilarious. The ep. that showed on Labor Day had some kids at a birthday party where they had a robot clown that spoke in a montone manner and would constantly try to create balloon animals, only to pop each one. One of the kids is like, "dude, they finally invented something scarier than an actual clown." Good stuff.
 
If it's educational,that's fine and dandy.If it's entertaining,that's fine and dandy.If it's educational and entertaining,that's even better then the previous two.
 
The other day, I was flipping through the channels, stopped on Arthur, and was glued to it for the rest of the episode. I'm now much older than the last time I saw it, and I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's possibly the best animated series to ever come out of PBS and is intentionally made to be enjoyable for all ages (which is why we get references to stuff like South Park in it).
 
Hold your tongue! The show is nice, safe, fun for the whole family that's actually entertaining. It's one of the few shows I'd actually stop and watch on a boring afternoon.
 
Do they air any of the older episodes from time to time?



Depends. Are you talking about kids with self esteem issues, who avoid certain shows based on their peer's reaction?
 
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