Watching Vegetables, but not Eating Vegetables
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse falls into the category of: “Kids doing something that kids do, except that kids don’t talk about it.” My kids do this all the time. I say, “Turn off the TV, please.” Then when I return 5 minutes later, the TV is still on. That hypnotic magic box holds sway over them. My kids however, would never have the conversation Lawrence and Michael are having. If one of my daughter’s friends said to my daughter what Lawrence is saying to Michael, my daughter would say, “Sshhh!! I can’t hear the TV.” When I come back to my kids and get irked at them for not turning off the TV, they simply stare at me and wonder why I am upset. This is the case, no matter how many times it happens.
In this area young Michael is different. He is intentionally continuing to watch television in order to make his mother mad. That may be some kind of parental fantasy Lynn Johnston had about her kids, but the truth of the matter is that most children are self-absorbed creatures that have to be reminded again and again that there are other people in the world than themselves, and some of them are parents who will make them do things that they do not want to do. Like turn off the TV.
The part I like best about today’s reprint is that old-fashioned TV with the separate dials for UHF and VHF. It’s been awhile since I have seen one of those. The TV program appears to be one with talking vegetables, like Veggietales except, since these are Pattersons, this is probably a horror movie.
In this area young Michael is different. He is intentionally continuing to watch television in order to make his mother mad. That may be some kind of parental fantasy Lynn Johnston had about her kids, but the truth of the matter is that most children are self-absorbed creatures that have to be reminded again and again that there are other people in the world than themselves, and some of them are parents who will make them do things that they do not want to do. Like turn off the TV.
The part I like best about today’s reprint is that old-fashioned TV with the separate dials for UHF and VHF. It’s been awhile since I have seen one of those. The TV program appears to be one with talking vegetables, like Veggietales except, since these are Pattersons, this is probably a horror movie.
posted by howard at 10:37 PM
9 Comments:
He is intentionally continuing to watch television in order to make his mother mad. That may be some kind of parental fantasy Lynn Johnston had about her kids, but the truth of the matter is that most children are self-absorbed creatures that have to be reminded again and again that there are other people in the world than themselves, and some of them are parents who will make them do things that they do not want to do. The problem, of course, is that Lynn doesn't really understand that. She can faithfully reproduce things she's seeing but the motives behind those things always seem to escape her.
dreadedcandiru2,
She can faithfully reproduce things she's seeing but the motives behind those things always seem to escape her.Plus she has an audience that thinks the same way. The newspaper strip-clipping crowd who have unruly children are snipping this one out to use as a lesson for their kids. "See! That's you!" To which the modern kids would respond, "What kind of TV is that?"
Not to mention the total lack of a VCR on top of the TV- so Michael is watching some weird vegetable-based cartoon that is on tv at that moment, not a tape.
When I was a little kid, in the mid-70s, the only time cartoons were on was from about 8 AM till noon on Saturdays. I remember that the cartoons started with the Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner Show, proceeded on to whatever version of Scooby Doo was popular at the time, and finished up with the Cosby kids. I also remember some weird live-action shows like "Dr Shrinker." But what I remember most was that I usually didn't get to see all the cartoons because my parents insisted that we get outside if the weather was at all decent.
And I can't recall my parents ever telling me to turn off the tv through an unrelated third party.
Through Mike's age (and a good bit above) my parents wouldn't allow the TV to be on unless it was already OK to watch the program. This was hardly draconian, but if an exchange went like "can we watch Sesame Street" - "Sure" then, short of something weird happening, we could watch the whole show. (Our usual set of Saturday morning cartoons were a known and pre-allowed part of this.)
I doubt they would ever have sent another *sibling* much less somebody *else* to tell us to shut it off. They'd probably have come into the room and asked us directly why the TV was on if we'd said we were going to the den to play legos
As for the show, maybe it's an odd puppet segment of Sesame Street.
John F Jamele,
Not to mention the total lack of a VCR on top of the TV- so Michael is watching some weird vegetable-based cartoon that is on tv at that moment, not a tape.That does eliminate Veggietales from consideration.
When I was a little kid, in the mid-70s, the only time cartoons were on was from about 8 AM till noon on Saturdays.I remember the same thing. Unless there was a local station that picked up reruns of The Flintstones or Rocky and Bullwinkle for afternoon, post-school shows, the only other time was on Sunday morning when you could watch Christian-oriented fare like Davey and Goliath. It was a sacred time for kids and for grown-ups who might want to take advantage of the time to sleep late.
But what I remember most was that I usually didn't get to see all the cartoons because my parents insisted that we get outside if the weather was at all decent.This is what happened when my parents finally woke up.
And I can't recall my parents ever telling me to turn off the tv through an unrelated third party.If there was an unrelated third party in the house, my parents would sometimes cut me some slack on TV-watching, because that usually meant I had a sleepover guest in the house.
InsertMonikerHere,
As for the show, maybe it's an odd puppet segment of Sesame Street.That’s possible, but I am still going with my idea that this was a horror movie, based on the Patterson experience with vegetables.
waitasec - where IS that VCR?
I don't recall a strip where they got one, and Mike used it later to scam his parents into thinking a Christmas special was on late so he could stay up past his bedtime.
(Yes, that's ridiculous. My parents, who were hardly technbo-savvy, needing the reference card every single time they programmed a VCR in the pre-onscreen-menu days, would still have noticed the 'play' light and whirring sounds)
AMU reprints shows its only VCR reference in 2001, when Elly replaces the old stuff she gave Mike and Deanna when they moved into their first place.
oh, this was far earlier than AMU goes - I don't think Lizzie had grown pigtails yet. So it's not clear when they got one (and without the grousing that accompanied a dishwasher, despite the prevalence of dishwashers long before VCRs became ubiquitous).
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