we're the doodlebops, we're the doodlebops

We're the Doodlebops ... OH YEAH!

Welcome to my nightmare!

When I was growing up, Sesame Street had just come into being. Now that was a cool show to a toddler/pre-schooler growing up in the 70's. As I got older, the muppets evolved into The Muppet Show. That was on every Wednesday night at 7:30 on the CBS station in Philly. I remember that because it was also grocery shopping night for my parents. As they were unloading bags, I was watching Dr Bunsen Honeydew quite accidently blow up/liquidate/electrocute his poor, squeaky lab assistant, Beaker. And then there were the onslsught of cool hosts like Carly Simon, John Denver, The Carpenters, Carol Burnett, and other assorted 70's super-stars.

Then came Fraggle Rock. That show scared the hoohoo-gagags out of me. It was the Muppets on acid. I know it was a WAY popular show but I just could not for the life of me get into it. Granted, I was a teenager when it was first produced, but, hey, teens watch this stuff, ya know!

I thought to myself "Oh boy, they can't possibly top a show as creepy as this".

Television producers tried their darndest to prove me wrong. They came out with The Care Bears circa 1980's, Rainbow Brite, Jem (she's truly outrageous), Gummi Bears (not just for breakfast anymore), My Little Pony with the jeweled eyes, plus a slew of other annoying yet not as monumental as Fraggle Rock children shows.

Then came the 1990's. The decade of grunge, gangsta rap, and Barney and Friends.

It was 1992 to be exact. I saw this big, fat purple dinosaur on the local PBS station and thought "Dear Lord, it's Dino on steroids". I thought that there was no way this over sized, mentally challenged, DUH of a dinosaur can become popular.

I also did not have kids; hence, I was so wrong.

I ignored the avalanche of Barney toys, Barney furniture, Barney luchboxes (the defining point of immortal status IMHO), Barney music, Barney VHS tapes,etc that plagued the aisles of the local Toys R Us. I also ignored the endless barrage of jokes.

And if Barney was not bad enough, along came the next generation of cute colorful kiddie shows derived from a serious acid trip ...

the Teletubbies. Words cannot describe my true feelings to these little guys. The show was particularly disturbing. I mean, the sun was a giant baby's face! Again, I thought, "Can never be popular". Again, I thought wrong. These little things were everywhere. Even the adultsof the great NE Philly were sporting Teletubbie gear.

But now it's a new millenium with a new generation of TV shows aimed at children to force their parents to buy tons of stuff the kid won't even like once the shows popularity wears off. And I am now one of those parents. I never thought I was going to have kids. It's amazing how wrong I have been about a lot of things in the past few years.

So now the world of children's television sports the likes of the Wiggles and the subject of this blog, the Doodlebops. The Doodlebops are the latest in Disney Channels quest to rule morning television. If that were judged by my household, mission accomplished. I haven't had anything above a G rating on my TV in over three weeks. We have gone from "Fruit Salad" and "Hot Potatoe" to "Let's Get on the Bus" and "We're the Doodlebops". But I digress. So there we are, whereas the Wiggles hail from Down Under, the Doodlebops come from our neighbors to the North. It's cute and fun and colorful and my daughter loves to sing and dance along with the characters. Downside: I ham stuck watching it, too! When I watched both of these shows, what with their singing and dancing and general silliness, I thought "Nah, my kid won't get hooked".

I really have to stop this thinking stuff.