Word: toying
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...seldom have they had so much to complain about. A typical afternoon of kidvid these days can be a mind-numbing march of cartoon superheroes like He-Man, BraveStarr and the Defenders of the Earth. Many shows, from The Transformers to Pound Puppies, are based on hot-selling toys and seem intended to shuffle kids straight from the TV set into the toy store. Worst of all in the critics' view, under the deregulatory aegis of the Reagan Administration, the Federal Communications Commission has seemed little inclined to do anything about the situation...
...most controversial area, however, is toy-inspired shows, which are criticized by children's TV activists as little more than program-length commercials. "Where is it written that Mattel should control the decision making in programming for children's TV?" says Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television, the watchdog group based in Cambridge, Mass. "People who want to produce children's programs with something to say instead of something to sell are zapped out of the system...
...adventure, enables children to play along at certain points by shooting at villains on-screen with a special Power Jet weapon (cost: $30 to $40). An electronic signal responds to each "hit" and tots up the . player's score. Charren argues that by encouraging children to buy an expensive toy to participate, such shows unfairly divide the young audience into "the haves and the have-nots...
...producers of children's shows reply that the programs are entertaining without the toys and that merchandising tie-ins are hardly new. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club was conceived in part to help promote Disneyland, and even critically acclaimed shows like Sesame Street have toy spin-offs. Nor, say industry spokesmen, does a hit show necessarily mean a stream of kids lining up at the toy counter. NBC's The Smurfs, for example, is one of Saturday morning's top-rated children's shows, but the like-named toys have not been big sellers...
...popularity of toy-inspired shows, however, may be starting to fade because of oversaturation. "We're winding down these programs," says Stephen Schwartz, director of marketing for Hasbro, which has already canceled two toy-linked shows, Glo Friends and Potato Head. Ironically enough, the marketplace itself is proving to be a nemesis of TV's cartoon characters, just when federal regulators are beginning to think that it is once again time to lay down...