|
|
| PBS PHOTOS |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Boohbah, the new children's show on PBS, is a little weird. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Posted on 02/03/2004 10:05:33 AM PST by Constitution Day
Are You Ready For Boohbah?
The new "farty" psychedelic children's exercise show from the creators of Teletubbies
- January 15, 2004
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
Look out kids (and parents), there's a new show coming your way on PBS -- it's Boohbah . The brainchild of Anne Wood, creator of the internationally successful Teletubbies , Boohbah takes on a new challenge in educational programming -- physical exercise.
Designed to get kids moving around, Boohbah features a new collection of brightly colored, odd-looking creatures -- Humbah, Jingbah, Jumbah, Zing Zing Zingbah and Zumbah -- who reach for their toes and jump in the air and become so highly energized, they streak across the sky like psychedelic comets.
Really, it's a bit weird. Here's the concept: there are five Boohbah energy particles that inhabit a glowing Boohball. In the hands of children, the Boohball becomes the magical port of entry for a place called Storyland, featuring Storypeople who act out Storypuzzles. On other occasions, the Boohball splits apart and releases the five individual Boohbahs, who perform simple exercise routines that kids can easily follow. Plus, there's a lot of bright sparkling swirls and circles that make me think of Sgt. Pepper.
Compare that to the Teletubbies: four round tubby creatures with limited verbal abilities and uncertain gender live and frolic in a landscape that looks a bit like a hilly golf course. Periodically, a giant pinwheel spins around and the antennae on their heads broadcast a video on the television screen in their stomachs. And when it's over, they say "again, again!" Admittedly, you need to see it to understand it, but suffice it to say, Teletubbies works and Boohbah doesn't.
For example, in the premiere episode of Boohbah , I spent five minutes watching people jump rope in Storyland. Sure, it was funny at the end when Grandmama bumped Mr. Man who bumped Mrs. Lady and they all went over like a row of dominoes, but that didn't quite compensate for the fact that I had spent five interminably long minutes watching people skip rope. And then, there was another installment, where the Boohball shot across the sky and then touched down in a park, leaving a little shimmering and swirling stage for real kids to stretch and dance. But even with the eventual speeding up of the action, there really wasn't much action, and it was all about as interesting as watching Suzanne Somers work her ThighMaster.
But to capture a different point of view, and the one that really matters, I took the show to its target demographic. I gathered my own focus group of preschoolers, ranging in age from almost-2 to 7. The youngest was a die-hard Teletubbies fan, and all the kids were all veteran PBS Kids watchers, well-trained by parents trying to make dinner in peace. Like me, the kids were a bit confused by the long introductory acid-test rainbows on the screen, but once the Boohbahs popped out of their atomic egg-carton and switched into exercise mode, so did the kids. They touched their toes, over and over, faster and faster, bumping bums and elbows, until they fell on the floor, laughing hysterically. Confusion descended again, though, as the Boohbahs turned back into brightly-lit bubbles, and the kids stood still, looking at me, looking at the screen, unsure what to do next. Fortunately, the Storypeople took over with their jump rope extravaganza, and the kids joined in with their imaginary ropes, knocking into one another again, falling happily on the floor. But then the swirls took over the screen again, and my focus group tired of the whole project. After a few more minutes of confusion, the girls asked if they could turn it off and dance ballet. The boys didn't object. So I switched off the program, and they did their thing without any television interference.
What did you think of the Boohbahs?, I asked them after they had done a few twirls across the room. "Spongy," "shiny," "fat" and "farty" were the adjectives offered by the 4-year-old. "They either need to go on a diet or get some plastic surgery," said the 7-year-old boy. The 3-year-old didn't have an opinion. The almost-2-year-old was nonplussed and continued jumping around the room. All in all, I think, a lukewarm review.
Although the whole concept of an exercise show for preschoolers seems oxymoronic, I do understand the marketing logic and the appeal for parents.
We've got an overweight and sedentary population on our hands, and today's preschoolers are raised on a steady diet of goldfish crackers, apple juice and television. OK, maybe it's just public television and certain appropriate DVDs for many of these kids, but let's face it, at 5:30, when you're trying to make dinner, the last thing you want is that preschooler wrapped around your leg like a 25-pound octopus. It makes it hard to move around the kitchen, and it can be dangerous, particularly while moving pots of boiling water from stove to sink. Perhaps if you get these kids to dance around in front of the TV at a young age, they'll be more likely to run regularly on the treadmill in front of CNN 30 years later, when tubbiness is, sadly, no longer considered cute.
Still, there seems something fundamentally odd about fostering a love of television exercise at such a young age, given that all these kids really want to do at this age is move. Spend a little time with a group of preschoolers and you'll notice that they do not know how to be still. They run, they climb, they jump, but they do not sit quietly, except when being forcibly restrained or asleep, or when they watch TV. Even getting them to sit still while listening to a story takes time and practice. Getting their heart rate up is what they do very well on their own, without the aid of television.
There is certainly a place for children's television, and only the most disciplined or deluded of parents refuses to admit that. We all need a break now and then, and TV seems a benign way of providing kids with some entertainment and parents with some quiet.
Besides, children's educational programming does offer more than fun. Many a preschooler has learned a thing or two about letters and numbers from Sesame Street . The conflicts and resolutions dramatized in Clifford the Big Red Dog , Arthur , and the like are helpful in illustrating peaceful and often equitable solutions to problems kids may well encounter. Even Barney, the aggressively didactic purple dinosaur, has made some contributions; I, for one, appreciate the show's inclusion of kids with Down syndrome and physical disabilities in his collection of on-screen friends, and where would we be without that clean up song?
But Boohbah ? This is just weird. While I will confess a real affection for Tinky Winky and his Teletubby brethren, I just don't see the same future in store for Humbah, Jingbah, Jumbah, Zing Zing Zingbah and Zumbah. Kids already have a good deal of Boohbah energy. If you want to release it, you need to turn the television off, not on. And that might be the real beginning of good exercise habits.
Boohbah makes the Teletubbies look normal!
'The new "farty" psychedelic children's exercise show from the creators of Teletubbies'
Hint, Hint. Nudge, Nudge. Know what I mean.
Why...they look just like the spawn of...SATAN!
looks like the orange one
Okay, who's going to be the first to say it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.