Wishbone and other PBS Kids shows/cartoons

[robybang]

The earliest memories I have of PBS was when I was in fourth grade. We just moved down to Georgia and we were staying with my grandma and grandpa, who only had basic cable, so PBS was pretty much the only thing we could watch. I remember watching Wishbone, Arthur, and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, which was a game show for kids about history. I haven't seen that one in the longest time, but I bet it'd look so kitschy now. I've seen some of the old Wishbone tapes, and I still enjoy it. As for Arthur, I like it, I've seen some of the new episodes and they're OK, I just don't get why the decisions behind Arthur's voice actors. It made sense when Arthur's voice went from high to low, since he's in fourth grade, so maybe it was puberty starting to kick in. But then they got someone else with a high voice to replace that actor, so it's kind of weird. Not bad, just kind of weird.

I have a younger brother, so I get to see some of the new stuff they have, and I have to say, it's probably better than what we had when we were kids. Dinosaur Train, Word Girl, and Word World for example. Nice CGI and Flash animation, cooler concepts, snappier writing, better budgets. Even some of the stuff on Nick Jr. and Disney Junior is better. And once the makers of the other shows stop copying Dora the Explorer's blueprint of "Go to three places, do a faux interactive game, celebrate at the end," they'd be even better.