This weeks topic of television is an interesting one. My views on television have changed from my childhood years to now. I used to watch a lot of television growing up. My favorite shows included Drake and Josh, Suite life of Zach and Cody, and Wizards of Waverly Place. I did not read much growing up and in fact every time I got bored I would just watch TV. I don’t know if it is because I got bored of it or what but I don’t spend much time anymore diving into shows on TV or a streaming service. If i want to watch something it is typically a movie and a documentary that is informative to something that interest me.

As a young child I often spent time trying to emulate those “cool” characters I would see on television. I can recall a show on Disney, Zeke and Luther. I thought those guys were the coolest thing since sliced bread. The show was about two teenage boys who would skateboard. I fell in love with the show and would spend my summer inside watching these episodes all the time. I finally got my mother to buy me a skateboard and a mini ramp. This started my little skateboarding phase. I started to try to dress like these characters and attempted to skate like them. I was no skateboarder. This shows how television can make an impact on a childs life.

Today I don’t seek out that influence I was did. This is mostly due to because I am becoming my own man and do not need to try to be like some character on television. Who mind you, isn’t even a real person. The character is created by the directors and producers and writers of LA. I think television can be very damaging to kids. Kids that have grown up with television in its prime don’t even know what it is like to naturally gravitate towards what you actually like. They are told what they like and how they should be by the shows they are watching. The young mind is so undeveloped to see the difference. You grow up wanting to be like other people and the whole time your parents are telling you that being yourself is cool thing to do. You don’t even understand that until your in your 20s most of the time.

The Doogie Howser, M.D. show is clearly a fictional show, having a kid doctor as the main character. They took a real life non-fictional event and put it into a fictional show to explain how it would have been to be working in a hospital during the LA riots. The show is targeted towards kids in their teen years and the episode could have been a way to dumb down the event and explain it to a younger audience without it seeming overwhelming.

The Twilight Zone episode with the dead Rod Sterling and his wife narrating was interesting and it explained his death to the people who were consistent watchers. I have only heard about The Twilight Zone never actually watched them. I think it was also a bit morbid as well but that is kind of how the show is.