Welcome to the Commenting Pixie Party!
This is so not the point of your post, but I have to make a confession. I thought the big dragon's name was Org. It will require a little time before I can wrap my head around this "Ord" business.
Oh, and I also thought that Emmy and Max's chant went "I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land of art." You can imagine my relief when I figured out the real words, which make SO much more sense (even if the rhyme is still ghastly).
Oh no, a new season. I really thought we were done with DragonTales in summer. And then during winter break it flared up. Every day and with Tivo, requests for more. And Enrique...oh Enrique. I guess Presidents' Day will be exciting for once 
Thanks!
See, now I am especially freaked out to turn on PBS unless I know it's time for Sesame Street. I'd much rather expose Miss M to Oprah or old episodes of Gilmore Girls. (Just kidding--if I dare to TRY to watch such things, the TV is promptly turned off and I am scolded with an "All done!")
I am impressed with the inventive song lyrics...we spent about 9 months singing Old Macdonald--and some nights the farm was EXTENSIVE--and since then have been cribbing from the Signing Time videos. And now we love Laurie Berkner more than any human being on earth.
Dragon tales... *sigh*
There is no faster way to bring on dementia. And you're right about PBS playing and replaying old episodes. It drives me batty. There's one where they're learing the "head and shoulders" song in Spanish. They must sing it a hundred times. Whenever it comes on I run screaming for the bathroom and turn on the shower and the fan so I can't hear it.
You're right about PBS Kids TV production. They make one new set of episodes each year, as many as the Dept. of Education will fund (13? 25?) and then they mix them in with the old ones in order to provide 5 days a week service.
I've been wondering if LG (and BB) were going to start getting tired of Dragon Tales. Obsessions in my house generally have a 2 month shelf life, then just when I've stocked up on a particular (snack food, craft supply, type of puzzle) we move on to the next thing. Can I offer you some stale rice cakes? A giant envelope of stickers? 2 bags of Trader Joe's dried cherries from 2 years ago?
Hey, is this the time when I get to brag about my children's reallllllly long attention spans? Yeah, my kids love their bad media obsessions forever. Or it seems like it, at least. No, wait -- this blog is proof that the Dragon Tales obsession has gone on for over a year now. If I could remember back that far, I'm pretty sure that the Sesame Street and Zoom obsessions lasted at least 18 (overlapping) months each. For awhile LG's proudest possession was his Zoom cast poster signed by Caroline and Aline.
Sesame Street and Zoom were a lot more tolerable for me, though. Stupid Dragon Tales.
How sad is it, Madeleine, that stale rice cakes, mountains of stickers, and bags of dried cherries would all find happy homes here?
I'm with Mr. Blue, especially on weekends. If the boys want to watch the whole programming day on Noggin, from 6 A.M. 'til 6 P.M., I'm all for it. Even the mind-bogglingly bad Lazy Town.
Kate, on the inventive song lyrics, my proudest song-mangling accomplishment is here.
It's a very exciting week here when we happen to see a "new" Clifford episode. For whatever reason, that's happened the last two times I've turned on the TV at 4:30 so I can swoop the house to straighten up before Calder gets home. (That's right: not only do I only use the TV as a babysitter -- never as an educational tool -- I use it to distract the kids while _I_ clean up _their_ toys, because I would rather do it quickly and in peace than impart valuable life skills, the teaching of which involves endless whining and lots of threats to hit "wicked mommy.") For whatever reason, we always seem to hit the same damn set of Dragon Tales episodes: the one with the Me-Too monster, the stupid Head-Shoulders song, and the one where they have to find the specific items to open the riddle doors. Oh, and also the episode where Max ruins everyone's color clay objects and has to learn the value of patience through a series of trials that make me want to run screaming from the room.
Keep in mind that I really enjoy Clifford the Insipid Red Dog. Adore it. So I should really not be throwing stones at Dragon Tales.
However: I am glad I am not the only person (see: your linked post) who finds the underlying message of Dragon Tales deeply disturbing. Everything good happens in your imagination! (Although: I, in fact, have spent much of my time since childhood daydreaming about alternate worlds. Maybe Dell and the other publishers of Sci-Fi/Fantasy are secretly underwriting Dragon Tales.)
Hey, have you noticed how much writing and commenting I've been doing for the last seven days? This whole proposal thing is doing wonders for my productivity. Too bad it's mostly BLOG productivity.
I wondered who Enrique was when I caught him on an episode last week. DT is a weird, weird show (although I do like watching our neighbor dance to the DT tunes at the end of the show. That is fun.)
I am embarrased to report (but not so embarassed that I"ll stop typing) that even after years and years of religious education (most of which didn't stick), it took until today for me to see the religious overtone of the phrase "kingdom come." And I call myself a linguist some of the time.
I have just one thing to say (miraculously): there's something even worse than Dragon Tales on TV. It's called Dragon Tales Live, and I inflicted it on myself and poor Josie, who said when it was over, "That was a REALLY LONG show, Mama."
Yes. It. Was.
Jody, yes, it's been great to see you around. Can you tell I'm mid-work-crisis too?
Phantom, I may just send you a care package one of these days. I probably can't pry the stickers out of the girl's hands despite the fact that she really doesn't use them much anymore and my MIL has continued to supply them anyway. But I can steal half of them while she's sleeping and she'll never know. Because (on Jody's theme) it is far easier to hide things when my daughter isn't looking than to have mature, skill building conversations about sharing and generousness and gluttony.
