Family/Tween Friendly TV Shows

[Toad_Passenger]

"Give the people what they want." Unfortunately, too few people want family-friendly television.

There have been several attempts. For example, back in 1991, Paxson Communications was founded and by 1998 set forth on their firm intention of providing that kind of programming. Despite an impressively wide reach, the network suffered from consistently low ratings and mounting financial costs. By 2005, the attempt was definitely a failure, and the network renamed ION. ION does have a sub-channel, though, that still presents older rebroadcasts of family friendly programming. That's one of the single best sources.

Did you ever wonder, "What happened?" For so many years shows like Family Ties, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Full House, Home Improvement, and many others were ratings giants (cornerstones of their respective programming blocks). Where are those types of shows now? It's obvious that, in the past, there was a way to successfully market and produce a family-friendly show, and a full lineup of them.

I often wonder if "we" have changed, or if the programmers have just gotten lazy, and don't care to put forth the effort.

 

[bicker]

Did you ever wonder, "What happened?" For so many years shows like Family Ties, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Full House, Home Improvement, and many others were ratings giants (cornerstones of their respective programming blocks). Where are those types of shows now? It's obvious that, in the past, there was a way to successfully market and produce a family-friendly show, and a full lineup of them.

The marketing hasn't lost any ground... if anything quite the opposite. Rather, we viewers have changed - more specifically, what we reward networks for presenting has changed.

Beyond that, when those shows you mentioned were broadcast, channels like ABC Family were not presenting original series. They only presented reruns. Now, there are places for those kinds of programs to be presented other than the major networks. Broadcasting has become more narrowcasting, with the narrower interests and less profitable offerings relegated to smaller distribution channels.

I often wonder if "we" have changed, or if the programmers have just gotten lazy, and don't care to put forth the effort.

Network executives, producers and writers aren't lazy. They're generally self-motivated, which means if they could make more money giving you something different, then they will. The fact is that what they're presenting is what they make the most money presenting.

It is more fun blaming others for things that we don't like, but that's another change in our society over the last thirty-five years - our penchant for trying to absolve ourselves of our own responsibility for things that happen.

 

[bicker]

Just posted this in the related thread... it's probably of more interest here.... It's a list of family friendly programming, from the FCC.

http://reboot.fcc.gov/parents/KidVid

I was able to pull a partial list of options off that site: 3-2-1 Penguins, Adventures From The Book Of Virtues , Angel Friends, Angel's Friends, Animal Atlas, Animal Rescue, Aqua Kids, Aqua Kids Adventures, Awesome Adventures, Babar, Babar , Beta Records Tv, Boo , Busytown Mysteries, Country Mouse & City Mouse Adventures, Critter Gitters, Cubix-Robots For Everyone, Cybercutes, Did You Ever Wonder, Dog Tails, Dog Tales, Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show, Dragonfly.Tv, Eco Company, Edgemont, Green Screen Adventures, Hannah Montana, Horseland, In The Zone, Jack Hanna's Into The Wild, Jacob Two Two , Jane And The Dragon , Kid's News, Kids Cooking For Kids, Liberty's Kids, Made In Hollywood: Teen Edition, Magical Doremi, Missing, Mustard Pancakes, My Friend Rabbit , Noonbory And The Super 7, Patrulla De Sapitos, Pets Tv, Plaza Sesamo, Postman Pat , Real Life 101, Reino Animal, Sabrina: The Animated Series, Saved By The Bell, Shelldon, Sports Stars Of Tomorrow, Strawberry Shortcake, Superlibro, Swaptv, Teen Kids News, That's So Raven, The Emperor's New School, The Outdoorsman, The Real Winning Edge, The Replacements, The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, This Week In Baseball, Toonturama Presents: La Vida Animal, Turbo Dogs, Vj-Iam.Tv, Whaddyado, Wild About Animals, Wild America, Willa's Wild Life, Wimzie's House, Winx Club, Young Icons, Zebby's Zoo, Zodiac Island, Zula Patrol.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

The marketing hasn't lost any ground... if anything quite the opposite. Rather, we viewers have changed - more specifically, what we reward networks for presenting has changed.

Beyond that, when those shows you mentioned were broadcast, channels like ABC Family were not presenting original series. They only presented reruns. Now, there are places for those kinds of programs to be presented other than the major networks. Broadcasting has become more narrowcasting, with the narrower interests and less profitable offerings relegated to smaller distribution channels.

Network executives, producers and writers aren't lazy. They're generally self-motivated, which means if they could make more money giving you something different, then they will. The fact is that what they're presenting is what they make the most money presenting.

It is more fun blaming others for things that we don't like, but that's another change in our society over the last thirty-five years - our penchant for trying to absolve ourselves of our own responsibility for things that happen.

Interestingly enough, ABC Family's current slate of shows includes Pretty Little Liars, Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Greek all shows that are still a bit mature, when compared to past, successful, family fare.

 

[bicker]

Yup, again, "Give the people what they want."

