I feel sorry for the current generation of children and young teens in America today. Not because of the massive debt being left for their generation to repay by the U.S. government, or the fact that global warming could greatly alter life for them in adulthood, but because they are deprived of quality TV.

I know that my generation, the 90’s generation of kids, will grow up and turn out fine because of our outstanding and superb quality television programming we had as children. Today’s youths are not so fortunate.

Here is my analysis great of childhood memories of excellent television vs. today’s lack luster programming.

I have broken the television shows down into three categories: educational, animation and general life knowledge.

Education

My generation had possibly the greatest educational shows of all time, and will reap the benefits as a result. The top show was easily Bill Nye the Science Guy. The show offered a quirky Bill Nye teaching through awesome demonstrations and “so stupid their funny” jokes. Every week day on PBS students could learn about basic science and be entertained at the same time, something today’s kids could use a lot more of.

A very close second was The Magic School Bus, an educational cartoon about crazy Mrs. Frizzle and her magical school bus that could do anything from shrink down to explore the human body to fly through space. Every episode the class went on a field trip and learned about a different subject. As a kid you could relate because all of the characters were close to your age, and who doesn’t love field trips?

An honorable mention had to go to Where in the World is Carmen San Diego a fun game show that challenged students to know geography to locate Carmen San Diego before the super villain “escaped.”

Our generation had entertaining lessons about geography and science coming on all the time. Today’s generation has the selection of Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins and The Doodlebops. Clear winner: 90’s kids.

Animation

This is no contest whatsoever. The 90’s kids had classics such as Doug, the story of an average sweater vest wearing, journal writing, sixth grader who has dreams of his alter ego, a superhero named Quail Man. This is compared to Sponge Bob Square Pants, the story of a sponge and his best friend starfish and their boring lives under the sea.

90’s kids also had Captain Planet, a superhero show that educated kids about recycling and saving the planet. Honorable mentions would go to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rocco’s Modern Life, about a wallaby and his over weight cow best friend. Popular lunchtime discussions also revolved around Pinky and the Brain, Rugrats, SWAT Cats, Darkwing Duck, Tailspin and Aladin.

General Life knowledge

Kids in the 90’s were lucky enough to have shows that prepared them for the real world. Shows such as Saved by the Bell and the all time classic Boy Meets World showed kids issues they would face in middle school and high school and taught them moral values to handle teen issues. Now they have The Sweet Life of Zach and Cody to teach them? No thanks.

Honorable mentions of life lessons shows for the 90’s generation included Family Matters, that taught kids and teens how to deal with problems facing an African American family in Chicago and taught racial sensitivity. Not to mention it gave one of the most quotable lines ever from Steve Urkle with “Did I do that?”

The end result is 90’s kids had the best television to prepare us for the world and make us world class citizens one day. Kids today, there is no hope. Civilization may be doomed when the Sponge Bob generation comes to power.

– John Coleman

Associate News Editor