2022-12-06
All the tyrannical tin-pot dictators that would have ruled the world had one thing in common - they wanted to destroy the influence of families and control the messaging that the impressionable minds of our kids will soak up.
In the age of ubiquitous television, parents have been put under increasing pressure - and the ability to set their kids down in front of the TV for an hour or so of Children's Hour and the like while the adults got on with their chores (or had a well-deserved break) was more or less irresistible. I myself have happy memories of watching "Hopalong Cassidy" (in the monochrome of the day) after school as a regular feature.
Of course over time the pressure increased as more and more mothers found it necessary to go out to work (strange that - I would have thought that with the increasing affluence of the post-war years, one salary would have become ever more than enough to enable mothers to stay at home for their kids whilst they were young, but somehow the reverse seems to have happened).
This video begins with an analysis of the TeleTubbies from an overtly Christian perspective, but I'm not sure that that perspective skews the results very much - personally I've never considered the TeleTubbies to be suitable viewing for kids, although I never sat down to analyse the whys and wherefores of that. I just subconsciously didn't relate in any positive way to these strange child-like creations that synthesised a facially-impaired humanity with technological features - what on earth were the script-writers thinking?
And I note that the presenter is using a now-obsolete overhead slide projector ("Ah yes, I remember them well!"). This film is from the pre-laptop age, I'm guessing early 2000s.
But hey, the TeleTubbies are just the intro, and indeed, the least of it ... this covers a who's who of games from the last quarter century.
And "toys".
And pop "culture".
Warning! - It gets progressively worse - and worse - and it really isn't suitable for children.
Make of it what you wish.
(2hrs 23mins)