 

[robinb]

Hey! I noticed some other shows here that we watch too. We love Dr Who (although sometimes it's too scary) and we watch the Mentalist sometimes too as the body count/sexual innuendo is pretty low. The ScyFy (is that how they're spelling it now?) channel season is so strange, it's hard to keep up. We used to watch Warehouse 13 and Eureka but we missed the last season due to not knowing when it was on. We also watch Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs, but only on reruns. We watched Life on Mars (both US & UK) and the UK sequel Ashes to Ashes.

I'm making notes of the ones we don't watch yet, so keep 'em coming!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Did you ever wonder, "What happened?" For so many years shows like Family Ties, Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Full House, Home Improvement, and many others were ratings giants (cornerstones of their respective programming blocks). Where are those types of shows now? It's obvious that, in the past, there was a way to successfully market and produce a family-friendly show, and a full lineup of them.

I often wonder if "we" have changed, or if the programmers have just gotten lazy, and don't care to put forth the effort.

We changed, I think. They put out the programming and it ends up canceled because no one watches.

Who lives a Brady Bunch life anymore? No one.

We need a sitcom that mirrors "Roseanne". It needs to be raw and "real" to be successful with the right players.

'Parenthood' is probably the show most resembling it right now.

It needs that drama/comedy blend. Hard to do today.

 

[robinb]

Just posted this in the related thread... it's probably of more interest here.... It's a list of family friendly programming, from the FCC.

http://reboot.fcc.gov/parents/KidVid

I was able to pull a partial list of options off that site: 3-2-1 Penguins, Adventures From The Book Of Virtues , Angel Friends, Angel's Friends, Animal Atlas, Animal Rescue, Aqua Kids, Aqua Kids Adventures, Awesome Adventures, Babar, Babar , Beta Records Tv, Boo , Busytown Mysteries, Country Mouse & City Mouse Adventures, Critter Gitters, Cubix-Robots For Everyone, Cybercutes, Did You Ever Wonder, Dog Tails, Dog Tales, Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show, Dragonfly.Tv, Eco Company, Edgemont, Green Screen Adventures, Hannah Montana, Horseland, In The Zone, Jack Hanna's Into The Wild, Jacob Two Two , Jane And The Dragon , Kid's News, Kids Cooking For Kids, Liberty's Kids, Made In Hollywood: Teen Edition, Magical Doremi, Missing, Mustard Pancakes, My Friend Rabbit , Noonbory And The Super 7, Patrulla De Sapitos, Pets Tv, Plaza Sesamo, Postman Pat , Real Life 101, Reino Animal, Sabrina: The Animated Series, Saved By The Bell, Shelldon, Sports Stars Of Tomorrow, Strawberry Shortcake, Superlibro, Swaptv, Teen Kids News, That's So Raven, The Emperor's New School, The Outdoorsman, The Real Winning Edge, The Replacements, The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, This Week In Baseball, Toonturama Presents: La Vida Animal, Turbo Dogs, Vj-Iam.Tv, Whaddyado, Wild About Animals, Wild America, Willa's Wild Life, Wimzie's House, Winx Club, Young Icons, Zebby's Zoo, Zodiac Island, Zula Patrol.

That is KIDS programming. NOT "Family" programming. There is a difference. The only one I might watch is "This Week in Baseball" but that would bore my DD to tears.

What I, and the other parents on this thread, are looking for is programming that I can watch with my tween. Can you offer up some programming (not already mentioned) that fits that criteria?

 

[bicker]

Who lives a Brady Bunch life anymore? No one.

More to the point: Who wants to? And I don't mean, "Who is going to say they want to?" Talk is cheap. What matters is what people do. So many people claim they want family friendly programming but aren't willing to do their part, commit to watching it, and buying the products that pay for it, as much as people who watch other programming. They are all for getting what they want without having to do their part; but hold their feet to the fire to show commitment, and fans of family friendly programming disappear.

 

[Disney_Dreaming]

Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family.

 

[camreesmom]

DD11 watches shows that I wouldn't think an 11 year old would be interested in. Pawn Stars, American Pickers, House Hunters, Lock Up and almost anything on Discovery Health until it became the Oprah network. She was NOT happy about that......lol. There's a lot of medical shows that I won't watch because I am squeamish but she says that she wants to be a doctor so this stuff doesn't bother her......for example, that show about "I shouldn't have survived this" or "I shouldn't be alive....." She and DH watch Pawn Stars together all the time.

DD14 loves watching the Law & Order shows and Lock Up. Sunday afternoon is about the only time she has to watch tv though because she is busy the rest of the week with tennis, student council, debate, etc.

DD8 likes to watch George Lopez and most anything on Disney.

 

[jenlynn0808]

Modern Family, The Middle...otherwise it is Survivor, Mythbusters, DirtyJobs (we love Mike ). We don't watch a ton of evening tv around here, DD12 (13 in 2 weeks) plays on a select softball team and has practice 3 times a week and DS5 has swimming twice and week and whatever other sport is in season.

