Shark Bytes

I agree with the parents who have pointed out that IF PBS is truly sincere about wanting their programming to be truly DIVERSE - then PBS should consider adding some characters in their children's programming who speak OTHER languages BESIDE Spanish. In the real world, you can meet people who speak French, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek and/or Japanese - to name a few. When I grew up, we had neighbors who spoke NAVAJO as the second language in their home! I ALSO agree with the Ph.D. who observed that it is dangerous for an organization such as PBS to be actively TEACHING children to go off on adventures which they keep secret from their parents. Now the kids even have NEW kid Enrique keeping secrets from HIS parents. Sincerely, Christianna MacKenzie

EN ESPAÑOL

Estoy de acuerdo con los padres que han señalado que si PBS es realmente sincero acerca de querer su programación para ser realmente DIVERSAS - PBS entonces debería considerar la adición de algunos caracteres en su programación infantil que hablan otros idiomas BESIDE español. En el mundo real, se puede conocer gente que habla francés, holandés, noruego, griego y / o japonés - por nombrar algunos. Cuando crecí, había vecinos que habla NAVAJO como la segunda lengua en su casa! También estoy de acuerdo con el Doctor que observó que es peligroso para una organización como la PBS de forma activa, enseñar a los niños a ir a las aventuras que mantener en secreto de sus padres. Ahora los niños tienen nuevo niño Enrique mantenimiento de los secretos de sus padres. Sinceramente, Christianna MacKenzie

EN FRANÇAIS

Je suis d'accord avec les parents qui l'ont fait remarquer que, si PBS est vraiment sincère leur désir de programmation pour être vraiment DIVERSES - PBS devrait alors envisager d'ajouter certains caractères de leurs enfants en matière de programmation qui parlent d'autres langues SANS espagnol. Dans le monde réel, vous pouvez rencontrer des gens qui parlent le français, néerlandais, norvégien, grec et / ou japonais - pour ne nommer que quelques-uns. Quand j'ai grandi, nous avons eu des voisins qui parle NAVAJO comme deuxième langue dans leur maison! Je suis également d'accord avec le doctorat qui fait observer qu'il est dangereux pour une organisation comme PBS activement à enseigner aux enfants à vous lancer dans des aventures dont ils garder le secret de leurs parents. Maintenant, même les enfants ont petit nouveau Enrique de maintien de secrets de ses parents. Cordialement, Christianna MacKenzie

In het Nederlands

Ik ben het eens met de ouders die erop hebben gewezen dat, als PBS is werkelijk oprecht willen hun programmering om echt DIVERSE - dan PBS moet overwegen enkele tekens op hun kinderprogramma's die spreken van andere talen BESIDE Spaans. In de echte wereld, waar je mensen kunt ontmoeten die spreekt Frans, Nederlands, Noors, