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Forgotten Family Films--Today's Audience's

post #1 of 10
2/3/10 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
Dear Guys;

Some of the "forgotten" tv movies from my sixties and seventies childhood such as "The Enormous Egg,"  "Miss Pickerell," I have been trying to track down and hopefully find some day.

But let's say for the sake of argument I would like to show them today's kids. Do you think they'd be interested?  I notice that on many kid's networks they show the same movies over and over again. Take a look at the Disney Channel, and see how many times they rerun High School Musical and other such shows. Do you think these older telemovies would stand a chance in getting some viewers?

Do you think today's kids would find older family films too slow moving, too quaint for their tastes? If so, I think that would be tragic, because some of these presentations do have something to offer.

What do you think?

James

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post #2 of 10
2/3/10 at 3:51pm
I think the key to getting kids into 'old' TV shows or movies is to introduce them to them when they're young. I think once kids see modern shows that have more rapid editing or CG effects, older shows can come off as slow or boring or dated.

Of course, I'm sure there's many people that were introduced to older shows or movies when they 15 or 20 or 30 so it's not like what I said is an absolute rule.
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post #3 of 10
2/4/10 at 9:23am
All I have to say is that every generation has its own voice, its own taste, and wants its own media. The fact that it's difficult to get kids to watch older movies isn't a tragedy; it's due to the fact that they have to live in the here and now. We don't have to like or understand the current movies that they enjoy; crap though those movies may seem to us, the kids like 'em, and they are made for that generation. That said, I have no trouble getting my 6 year old grand-niece to watch the Wizard of Oz or Snow White; and those movies came out when her great-grandmother was 6.
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post #4 of 10
2/4/10 at 9:52am
We bought the Benji movies and my kids seem to like them. My 13 year old daughter LOVES The Rifleman and Big Valley. I agree though, you have to get them when they're young.
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post #5 of 10
2/4/10 at 2:10pm


Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob_S. View Post

We bought the Benji movies and my kids seem to like them. My 13 year old daughter LOVES The Rifleman and Big Valley. I agree though, you have to get them when they're young.
There's hope yet for the youngsters   No kidding, it's nice to hear this occasionally.  My own nephew likes the original Dick Van Dyke Show and most movies in my collection from the 30's thru 90's.

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post #6 of 10
2/4/10 at 2:34pm
A friend of mine has two kids age 6 and 10. I gave them a copy of Isis last year and they Loved it,(According to my Friend they liked it better than the stuff the Media tries to pass off as Kid's Shows these days), so this year for Christmas I gave them copies of Numerous Hanna-Barbara Cartoon Series that Big Lots had on their infamous "Hot Sale" this past summer!
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post #7 of 10
2/5/10 at 12:23pm
Well I also have to think back when I was a kid in the 70s. I never failed to watch I Love Lucy, day after day. The after school line-up on tv in the early 70s solely consisted of tv shows from the late 50s thru the late 60s. So that's what I watched; I got caught up on all those shows that had been on slightly before I was born, or when I was too young to enjoy them.  And I loved loads of films from the 30s-60s. And I also watched the Little Rascals; now those films must have been 40 years on by the time I got around to them. In fact one of my nephews became addicted to them when he was a kid, and that was another 25 years on. I think a well-made film can transcend the generation gap, certainly.   And it's another thing: most of the stuff that gets passed down is the same stuff that was timeless when it was made. I think films and tv shows that are too trendy don't really last beyond whatever little zeitgeist they're trying to summon. That's why the Monkees seemed incredibly hip in 1967 and seems so totally embarrassing today.  

My 6 year old grand-niece that I mentioned will sit still for Lucy, (the only black and white show she'll watch, so far) and she loves Bewitched, especially episodes that Tabitha was on. I think anyone can develop a taste for nostalgia; it's a matter of matching the right shows with the right children.
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post #8 of 10
2/6/10 at 7:35am
My daughter also likes watching The Donna Reed Show. I was watching Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot last night on Hulu but couldn't get my kids into it. Maybe it was the cheesy effects. I remember watching this when I was a kid and loved it. Always wanted a giant Flying Robot of my own and thought it was so cool to have a communicator watch with a flip top!
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post #9 of 10
2/6/10 at 10:29am
When in doubt, show a kid a Don Knotts movie.  I have never met a kid yet who didn't immediately take to Don Knotts in his feature films.  Children always relate to an underdog and gravitate toward them, especially one who can seem child-like (not childish) at times.  
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post #10 of 10
2/6/10 at 11:12am
    Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob_S. View Post

We bought the Benji movies and my kids seem to like them. My 13 year old daughter LOVES The Rifleman and Big Valley. I agree though, you have to get them when they're young.


That last sentence is the key.  You have to get kids exposed to the older material when they are still young.  If you wait until they are nearing 10 - 12, and all they've watched is splashy Disney Channel type stuff, it's very hard to sell them on anything that's in b&w or even the early color shows from the late 60's.  My daughters were exposed to classic films and TV shows from the get go and they'll go back to them over and over.  Everything from Sitcoms like ILL, TAGS & TDVDS to Westerns like Rawhide & The Big Valley to Courtroom Dramas like Perry Mason.  It really is all about early exposure.


Gary "there are so many family friendly films from the b&w era, so it's a shame if kids aren't exposed to them simply because they aren't in color" O.

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