Recent & Decent Kids Television
 

In general, there's a lot of hate for the stuff they show on kids' networks nowadays. With good reason, of course: most kids shows today suck all sorts of hairy balls, and a lot of old stuff still manages to be good without the nostalgia it brings.

But I think we need to take a step back and look at some of the better things that have come out recently. It's not all bad, even if it seems that way sometimes.

Examples:
Chowder. Funny characters, good jokes. Enough stupidity to keep the kids happy, but demented and witty enough to keep the parents or older kids entertained. Interesting style of art. Doesn't take itself too seriously but manages not to be a screaming shitfest.
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Admittedly a bit too early to give it a proper analysis, but what I've seen so far encourages me.
Yo Gabba Gabba! Hell, this is for kids one to six, I like it. Sure, you can tell it's a preschool show, but it's still plenty fun for older people to watch if they get stuck. The songs are catchy and the characters are fun.

I propose we look at shows that are playing now, having just premiered in the last couple years, and hope that maybe they'll bring a brighter future for television.

(NOTE: Let's leave Avatar out of this. We know it's good, alright? Let's just leave it be for this one.)

One boring, sleepless night, I happened to catch Veggie Tales movie a couple years ago. It was an entertaining little story about Jonah and the Whale. Rendition, if you will. I thought it was pretty kid-appropriate, and made it's point without being too preachy. Definitely a worthy choice for kids to watch (you know, if you really want to sit your kid in front of a television for hours), and I guess, more so if you have some sort of judeo-christian based faith.
Can't think of anything else at the moment, though.

Lazytown, anyone? I used to watch it last summer, pretty much for Robbie and his bitter rivalry with Sportacus and the rest of the group, all blissfully oblivious to his constant scheming and general dislike for all of them.

It's also what partly motivated me to start exercising. I donno, something about an Icelandic guy in blue doing all sorts of crazy things made me go, "Hell yeah! I can do that too!"

For 2004, it's not necessarily recent, but recent enough, I figure.

Captain Planet. In spanish. Seriously - we used to have this one spanish channel that - other than a few porn/soap opera shows at 2 in the morning, had cartoons. And CP in spanish is a mixture of both awesome and hilarious that I could never find anywhere else.

I have to say that while I don't actively engage in watching Yo Gabba Gabba, that damn "There's a party in my tummy" song gets stuck in my head. And also the fact that Elijah Wood is in their commercial. =p

I find myself watching George Shrinks when there's nothing else on.

I actually have thje very original "George Shrinks" book. My parents/relatives got it for me when I was younger as my name is George, and I was crazy about seeing my name in other places.

You have already failed both of this thread's qualifiers.

Not very recent, again, but Fairly Odd Parents still manages to kill me nearly every time.

Hell I'm 22 and a staunch atheist and I think Veggie Tales is hilarious kids show.

The other one's I occasionally find funny are the sitcom-like kid's shows; most of them are just pretty stupid, but occasionally Drake and Josh can make me laugh.

I also like a good Even Stevens episode. =p

Fifth already called you on that, but seriously, I did that more than a decade ago. Not recent at all.

Agreed. It used to be I would never touch the stuff they showed on TeeNick with a thirty-foot pole, unless said pole was well sharpened. This was true even when I was the age group intended for the shows. But babysitting has forced me to suck it up for the enjoyment of a few little bastards, and I found that a few of 'em are actually decent. iCarly, in particular, can provide me with the occasional genuine laugh.

I watch some of the new Superhero cartoons, they're pretty decent, such as Justice League Unlimited or The Batman (though I don't think it's as good as the one that was on when I was a kid, but that's probably because it was my childhood and I'm being nostalgic. It's probably actually exactly the same quality).

Say what you will but I love Transformers Animated because it nudges aside merchandising and advertising in favor of making the characters each unique in their own independent way, not just with their 'unique ability' but in characterization too.

Plus the Decepticons are actually a big deal every time they show up, so the tiny team of Autobots are out solving people-problems long before they're fighting off Generic Decepticons.