Have I mentioned that I recycle at least 80% of her artwork and tell her I filed it in her portfolio? Well, I did file the interesting stuff. But not everything, and not the frickin' pre-printed coloring pages.
One more -- I have to say how lovely your song for LG is. Thank you for sharing it. And what a wonderful moment in the music class!
I've recently been singing the songs I made up for my daughter when she was a baby and she is delighted. I can fit her name into the '50s tune "Lollipop" which is lots of fun to sing.
Aww, your song is much sweeter than the one I sing to Miss K to the tune of Bicycle Built for Two! Also, Dragon Tales is the devil, so there you go. :->
Awww, the song is so sweet! I believe that Baby Blue will ask for the song too. It'll just take a little longer. And I also believe she'll eat broccoli! Spoken by a naive non-parent! ; )
Hey, I sing to cats. So songs sung to children are no big deal. (And how sad is it that already I'm hearing that broccoli song in my head?)
You know, it could be worse. Two words: Teletubbies. Barney.
I grew up watching tv from 6am to 6pm, when school didn't interfere and I turned out... well, academically okay, at least. I would have continued to watch all day kids' programming into high school and uni exam periods, too, if they hadn't switched to showing recycled documentaries and current affairs programs.
Your song is very sweet. Maybe there's some other tune you could fit it to.
Baby H discovered "Drag Tales" the other day and I have been keeping it at bay for now. I cannot bring myself to add another show to her daily agenda. However, the more I hear "Caillou" the more I think that dragons would be better. Is it just me or is Caillou the whiniest kid on tv?
P.S. Forgot to mention that I love your rendition of "Are you Sleeping"
Phantom, the plotzing diaper song is too much I think the one time Miss M was really ill (ear infection plus major teething) it was nonstop nursing for about three days, so other entertainment was not necessary. (For her. I think I must have watched a lot of terrible daytime tv.)
I got a bonus 20 minutes of breakfast time (go me!) this morning because the Sesame Street ep was Miss M's Absolute Favorite Ever (where Bob's deaf niece comes and teaches ASL to The Street). We have this one on DVR too, so it plays when the regular Sesame schedule is not conducive to our life--i.e. at least 3 days a week.
Dear God. I am so pleased and relieved that sb was a little kiddo in the days before Dah Gah!
May I just bask in my parenting skills for a moment? Because both of my kids loooove brussels sprouts (in spite of the fact that this veg. makes me want to vomit) and one of them eats the leetle broccolis -- dipped in ketchup.
And neither of them watch Dragon Tales! Plenty of other trash, mind you, but I've been spared all but a few minutes of Dragon Tales. Since we live in SE Michigan, we get Canadian TV, including some very interesting shows...Poko (current favorite), Mr. Dressup (sadly, now gone like Mr. Rogers), and the Doodlebops. The Doodlebops are very scary.
My comment is beside the point of your post, too, but I have to add that when I was was little my dad sang, to the tune of Frere Jacques:
Sarah Rachel
Sarah Rachel
Hows by you?
Hows by you?
Hows by you the family?
Hows your sister Am-lee (emily)?
She's fine, too
She's fine, too.
We are from long island in case the yiddish-ness is less than apparent.
I love my song!! And, now, I love making up customized lyrics for my daughter.
Welcome to the commenting pixie party, Sarah! My guess is that your dad was riffing off the song "Sarah Jackman" from 1962. Those words are pretty much verbatim from the song.
Okay, Phantom, now these coincidences are just getting weird. I laughed out loud at the bit about Mr Blue letting the kids watch TV until their eyes bleed - are we living some weird parallel lives or what? Beloved has no idea why I'm always encouraging them to turn the idiot box off and DO SOMETHING every once and a while. To that end, my kids have never seen Dragon Tales, and I might make an extra effort to make sure they never do after reading your recent laments.
We're starting to get the 'that's for babies' thing here, too. Simon is showing growing interest in Thomas the (frickin') Tank Engine, so I wonder if that might ever become tarnished?
does anyone else think these cartoons are the worst job of animation?
I try not to look at them that closely, Grandma Blue. But, yes, whenever I have the misfortune to watch for more than 30 seconds, I do agree that they are crappy animation. I assume, though, that the animation is crappy because it's very expensive to do animation well.
OH MY GOD! I just listened to that and you are totally right! Well, it is still a favorite memory even if it was a bit of a rip-off!
Okay, here's my beef with Dragon Tales (which MG seems to be--thank God!- outgrowing, in favor of repeated and serialized viewings of wholesome fare like Mary Poppins, The Extremely Violent And Scary Secret of NIMH, and Bride and Prejudice [rated R, it turns out! for extremely fleeting sexual references!][her first R-rated movie (sniff!) oh, sorry, back to original thought here]):
In the opening credits, the chorus goes "Dragon Tales, Dragon Tales, it's almost time for dragon tales..." etc. Fine. No problem there. But THEN! at the END of the show, the credits AGAIN go "Dragon tales, blah blah, ALMOST TIME FOR DRAGON TALES..." How can it be Almost Time for Dragon Tales when Dragon Tales just ENDED?
Wait. I just realized that's a totally silly question if you have the DVD on Continuous Repeat.
elswhere!
You know, I used to feel like I was the only woman on earth who let her children watch so much TV. Until I realized that DVDs come with a continuous repeat option...
Andrea from the fishbowl, I forgot to give you a hearty "welcome to the commenting pixie party!" as is customary around here. You'll forgive the absentminded host, I hope.
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