9 Episodes of Kids Shows That Dealt With Serious Issues | blameitonjorge

[Music] the best children's television helps kids relate to the world in a way that encouraged them to think for themselves respect others and make sense of a sometimes confusing and scary world and when this last part isn't handled properly they can have the opposite effect but when it does work the result can transcend kids TV and become a public service so today we're going over nine episodes of kid shows that dealt with serious issues Hey Arnold touches on parental favoritism in school bullies hey Ronald is fondly remembered by most children of the 90s and while the show could have a light comic touch it isn't given nearly enough credit for delving the social issues in the inner lives of big-city children the season 4 episode Helga on the couch tackled a hot-button issue school bullying with surprising sensitivity after Helga punches a classmate in the face she's sent for a revealing discussion with the child psychologists some savvy er kids may have already noticed that Helga's mom is nearly always portrayed as confused and disoriented with slurred speech and never without as smoothly in her hand this is a strong hint that Helga is dealing with an alcoholic parent and her therapy session takes this notion further by revealing that Helga's parents are shamefully neglectful of her as well in a flashback style to look like a black-and-white fifties sitcom it's all familial bliss and laugh tracks as long as Helga's sister Olga is on screen but as soon as Helga makes an appearance the flashbacks turned the color and the laugh track falls ominously silent in the real world her parents admonition not to blab about their family to some shrink and complaints about how this never would have happened with Olga only this served to underscore the fact that Helga's aggressive attitude is a direct result of a lack of any positive attention from her parents [Music] go play outside with you many children's programs have touched on bullying but few bother to look at its root causes and even fewer do so with such painful accuracy Patti mayonnaise starves herself and Doug it's hard not to argue that mass media shoulder some of the blame for rising incidence of teen and preteen eating disorders that the media promotes unhealthy body images for both men and women can hardly be disputed yet for all of the discussion of this effect over the last several decades very little seems to have been done to change it the Nickelodeon series Doug later picked up by the Disney Channel bravely took on this issue in a season six episode Doug's chubby buddy in it ducks crush patty mayonnaise despite always being portrayed as real thin is convinced that she is fats after becoming obsessed with a skinny teen TV star a commercial for a diet kit pointedly called waste away gives her obsession of focus active life that none of you will ever have a nine inch waist but now you can try using my waist away diet kid she begins dieting and exercising and obviously unhealthy amounts Patti's track coach only encourages her dangerous behavior I'm kind of worried about patty she's been on this diet let me tell you something funny oh these diet you don't understand this because you are not an athlete I mean that fruit pot leading up to attract me in which patty becomes dizzy and collapses after completing a long jump a teacher finally intervenes explaining the patty and the audience at home the dangers of going too far with dieting and throughout the episode patty is shown seeing unrealistically fat representations of herself in mirrors and fantasy sequences which is probably a more accurate depiction of body dysmorphia a psychological condition that is present and most of those with eating disorders then has been shown on television before sense [Music] Miranda develops an eating disorder and Lizzie McGuire in the early 2000s the live-action Disney sitcom Lizzie McGuire was a helpful guide through the perils of adolescence for many teens while it only ran for two seasons and made a star of Hilary Duff and still enjoys a reputation as solid programming for its audience while the show usually dealt with garden-variety teen problems it too took a stab at the more serious issue of eating disorders in a season 2 episode after an impromptu photo shoot Lizzie's best friend Miranda panics when she thinks she looks fat in the pictures she immediately stops eating altogether and is forced to come clean to her mother after she faints while at Lizzie's house while the rapid development and quick resolution of her disorder can be chalked up to the narratives limitations of a half-hour sitcom the episode takes pains to realistically portray a common factor in the development of such disorders Miranda confesses that she has felt highly pressured by her parents and schoolwork and that her eating was the one thing in her life that she felt able to control like all this other stuff just happened to me but eating something I have a say in that's not true that's how it feels a sentiment that many watching at home were undoubtedly able to relate to [Music] Ravin experiences racial discrimination in that so Raven the Disney Channel sitcom That's So Raven starring Cosby protege Raven Symone was simply your standard teen comedy if not for the fact that its title