220 40661 article Path: ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!freenet4.freenet.ufl.edu!afn29430 From: "J." Newsgroups: alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die,alt.tv.barney.dinosaurs.die.die.die,alt.tv.the-jihad Subject: 'Barnee and the Antagonist,' by Jeff Verzak Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 22:47:08 -0500 Lines: 119 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet4.afn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Sender: afn29430@freenet4.freenet.ufl.edu To: cujdv@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu Xref: ix.netcom.com alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die:40661 alt.tv.the-jihad:519 First posted to ab4d November 8th, 1995. It's the kind of post one logs. Glad I did. :o> Apologies for the delay... J. -- Well, I've been reading what goes on here, and thought I'd add my 2 cents worth of input. I've been working for a public television station in what is known as "master control" for about 2 years now, and one of my jobs is to watch and monitor the programming in order to make sure it all goes over the air properly. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when I work the morning shifts, I have to watch an assortment of children's programs; the first of which is Barnee. So, I feel at least moderatly informed to speak about the show and its relation to other shows - I've put in my time watching them. Well then, what is my major gripe against Barnee? There is no antagonists on the show what so ever. Never. Not a thing to portray that perhaps everyone in the world is not as swell as Barnee would like them to be. Example: the other three shows that I usually end up watching in my shift are Shining Time Station, Lampchop's Play-a-Long, and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. A quick look at each... * Shining Time Station: A mostly live cast in this show. It takes place in a train station with about 3 adults and 3 children (although the original cast only has 2 kids). The other fellow in the show is "Mr. Conductor" who is about a foot tall and magically appears and disappears, to tell the children stories and offer advice. The rest of the show is puppetry with trains that happen to be sentient and their life on the island of Sodor. Now, one of the major adult characters is a fellow named Schemer who runs the arcade in the station and is constantly trying to make a quick buck, often at the expense of another person. This is a reality. Not everyone is concerned with everyone else equally. Needless to say, things never work out correctly for Schemer, but you know that he is there. Also, the show typically contains conflict. The kids will do something wrong, and eventually have to correct it. They occassionaly do thing such as lie or steal, but learn that these things hurt other people. The trains get into arguments, but these are usually solved by Sir Toppum Hat. What is the major differences between this show and Barnee? * Anatagonist: There are people that the kids learn to avoid * Guilt: The kids do wrong, but are punished for it and learn from it * Arguments: Not everything can be solved by the kids just "working it out". This is a nice skill, but on occassion, an adult has to do it. Also, the show deals with real topics for a full half hour, such as being left out, bullies, and why not to hide the truth. Things like this are not treated on Barnee, where everyone is happy. * Lampchop's Play-a-Long: Well, I don't like to watch the show, but I do have to give it some measure of credit. The cast is one adult, Sheri Lewis, 3 puppets: Lampchop, Charley Horse, and Hush Puppy, and a bevy of children who pop on to sing, be in a story, or do crafts. For the most part, the show has a story line, although it is interposed with snippets of song and whatnot. What I like about the show is that you are looking at a live adult handling the "kids" (i.e. the puppets), not a dinosaur. The crafts are more useful, as the can be acomplished in a few minutes, not a time lapse which shows kids going from a pile of Barnee Bag junk to guitars and saxaphones in 15 seconds. Instead, Sheri shows the entire thing being done on screen. I do find the songs annoying, but at least they are the originals, not cheap knock-offs of traditional children's tunes. * Anatagonist: In most espisodes, Charly Horse tries to take advantage of either Hush Puppy or Lambchop. Despite the fact that CH is an older brother to them, he doesn't act just like a big pal, there is a side to him more realistic to a sibling relationship. * Realistic Themes: Shows generally deal with sorting out a problem Themes include things such as theft, bullies & fighting, nightmares, racial differences and other true issues, but in a format kids can deal with and understand. * Mr. Roger's Neighborhood: the old tried and true staple of children's TV fare. Mr Roger's cast contains Himself, a few other adults who fill occupations in the "neighborhood", and the cast of The Land of Make Believe, which mainly contains a bunch of puppets and one or two humans. Mr. Rogers makes an attempt to teach the children about things such as how products are made, or clothing, and other simplistic things. He also deals a lot with emotion, explaining that everyone gets happy, sad, angry..etc. and that these are all okay, as long as they are dealt with in a responsible manner. It's okay to be mad, but try to take it out creatively instead of at a person. Also, he makes a valid attempt to explain the difference between reality and fantasy, saying that the Land of Make Belive, is just that, going to a television studio, and other things. Other points: * Anatagonist: In the L.o.M.B., there is the Lady Elain Fairchild, who is constantly bickering and acting generally selfish. * Education: I pointed this out before, but a lot of the shows deal with actually teaching the children something My biggest gripe with the show is that Mr. Rogers gives the impression that he is activlly aware of the fact that the child is watching him. I'd rather not have my child think the television is sentient. Ok, so my point was...? Well, I think that Barnee is really missing out on these sorts of things. In the shows, you very rarely see conflict between the children. Even when you do, it is resolved quickly and without hassle. Take an episode where two of the kids wanted to keep a picture both had worked on. The argued about it for a minute, were distracted by a song, then at the end, simply gave the picture away. Nice, but it doesn't count towards reality. Also, there is no indication that not everyone is nice. I don't think I've EVER seen an episode (and I've seen a lot) where you were led to believe anyone had ulterior motives behind their acts. I don't know, but I don't think that this sets children up for life, even life in kindergarten, very well. Finally, I really don't like the fact that the show cannot keep a coherant plotline. It's bad enough to have children watching television to keep themselves amused for a long time, it's even worse when all that happens is a flickering assortment of songs, dances and stories. I'd like to see something that happens continously on the show. Well, that's about it for now.. thought I'd share a thoughtful view as to just WHY Barnee isn't a good program, and what else is available out there. +Jeff cujdv@ecnet.net ============================================================================== | No.. you're closer to death than I | | - Fiver, _Watership Down_ | ==============================================================================