It's totally great and I'm really anxious for DVD Season 1.

But I'm sure you already knew that.

Then why is it horrible every time I try to watch it?

How exactly am I supposed to answer that?

no. it's not. you're wrong.
once again, spectacular spider-man is great, dig it. or else.

I second Chowder..and the show. Seriously when I saw it on tv I was like hey....this SHOULD suck, but it doesn't! The humor is good for kids and older teens(or early 20s such as myself).

Fairly Oddparents (mostly Cosmo) still gets me everytime.

To be fair, Justice League was just an extension of Bruce Timm's DC Animated Universe which started with the Batman Animated Series in the 90s. But hell yes it was awesome.

I'd go as far as to say that's a damn good reason why it's awesome.

True but it is almost unfair to talk about it the DCAU here as it truly started more than 12 years ago...

But aw hell why not. Oh and by the way Batman: Beyond was freaking incredible. The Return of The Joker was one of the best stories I've seen in a cartoon. Also, the episode 'Epilogue' in Justice League Unlimited makes Batman: Beyond ten times cooler.

Yeah I gave Batman Beyond lots of shit since it's original premise was basically "Batman's too old to be Batman anymore so he invests his time to turn some kid into a night-prowling Iron Man plus batarangs."

But after digging into it a bit and seeing some of the underlying themes along with Terry's progression as a superhero and a Batman successor, I kind of like it now and it deserves alot more credit than I gave it.

The Mighty B. My sister started Tivoing this, and finally trapped me into watching an episode. I love it, the humor is ridiculous, and reminds me of the good old days when cartoons were enjoyable and not just a way to kill away the hours. Sort of a combination of Ren & Stimpy and Jimmy Neutron.

I guess honorable mention for American Dad. I rarely watch Family Guy these days, but what I've seen is crap compared to the more recent episodes of American Dad. The show has spunk.

I don't think I've ever encountered anybody who prefers American Dad to Family Guy, although it's not totally shocking if you aren't a fan of the cut-away humour in Family Guy. American Dad is more like a traditional sitcom whereas at this point Family Guy basically just uses the plot as a vehicle for its cut-away gags. I personally still prefer Family Guy, though.

American Dad has the advantage of keeping on-topic and incorporating some of the better writing as opposed to Peter's infamous "Just like..." cutaway.

Both are great but it's apples and oranges.

American Dad and Family Guy are made by Seth MacFarlane. People assume this means that they are very similar and therefore one is clearly better than the other. However, they are two rather different shows, and in my opinion have no more similarities than any two random sitcoms these days.

And agree'd on Mighty B. I like what little I've seen of it. Plus, in my opinion, if an already well-known adult actor, known for live action or whatever they do, does voice acting for a kids show, both that show and the actor are probably way cooler.

Unfortunately, it's already over and practically off the air, but Teen Titans was pretty great when it was on the air. It had its ups and downs, but I think people can agree that for an Americanime, it pulled it off really well.

Teen Titans put me off because of its lack of connection to the rest of the DC shows going on at the time. It seemed rather dumbed-down it a lot of ways, which I don't think is necessary because kids would have still enjoyed it otherwise.

I tried really hard to hate hate hate Family Guy, and am loathe to admit that its pretty funny. But American Dad is just pathetic.

I was going to mention Chowder and Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack when I walked into this thread, but I'm walking right back out with more shows to start watching; I babysit kids during the day, and get stuck watching shows with them. Now I know what we need to start watching >.>

I watched Teen Titans almost obsessively for the first couple seasons, but after the whole Terra arc I figured it was as good a time to quit as any. From what I've been told by my friends, I didn't miss much.

And if we're going to discuss Batman Beyond, we need to discuss Static Shock, which was out around the same time. Both shows were awesome, and I watched them every chance I had.

I disagree but I'd hardly think that Family Guy is a "kid's show" therefore it's pretty off topic, and yes I know I contributed to it's OT-ness.