Now DD and DH did watch Walking Dead on AMC in the fall. DH has always been a zombie fan, so he has DD hooked and is eagerly awaiting till DS is a bit older to snatch him up too.

Have you tried HUB? We have been watching Family Game Night and Hole in the Wall (for the record-we hated when it originally aired, but the revamped version isn't bad). HUB also airs the old sitcoms...Family Ties, Doogie Howser, Happy Days, The wonder Years, Batman (with Adam West...my kids like the 'campiness' of it). Not current stuff, but good family programming. Some of the other channels run old 80's tv too. I think Nick runs Roseanne, and you can usually find Cosby Show reruns on. Some of it might be dated, and some if it isn't new to us, but is new to the kids.

 

[Kitzka]

DD is 12 and the shows we watch as a family are (non reality show)

Glee
Chuck
Eureka
Modern Fmaily
The Office
Community

none of it is truly like the Cosby Show, Growing Pains or family ties but the main focus of the show isn't dead bodies, sex, crime etc.

Speaking of which-it was a struggle to NOT allow DD to watch the crime show Justin beiber was on a few months back. She pitched a fit about that one. but seriously do the creators of that show want my 12 year old watching?

Lara

 

[robinb]

Speaking of which-it was a struggle to NOT allow DD to watch the crime show Justin beiber was on a few months back. She pitched a fit about that one. but seriously do the creators of that show want my 12 year old watching?

I had to look up which show you were talking about. NO WAY would my DD watch CSI! It would give her nightmares ... she was covering her eyes over the wussy torture scene on Monday's Castle.

 

[jenlynn0808]

Speaking of which-it was a struggle to NOT allow DD to watch the crime show Justin beiber was on a few months back. She pitched a fit about that one. but seriously do the creators of that show want my 12 year old watching?

Lara

Then be forewarned...Justin is coming back on in Feb. (I think) in a continuation of that episode. The original episode left some unanswered question.

I had forgotten about CSI, depending on the episode DD and I will watch that, not so much this year thought, just been to busy.

 

[Hannathy]

Wow I never thought of my 11-12 yr old watching anything special. By now he is watching everything we watch.

In fact he loved 24 when it was on and good a few years ago and he would have been 9.

The only show I have ever not let him watch was the Sopranos because when it was on and we were watching it he was 5 or 6.

He is reading adult books so of course he wants TV shows of the same level. Never thought CSI was above a 12 yr old. His first choice of a channel is the Military channel.

 

[SaraJayne]

We watch Discovery A LOT (Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch, Alaska Gold Rush, Dirty Jobs, Ice Road Truckers), Science Channel (How it's Made), History (Modern Marvels,), HGTV, NatGeo (DS loves Border Wars) and Food Network.

What channel is American Pickers on? We like that, too.

 

[SaraJayne]

Just posted this in the related thread... it's probably of more interest here.... It's a list of family friendly programming, from the FCC.

http://reboot.fcc.gov/parents/KidVid

I was able to pull a partial list of options off that site: 3-2-1 Penguins, Adventures From The Book Of Virtues , Angel Friends, Angel's Friends, Animal Atlas, Animal Rescue, Aqua Kids, Aqua Kids Adventures, Awesome Adventures, Babar, Babar , Beta Records Tv, Boo , Busytown Mysteries, Country Mouse & City Mouse Adventures, Critter Gitters, Cubix-Robots For Everyone, Cybercutes, Did You Ever Wonder, Dog Tails, Dog Tales, Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show, Dragonfly.Tv, Eco Company, Edgemont, Green Screen Adventures, Hannah Montana, Horseland, In The Zone, Jack Hanna's Into The Wild, Jacob Two Two , Jane And The Dragon , Kid's News, Kids Cooking For Kids, Liberty's Kids, Made In Hollywood: Teen Edition, Magical Doremi, Missing, Mustard Pancakes, My Friend Rabbit , Noonbory And The Super 7, Patrulla De Sapitos, Pets Tv, Plaza Sesamo, Postman Pat , Real Life 101, Reino Animal, Sabrina: The Animated Series, Saved By The Bell, Shelldon, Sports Stars Of Tomorrow, Strawberry Shortcake, Superlibro, Swaptv, Teen Kids News, That's So Raven, The Emperor's New School, The Outdoorsman, The Real Winning Edge, The Replacements, The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody, This Week In Baseball, Toonturama Presents: La Vida Animal, Turbo Dogs, Vj-Iam.Tv, Whaddyado, Wild About Animals, Wild America, Willa's Wild Life, Wimzie's House, Winx Club, Young Icons, Zebby's Zoo, Zodiac Island, Zula Patrol.

I have two kids...and I've only heard of three of those shows.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

I have two kids...and I've only heard of three of those shows.

A lot of them are shows that are no longer making new episodes. The repeats show heavily on numerous digital subchannels. A lot of them, at least in my area, aren't shown on the major networks.

 

[bicker]

Indeed, they wouldn't be. They have smaller audiences, so will appear on minor networks (like ION) or local stations.

That link I provided leads to a page that will help you find these programs on the channels available to you.