The 90’s, episode 307: Video Kids

Episode 307 of the award winning series, The 90's. This episode is called "VIDEO KIDS" and features the following segments:

00:20Copy video clip URL Cold open with Jade Carroll. “TV woos you in – you watch it and sometimes you become a TV addict!”

01:13Copy video clip URL “Martha Dewing” by Skip Blumberg. Martha Dewing, editor of “Children’s Video Report,” cites some frightening statistics on the prevalence of TV in children’s lives. She says that parents don’t want their children to be exposed to violence on television, but it happens through ignorance.

02:33Copy video clip URL Except from “Where the Wild Things Are” by The Maurice Sendak Library, C.C. Studios. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video” by Joshua Greene. Animated version of the children’s book.

03:17Copy video clip URL “Jade Carroll and Molly Kovel” by Dee Dee Halleck. Jade and Molly, two young girls, review the findings of a “Weekly Reader” survey of 5th and 6th graders. This survey cla ims alarming levels of television viewing amongst children in this age category, including the fact that 23% call themselves TV addicts. However, the girls proudly proclaim themselves to be above this trend. As for Jade: “I’ve gone months without watching TV.”

05:51Copy video clip URL “Media Class” by Appalshop and Suzie Wehling. A survey of the communications program at Whitesburg High School in Kentucky. Despite being located in one of the poorest counties in America, they have a newspaper, a weekly radio show and a video class. One girl comments as she puts the paper together: “The reason people put what we do down is because we’re doing stuff better than what they’re doing. They’re kind of amazed we got the skills to do that.”

10:15Copy video clip URL “Rockin’ Robin” by Robbie Leppzer. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, four girls sing and perform “Rockin’ Robin.”

11:10Copy video clip URL “Steve Delvecchio” by Joshua Greene. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video.” Steve Delvecchio, a children’s librarian in New York says, “The problem is not that they don’t watch enough video, but the problem is they’re not involved enough in books… The parents probably care, but they’re not around enough to enforce control.”

11:48Copy video clip URL “Beauty and the Beast” by Hi-Tops Video/Lightyear Entertainment. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video.” A glimpse of an animated version of “Beauty and the Beast.”

12:08Copy video clip URL “Michael Sporn” by Joshua Greene. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video.” Producer and director Michael Spoon says, “Cartoons shouldn’t talk down to kids. Smurfs are Smurfs and I guess they’re supposed to be appreciated. But I think they’re what adults think children want to see.”

12:48Copy video clip URL “Ariana” by Skip Blumberg. Two little girls are asked what tape they’d like to rent at the video store if they could rent anything. The girls want to see “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover” because it is NC-17 and they want to know what adult movies are all about. The girls think that adults are trying to hide funny parts and scary parts from them and that children are missing out on these funny things.

14:43Copy video clip URL “Quartet Allegro” by Jacqueline Kinney. A quartet of teenagers performs Pachebel’s “Canon.”

15:48Copy video clip URL “Philip Morris Protest” by Skip Blumberg. Skip Blumberg talks to the security manager (who is smoking a pipe!) at the Philip Morris headquarters in New York about getting an interview, but he is denied on the grounds that he has no press credentials. A group of protesters surround the headquarters. Their grievances include the way Philip Morris targets children and they demand a stop to advertising near schools and playgrounds. Children make up a large portion of those protesters. Anti-smoking activist Rev. Calvin O. Butts attempts to lead a coalition that includes Chicago community activist and Catholic priest Fr. Michael Pfleger to speak with the heads of the company. They are denied. Butts promises to return and take over the building.

23:51Copy video clip URL “Erica Becker” by Eddie Becker. Erika discusses the issue of teen smoking with her father. She says, “Kids do things that are bad because their parents don’t let them do stuff… I have friends who are smoking because their parents don’t want them to smoke.” Her dad counters, ” So you’re saying you don’t smoke because your parents encouraged you to smoke?” She replies, “No, but they say, ‘It’s your life. You can ruin it if you want to.’ ”

24:44Copy video clip URL “Mixed Messages” by Kathy Brew. An experimental piece examining the messages that the media sends to girls and women. Opens with “Que Sera Sera” over archival footage depicting stereotypical images of femininity. The rest of the piece is a dreamy, reflective meditation on the power of images.