character had psychic abilities for some reason the show wasn't known for strong social stances but one 2005 episode took on the issue of racial discrimination in a shockingly straightforward way when Raven and her friend Chelsea both apply for the same job Raven nails the interview while Chelsea does not yet Chelsea having the advantage of being white ends up with the job what are you serious I start today after about me ray I don't have to tell you this but um you're not getting a locker girl hi I'm not tripping over that like I can share with you I only got two things actually um the lockers are only for the employees I are you saying that I didn't get the job yeah I'm sorry ray oh I thought you aced our interview ray yeah I cut so - I did everything perfectly there's gotta be some reason why you didn't eat that job the truth is don't hire black when Raven has one of her psychic visions of the manager saying that she doesn't hire black people the teens devise a plan to catch her saying this on tape passing the footage off to a news station and giving racism it's just desserts while the audience watching may have learned a lesson or two Raven Symone herself unfortunately did not while hosting on daytime talk show The View in 2015 Raven herself said to paraphrase that she would not hire an applicant with stereotypically black sounding name that may sound bad but the direct quote is even worse Ravens said quote I'm very discriminatory against the words like the ones they were saying in those names I'm not going to hire you if your name is watermelon Draya that's just not going to happen I'm not gonna hire you ouch amazingly this did not result in her firing from the show but she did leave on her own a year later Captain Planet teaches kids about AIDS are you telling me I've got eight no Todd you tested positive for the HIV virus and that lead stage but you don't have AIDS in the late 1980s and early 90s before the advent of the Internet there was far more bad information about HIV and AIDS than good due in large part to a presidential administration that failed to address or even mention the crisis publicly until it was far too late aids went from an outbreak to a full-blown epidemic in an alarmingly short time of the few TV shows that dared to tackle the subject at all beloved cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers perhaps did it the most directly in the 1992 episode a formula for hate regular villain verminous scum discovers that a local basketball player Todd Andrews is HIV positive after stealing his medical records he begins spreading posters all over town spreading rumors that pod has AIDS hoping to cause enough fear and panic to hasten the spread of the virus so he can take over the world Todd flees to an island and gets stuck there but is rescued by of course Captain Planet and the Planeteers your attention please a lot of you are worried about AIDS captain planet directly lectures the townspeople about the difference between HIV and AIDS and that the disease can't be spread through casual contact a message again driven home to the audience in the episode ending planet Eire alert AIDS is a terrible epidemic plaguing our world but two things make it even worse ignorant and fear a bold message for any TV show in 1992 and one that all audiences needed to hear Sesame Street tries to teach kids about divorce twice Sesame Street is one of the longest-running children's shows of all time we've all seen it and we're all better for it it's one of the few that has enjoyed the deep involvement of early childhood educators for its incredibly long run its tackled the toughest of topics childbirth natural disasters and even death Big Bird don't you remember we told you mr. Hooper died he's dead yeah I remember well I'll give it to him when he comes back big bird mr. Hooper's not coming back why not Big Bird what when people die they don't come back ever no never why not well Big Bird did they're dead they they can't come back but despite its sensitive and gentle handling of the topic a 1992 episode that was meant to help kids understand the concept of divorce was never aired written by the same writer who had taken on the subject of mr. Hooper's death Snuffy's parents get a divorce was the result of a years-long desire of the show's writers to present the subject statistics at the time showed that 40% of American children had been affected by divorce and for years it was a question of when not if the episode would be made unfortunately test screenings of the completed episode were a total disaster their young audiences were confused and scared and despite the substantial investment of time and money the episode was trashed Sesame Street would try again in 2012 in a segment that appeared only as part of a multimedia package for parents and children on the show's web sites titled little children big challenges divorce the episode simply features Abby Cadabby sharing her feelings about her parents being divorced with friends Gordon Rosita and Elmo two big distinctions the 2012 episode was only seen by kids whose parents saw it Out's and the divorce of Abby's parents was presented as a past event while poor Snuffy was still in the middle of the situation in the unaired episode mrs. McGrady is diagnosed with cancer and Arthur Arthur's assortment of anthropomorphic