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In-Class Activities

Children’s Television: People versus Cartoons

Author: Sara Lindey, Ph.D.

Related Videos:
Mister Rogers: Artistic Animation
Jerome Singer:  The Promotion of Positive Behavior (PDF Transcript)

Hold a discussion about the importance and role of an adult figure, or host, in children’s television programming versus the absence of an adult presence in many children’s cartoons. Watch the following clips and consider what role the adult host plays for children in the following shows. What are the consequences of having an animated adult figure? What are the consequences of the absence of a host in many children’s cartoons?

“Mister Rogers: Artistic Animation”

Nick Jr.s’ Blues Clues: “Math!” and other Episodes: Among full episodes, Blues Clues host Steve interacts with animated characters, sings songs, and explains cognitive and emotional issues to his child viewers.

Disney Preschool’s Handy Manny: “Hammer Time” and other Episodes: Select from videos on the sidebar; in “Hammer Time” Manny instructs the Tools in the different uses of a hammer.  In Handy Manny, the host is Manny, an animated person.

Yo Gabba Gabba: Party in my Tummy: While an adult host introduces the song, an animated puppet-looking character, Brobee, sings about food, teaching children to eat vegetables.

Nick Jr.’s Miss Spiders’ Sunny Patch Friends: A Little Slow: Select from videos on the sidebar; in “A Little Show” this animated show with a cast of characters without a definite central host, Miss Spider sings about the pleasures of taking your time and enjoying nature.

To add context, show the video clip, “Jerome Singer: The Promotion of Positive Behavior,” from the Fred Rogers Oral History Project interview wherein Jerome Singer, faculty of Yale University in the Yale Child Study Program, discusses the need for age-appropriate television for children while maintaining that the role of the adult host is integral for success in this enterprise.

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