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A New Kind of Torture for Parents: "Blue's Room"

My kids watch a lot of television. I try not to let it get out of control, and I try not to let them watch anything too violent or gory, like say, the news. I really try to keep it to mostly educational programming, and generally shows designed for children. My kids can sing the entire theme song to "Little Einsteins". We TiVo "Blue's Clues", "Sesame Street" and "The Backyardigans". I usually let them choose what they like but here are some kids shows that I find completely unbearable. "Barney" is a good example one of these. This is a NBHH - a no "Barney" household.

The great thing about TiVo (Yes, I love TiVo so much that I would marry it if I were single and it would have me.) is that I am ordinarily able to avoid any accidental contact with the shows for children that I really hate. Sure, every once in a while we accidentally catch the first couple minutes of "Oobi" at the tail end of "Dora" or something, but I am spared from my children ever accidentally seeing "Teletubbies" again. They could always catch it at Grandma's house, but at least it won't happen in my home.

Something terrible has happened in TV world. Nick Jr. tricked me.  They tricked me into watching "Blue's Room", a live action puppet show that has some of the characters from "Blue's Clues" but is infinitely more annoying. It recorded under the guise of a normal episode of "Blue's Clues", but when I played it for my twins it was this train wreck. It features Blue, a talking dinosaur puppet (I think it's a puppet) and the worst song since "Journey to Ernie" that is on every episode about writing crap down in a journal. This song makes me want to stab myself with a sharp stick to dull the pain. There also may or may not be a talking pretzel involved. I have been trying to block it from my memory ever since I accidentally watched it the first time.

Of course, my kids love it. Oh, Traci Paige Johnson, why do you torture me so? What did I ever do to you?


Comments

 

Karen Murphy said:

I passed by this show while clicking through the channel the other day and it seemed to consist of a large blue puppet with a high-pitched voice sitting at a table trying to hold the attention of a bored little blonde girl who clearly thought the entire thing was a stellar waste of time.

January 4, 2007 11:29 PM
 

Heather said:

A talking pretzel?!  ummm

January 5, 2007 2:19 AM
 

Kybeedooby said:

I must say that I have always been a big fan of Blue's Clues...even before I was a mom. (In my defense before I was a mom I was a nanny/preschool teacher/daycare worker depending on the year)  But however loyal my affection for Blue is, I cannot accept this abomination masquerading as Blue's Clues!  Not only do they throw in a complete show now and again on demand, but they sneak it randomely into the original Blue's Clues show!  Blue actually jumps into a small box and becomes a puppet with an irritating voice that sounds nothing like the normal mumble we have come to know and love.  You are so right, they have tricked us!  They have taken advantage of our trust!  It's not ok!  I have strict rules on acceptable children's shows in my home.  They must not make me want to die to escape the torture..  Anything passing this criteria is acceptable.  Blue's Room is not  even close to passing, and worse they have packaged it tidily in one of the very few shows that does.  It's quite honestly a betrayal!  One I will not forget!  ;)  

January 6, 2007 10:13 PM

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