jmachnik-33901

I hate being Debbie Downer on this program, and while clearly people have good memories of it, I always found these to be an hour long public service announcements. The first year they were actually pretty good. Then started downward slope. First with "It Must Be Love Because I Feel So Dumb" and then "My Mom's Having a Baby" which were eye rollers. What made me stop watching them were the dumb drug themed ones that looked like they were produced in about 3 hours. When the young Helen Hunt went flying out the window because of Angel Dust, I was done. I have never used drugs, and don't condone the use, but these were so intelligence insulting that a large percentage of the target audience actually considered them funny. And they still do. However, I never knew the program lasted until 1997, how it did remains a mystery to me.

I watched this every Sunday afternoon. It had some great international films for kids. It wasn't the big budget Disney cartoon movies for kids, or the stuff that came later like "ABC Afterschool Special" (which were poorly written and cheap looking). These films never insulted your intelligence.

My favorite was "Skinny and Fatty", about 2 friends from very different socioeconomic backgrounds who become friends. I will never forget the scene where "Skinny" is cheering "Fatty" on to get through a rope climb in gym class.

Unfortunately, as adults, you never have a friend like the ones you have in elementary and middle school.

As a result of these films, I became profoundly interested in foreign language and foreign produced movies as an adult.

I wish they had been around when my daughter was a child.