animals who were somehow just like every kid you've ever knew is a mainstay in any home with small children it's known to take on some pretty sensitive topics but perhaps its biggest risk was the 2009 episode the great McGrady in it the beloved cafeteria cook mrs. McGrady doesn't show up for work day replaced by her nephew it was a terrible cook after a week of inedible food mrs. Ratburn tells the kids that they'll have to put up with it for a while as mrs. McGrady is undergoing treatment for cancer mrs. McGrady is sick she has cancer her sister's coming to stay with her to help her out the good news is they caught it early and her doctors are working very hard to make her better as would happen in real life everybody reacts to this news differently Muffy is oblivious as always DW and Arthur try to help by bringing mrs. McGrady absurd amounts of soup and Francine falls into a deep depression she tells Muffy that her grandpa died of cancer and she begins having nightmares and suffering poor school performance she's even too scared to visit mrs. McGrady a very common real-world reaction in children when faced with an adult's life-threatening illness DW and Arthur learned that there are better ways to help and Francine is made to understand that recovery is possible with a little intervention from Lance Armstrong the episode ends on a realistic note as mrs. McGrady returns to work telling the kids that she still has cancer but her treatments are helping Janice is diagnosed with leukemia in why Charlie Brown why the peanuts specials were genuinely as light-hearted as children's programming ever got for this reason it was all the more jarring when CBS aired why Charlie Brown why in early 1990 the special dealt with the reactions of the Peanuts gang mainly Linus when one of their classmates Janice is diagnosed with leukemia though Linus is the most sensitive of the bunch the special was able to explore a wide variety of feelings that real-life kids could expect of one of their friends is going through such a thing Linus has a crush on Janice and he's anxious and fearful after he and Charlie Brown visit her in the hospital Janice explains in a frank manner the tests that were performed on her what her IV does and what chemotherapy is it wasn't just a fever I have cancer cancer that sounds scary Linus is shown to angrily correct Lucy and later in the show about the disease being contagious and after Janice returns to school bald from chemotherapy he stands up to a bully who teases her about her affliction asking him what it would feel like if he had to go through what she has Linus later tries to visit her at home but she's in the hospital again allowing her sisters to vent about how they feel left out since Janice has been sick a very real reaction that a lot of kids would feel in similar situations the special ends on a positive note as Janice returns to school with a full head of hair indicating that the treatment worked and she recovered this was the first time an animated series has ever addressed the topic of cancer directly and while it may have seen like a giant risk critics and audiences generally agreed that it was handled amazingly honestly I think this could be an all-time classic and I highly recommend that you watch it the moment you can zoom helps children deal with 9/11 just 10 days after 9/11 with its constantly changing and ever relatable cast zoom had a long tradition of helping kids relate to each other despite their differences this was perhaps never more importance then in the aftermath of September 11th 2001 and to the producers credit they knew it's zoom America's kids respond aired on PBS just ten days after the attacks at a time when most Americans kids included were dealing with an unprecedent level of psychological stress the half hour special show the zoom cast talking with each other about their feelings around the events with other segments featuring kids from around the country doing the same more than that it highlighted relief efforts across the u.s. showing how kids and adults alike were coming together to help make a difference in their own communities PBS repeated the format a year later with a similar special zoom America's kids remember a reoccurring theme expressed by the cast members and this special had to do with acts of kindness and sense of togetherness that the ash fell in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and the fear that a year later these were starting to fade maybe if more adult programming were as thoughtful and genuine the u.s. would be a better place for all of us today you

Channel: blameitonjorge

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Rating: 4.9006538 out of 5

Keywords: Sesame Street, Peanuts, Hey Arnold, Lizzie McGuire, Zoom, Arthur, That's So Raven, Captain Planet, Doug, Countdown, Top 10, Kids Shows, Children Shows, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, blame it on jorge, urban legends, Japanese urban legends, saddest moments, saddest cartoon moments, disturbing cartoon moments, kid shows, Arthur cancer, goosebumps, lost media, reaction, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Looney Toons, Mario, South Park, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Rugrats

Id: t_2w3UomcmY

Length: 18min 32sec (1112 seconds)

Published: Sat May 06 2017