Steve Burns = Thespian Genius
While caring for Fiona during her stomach bug, there wasn't much we could do except hold her and watch TV (Fiona being in no mood to play or read books). She's old enough now to pay attention to what's on TV, which means Mom & Dad can't watch an R-rated flick or old South Park episodes while looking after her the way we could when she was only a week or two old. So we wound up watching a LOT of Nick, jr. and Noggin, the preschool channel.
Noggin's about as good as you can do for preschoolers; there are no commercials (not even between shows), the programs all teach useful stuff like empathy and imagination (as much as vegging in front of the tube can really encourage imagination) without any of those irritating subliminal cries for consumerism that you find on commercial television ("any twentysomething should have a stainless steel kitchen with butcher block island in his/her apartment").
We've scaled way back on the TV since she got healthy (no need to encourage her to watch; like any other American including her parents she'll wind up watching more than she probably should over the course of her life anyway). But we did find a few shows that both parents and Fiona could tolerate. Sesame Street, of course. The Backyardigans on Nick, jr. And on Noggin they show reruns of the cancelled show Oswald and episodes of Blue's Clues featuring the original star, Steve Burns.
Being theatrically trained people, Andrea and I naturally found ourselves talking about Steve's acting technique. He manages to be natural in front of the camera in a way you rarely see on kiddie TV (even on Sesame Street); he's able to talk to the kids in the audience without being patronizing, he seems interested in and excited by hunting Blue's titular clues in a way that doesn't seem forced, and his work in front of a blue screen (i.e. everything he's doing up there) is seamless.
All this is true. But it's got to be disturbing sign that parenthood has permanently warped your brain #6273 that Andrea and I wound up spending our entire dinner one night discussing Steve's technique on a preschool show using adjectives that wouldn't have been out of place talking about Brando or Newman or Morgan Freeman.
I guess the real danger will be if we buy a Tivo so we can watch Blue's Clues together at night if we missed it during the day.
Noggin's about as good as you can do for preschoolers; there are no commercials (not even between shows), the programs all teach useful stuff like empathy and imagination (as much as vegging in front of the tube can really encourage imagination) without any of those irritating subliminal cries for consumerism that you find on commercial television ("any twentysomething should have a stainless steel kitchen with butcher block island in his/her apartment").
We've scaled way back on the TV since she got healthy (no need to encourage her to watch; like any other American including her parents she'll wind up watching more than she probably should over the course of her life anyway). But we did find a few shows that both parents and Fiona could tolerate. Sesame Street, of course. The Backyardigans on Nick, jr. And on Noggin they show reruns of the cancelled show Oswald and episodes of Blue's Clues featuring the original star, Steve Burns.
Being theatrically trained people, Andrea and I naturally found ourselves talking about Steve's acting technique. He manages to be natural in front of the camera in a way you rarely see on kiddie TV (even on Sesame Street); he's able to talk to the kids in the audience without being patronizing, he seems interested in and excited by hunting Blue's titular clues in a way that doesn't seem forced, and his work in front of a blue screen (i.e. everything he's doing up there) is seamless.
All this is true. But it's got to be disturbing sign that parenthood has permanently warped your brain #6273 that Andrea and I wound up spending our entire dinner one night discussing Steve's technique on a preschool show using adjectives that wouldn't have been out of place talking about Brando or Newman or Morgan Freeman.
I guess the real danger will be if we buy a Tivo so we can watch Blue's Clues together at night if we missed it during the day.
posted by BWC at
11:22 AM
1 Comments:
Steve Burns IS a genius. It's too bad he left the show in 2002.
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