Inbetweener
Posted:
Mar 18, 2008, 10:42 PM
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Seventies Moralizing
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What is your opinion of the moralizing that went on in children's programing during the seventies? At the time, I approved of it, and my parents approved, especially of Filmation's Tarzan. Looking back on it, I don't approve. THey seemed to be wanting to stear us on a rediculously narrow moral pathway. Tae the numerous admonishions agaisnt cheating in cartoons. I actually took those messages to heart as a kid--but an incident occurred during my childhood that left me feeling betrayed. It didn't work that way in real life. KIds today are lucky this doesn't go on.
It was Filmation, it seems that was partiularly "bad" in regard to moralizing. It also seemed like they repeatedly warned kids against the "evils" of practical joking,(wasn't there a character called "mr. Prankster" on Yogi's Gang? Don't remeber the episode, but I can guess what it was about.) when some of the most popular characters in cartoons are practical jokers. THere was one filmation character in particular who revealed the hypocrisy latent within these messages. This was the character of Hauntleroy on Groovie Goolies. I remember Hauntleroy was this fat priggish kid, who tried to stop two nasty kids (I forget their names) from playing pranks on the other Goolies. Always, Hauntlereoy ended up taking the flack for the mischeivous twosome. For the life of me, I could not understand why the "good guy" character got the worst of it. I still don't know, but it shows the hypocrisy of Filmation.
I remember the Fat Albert kids singing a song called "A joke isn't a joke if it hurts someone." I found out in real life, some jokes are really mean, but sometimes the person who's hurt is just taking the joke a little too seriously. As I often did after seeing these phony moral messages.
(This post was edited by STARFOX on Apr 1, 2008, 6:57 PM)
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Lead Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 19, 2008, 8:35 AM
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The facile moralizing of a generation ago appears to be the raison d'être for South Park. The parents in South Park grew up with exactly this kind of message-driven programming, and now they can't find their a** with both hands and a guidebook. It's up to their kids to figure out a strange and contradictory world and often—especially when Stan wraps it up at the end of an episode—the show calls attention to how easy it is to find yourself in the quicksand of moralizing.
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 19, 2008, 9:46 AM
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"The Groovie Goolies" cartoon was made in the early 1970s before the "pro-social" Saturday AM guidelines were considered the norm. It is possible that episode was made before Peggy Charren and her Action for Children's Television pushed for more lesson-teaching in cartoon shows. It was troubling to see snickering Ratso and Batso get away unpunished with their pranks while whiny but innocent Hauntleroy was the fall guy back then.
Filmation had enlisted Dr. Gordon Berry, a Ph D in psychology who taught at UCLA, to advise on their cartoon scripts in the mid 1970s to the 1980s. Don't blame the studios...It was the watchdog groups who pushed the pro-social thing...as if the parents or guardians of the kids watching the shows can't be bothered by setting good examples themselves. If a studio wanted to get a program on a national TV network, it must follow the pro-social, low violence guidelines set by the networks. The sign of the times.
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"The Stones...I love The Stones...I can't believe they're still doing it all these years...I watch them whenever I can...Fred and Barney."- Steven Wright
(This post was edited by STARFOX on Apr 1, 2008, 6:55 PM)
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Mar 19, 2008, 1:56 PM
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It was troubling to see snickering Ratso and Batso get away unpunished with their pranks while whiny but innocent Hauntleroy was the fall guy back then.
I was just able to think of the names of the mishcief-makers before reading this.
I've read the whole moraliing thing started with the sixties super-hero and adventure toons, and some concerned citizen. (I think maybe it was Charren) rallied parents togather and got the "violent" stuff banned. So no, I can't really blame Filmation--except for unjustly punishing Hauntleroy, that is.
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Director / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 20, 2008, 10:46 AM
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I'm definitely against it. I even drew a bunch of Censor Monkeys in an attempt to reverse that idiom (as well as obliterate political correctness).
Like John K. said in a in a recent blog post, it's a cartoonist's #1 duty to warp kids' minds. 
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
(This post was edited by damfine on Mar 20, 2008, 10:47 AM)
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Inbetweener / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 22, 2008, 7:11 PM
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...and in the world of LIVE-ACTION comedy entertainment, guys like Norman Lear & James L. Brooks put a similarly preachy, heavy-handed, moralizing tone to their "innovative" sitcoms. Live-action or animated, it seemed comedy was being snuffed out from the early 70s onward.
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"As we say in Swahili: 'OOP!'"
--George of the Jungle
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Apprentice
Posted:
Mar 24, 2008, 8:08 AM
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Here is the Wikepedia entry on Mrs Charren. Pay particular attention to the quote, all of it, not just the opening sentence. Are those really the words of a "Censor Monkey"?
Let's not forget it was A.C.T. who gave no less than Mighty Mouse: the New Adventures an award for excellence in children's programming and spoke in it's defence when a certain Reverend Wildmon and his lackeys tried, (successfully, alas), to shut it down.
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"Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn. Tell us the lesson we should learn!"
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Mar 24, 2008, 5:59 PM
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Come to think of it..what about the eighties Dungeuns and Dragons Cartoon? I remeber the final season and relatively few episodes, and it wasn't renewed after that. I later heard that some religious groups complained becasue the game was getting a bad rap around that time. What I don't understand, is that there was never any public out cry from fans.
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Director / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 24, 2008, 7:13 PM
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Here is the Wikepedia entry on Mrs Charren. Pay particular attention to the quote, all of it, not just the opening sentence. Are those really the words of a "Censor Monkey"? Let's not forget it was A.C.T. who gave no less than Mighty Mouse: the New Adventures an award for excellence in children's programming and spoke in it's defence when a certain Reverend Wildmon and his lackeys tried, (successfully, alas), to shut it down.
Yeah, I've read about Peggy before. She said that her main goal was to make sure that children's programs weren't just one big long commercial. She insisted that programmers show a big distinction between the commercial and the show so that it didn't look like sponsors were trying to hypnotize kids into wanting their products.
She never intended to tone down any of the content of the shows. It was her mis-guided censor monkey/soccer mom minions who were responsible for that.
About Peggy giving Mighty Mouse an award. John K. talked about that on his blog some time ago. He said that they just made that particular episode as boring and bland as possible which is what got it the award. That's when he realized that that's the only thing executives, tv critics, and censor monkey/soccer moms appreciate.
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
(This post was edited by damfine on Mar 24, 2008, 7:17 PM)
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Mar 25, 2008, 11:14 AM
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Sometimes, though, the content of the show was TOO different from the commercials. I remeber there was an epsiode on the filmation Batman cartoon that had a vilain called the Sweet Tooth. This bad guy changed the Gotham City water supply to chocolate. Batman and Robin worried that the kids of Gotham would ruin their teeth and their health. Whcih was very ironic considering what Saturday morning sponsors were promoting on what seemed like 90% of the commmercials
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