28:26Copy video clip URL More from “Martha Dewing.” “We have to remember as adults that the kids are experiencing things now – they don’t have any point of reference from three years ago, ten years ago – they’re watching TV!”

28:46Copy video clip URL “Copeira” by Bart Friedman. Scenes from a class of young people learning the acrobatic martial art of Copeira in Salvador, Brazil.

30:28Copy video clip URL “Dr. Melanie Tarvalon” by Starr Sutherland. Dr. Melanie Tarvalon, a pediatrician, says that black youths between 15-25 have a better chance of being killed than graduating from an institute of higher learning. “There’s nothing connected with color that makes African-American youth engage in violent behavior… This is a society that has violence everywhere you turn… I think its a mistake to blame African American youth for the violence that occurs in our communities.”

32:13Copy video clip URL “Sean Parker” by Fred Bridges. Ex-gang member Sean Parker warns a group of students against getting involved in gangs: “Gang banging will take you further than you want to go, make you spend more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay. Gang bangers don’t live to become administrators or doctors and they don’t live to become lawyers and judges. They live to become prisoners… or you will find them in the grave…”

35:00Copy video clip URL “Schooled Down Home” by Teresa Tucker-Davies. Piney Woods Academy in Mississippi orchestrates a program that brings down kids from Chicago housing projects to live in a safer environment. Philip Woods, a student in the program says, “Everybody should get an opportunity to go down there and get a taste of that atmosphere down there… I thought I’d have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life [to make sure that there was no one behind me].”

38:57Copy video clip URL “Backyard Home Schooling” by Ben Swets. A woman talks about her reasons for deciding to school her children at home, emphasizing love and human experience over strict traditional learning. She teaches other children besides her own and claims to have had success with children who were being left behind in the public school system. The kids agree that there are benefits to being schooled in such a customizable setting, which allows them to work at their own pace and reduces pressure to conform to other students’ learning styles. They emphasize that they do not move on until the student fully grasps the material instead of just having briefly memorized enough information to pass a test.

44:12Copy video clip URL “Peter Bloch” by Maxi Cohen. Peter Bloch demonstrates a Compact Disc Interactive (CDI) program which he helped design as a computer tool for children’s education. He feels that kids interact best with learning tools that replicate video games.

47:11Copy video clip URL “Irian Jaya” by Mary Lou Witz. Kids in Irian Jaya, Indonesia scramble after a yellow balloon.

47:30Copy video clip URL “Betty Aberlin” by Skip Blumberg. Aberlin from “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood ” claims her success in children’s programming is due to her arrested state of mental development, claiming she functions better in “make believe” than in reality.

47:48Copy video clip URL “Cheers Kids” by Skip Blumberg. In Brooklyn, a troupe of young girls perform a rhythmic cheer: “Hey Champions, ready for the first beat? Pick it up and bring back down…”

49:14Copy video clip URL “Capital Children’s Museum” by Eddie Becker. In Washington D.C., we visit the animation lab at the Capital Children’s Museum. Kids prepare the animated explosion of New York: “It’ll be funny to look at New York sink” … Chris Grotke talks about 5-year-old David Cook’s piece, “The New Exciting Galaxy of Space Dog and Space Kid” from which some excerpts are shown.

53:06Copy video clip URL “Boy with a Microphone” by Bill Stamets. Shelton, Washington. A little boy with a microphone wanders around, interviewing residents of a farm. He comes across some pigs and asks, “What do you explain?” The pigs oink, to which he replies, “Pigs, they don’t explain anything. They’re just pigs.” He then tells the pigs to shut up when their oinking interrupts his investigation of a toy box.

54:29Copy video clip URL “Peggy Charren” by Joshua Greene. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video.” Peggy Charren of “Action for Children’s TV” says, “In my wonderful future children’s world, children’s television will be as diverse as the material in a good children’s library…”

55:08Copy video clip URL An excerpt from “The Mouse and the Motorcycle” by Churchill Film. From “Choosing the Best in Children’s Video.” A live action version of the book featuring a mouse on a motorcycle who entertains a boy in bed.

55:44Copy video clip URL End Credits (over “Apple Juice” by John Bruce – footage of urban skateboarders).

57:56Copy video clip URL End of tape.

 

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