Customer Reviews

Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation before the V-Chip (Console-ing Passions)

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If you are interested in the topic of children and the media, this is an important book to read. You'll learn about the regulatory politics and tv production practices that gave rise to classic children's tv shows like Sesame Street, Strawberry Shortcake, and GI Joe--and that have continued to influence the content of children's tv in important (and often deeply problematic) ways. It is a serious read, but well written and compelling. I have used chapters from the book in classes I've taught (university level) on children and the media, and the discussions that have followed (about deregulation, commercialism, gender, cultural imperialism...) have been very lively. In many cases, students have continued to refer back to concepts raised in the book throughout the course.

I am a 70's Saturday morning veteran, as my generation is refered to sometimes when we talk about Saturday morning cartoons and shows in the 70's and early 80's. We all got up at the break of dawn to watch all those shows from 7-12 noon. In reading this book, I am enlightened just how much the (ACTIVIST) screwed everything up. Its Saturday morning tv, cartoons, for heavens sake, not rocket science. Why does everything have to be EDUCATIONAL, teach a moral lesson? Has anyone ever heard of pure entertainment. I admit, I loved School House Rock, Sesame Street, Shazam, Isis, Fat Albert, and they did pitch the MORAL thing to us kids, and thats all good and fine, but COME ON. We kids went to school 5 days a week for 6-8 hrs. Saturdays were our release. Thank you Peggy Cheron, Parents and other CRAZY ACTIVIST NUTS for screwing all that up for us. Now Saturday morning is a thing of the past. Thank you all. You took that away from us, but we have it all in our head. Its precious memories of an era gone by....IDIOTS, people just cant leave things alone....

This book is entirely too complex to understand. It tends to jump from topic to topic without ever clearly explaining the various factions involved in regulating children's television content and programming. Hendershot succeeds in being both condescending and boring in her approach to the study of children's television.