In case you're not a big fan of '60s Saturday morning cartoons, or your cable provider doesn't provide it, Boomerang is Cartoon Network's repository for retro cartoons of all stripes, from old MGM shorts to "The Power Puff Girls" to its vast storehouse of Hanna-Barbera product.
Watching old episodes of "The Yogi Bear Show," I bonded with my daughter Lola. 3, and son Liam, 4, over the classic adventures of the gluttonous anti-hero Yogi and his little buddy-type pal Boo-Boo. Evie, howe
ver, has always found Hanna-Barbera cartoons agitating in the extreme. Not to mention objectionable on several other levels (the fine print on the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the '60s DVD set reads, "Not intended for children," due no doubt to all the smoking, sexual innuendo, and excessive violence, not to mention the creepy vibe of evil in shows like "The Herculoids").My son would chant "Yogi Bear! Yogi Bear! Yogi Bear!" whenever a Yogi cartoon ended and some lesser 'toon like "Mush-Mouse and Punkin'-Puss" or "Richocet Rabbit and Droopalong" would begin. I would then have to fast-forward through the unfunny, ultra-violent detritus of the mid-'60s H-B assembly line to get to the next Yogi Bear cartoon.
That's alll over now, thanks to the moratorium on Boomerang and all things Hanna-Barbera (well, all things except my prized Unrelated Segments, Guilloteens, and 13th Floor Elevators 45s on H-B's '60s record label, that is). Though I have a sentimental attachment to the likes of Huckleberry Hound and the Banana Splits, I know that Evie's right. I don't want to warp my kids' minds like mine got warped all those years ago.
Sorry, Yogi.
6 comments:
I only wish that we got Boomerang. I'd let my son watch. Can't be any worse for him than Spongebob.
Trouble is, for every great cartoon, there's a horrible one. But yeah, Yogi and Huck beat Spongebob any day. Although Spongebob probably takes it over Yippy, Yappy, and Yahooey.
Boomerang is now running "The Yogi Bear Show" as 100% Yogi, with no Richochet Rabbit or Punkin' Puss, so I've been letting the kids watch again. Same with "Huckleberry Hound."
My daughter idolizes Josie and the Pussycats, so my wife relented on the Boomerang ban.
Dang! How did you ever live to have kids watching show like that??? Chesh people, get a grip! Yogi is bad, so take em to watch Star Wars... Kids learn as they grow up what they watched was fiction. I watched the same stuff, along with show like COMBAT! (look that one up) Phillis Diller, The Green Hornet, Man from U.N.C.L.E., etc. I didn't grow up to be some killer or the like, I am an honorable discharged vet, three term alderman, and 12 years volunteer firefighter. Its not shows that make the kids, its what they learn, or don't learn from the parents that make them good or bad!
BTW...5 kids 3 fully grown, and all doing great(1 IT supervisor for Hyatt and Crown Center, 1 is a lead carpenter building 1M + houses, the daughter is in nursing, 2 on A and B honor roll in school) and I have Yogi on DVD for them all to watch.
I've always enjoyed watching Yogi and Huck with the kids, but my wife hates Hanna-Barbera. Me, I like the good stuff (Yogi, Huck, et al.) and don't like the bad (the aforementioned Punkin' Puss, pretty much everything after the Hair Bear Bunch). Glad your kids are doing well.
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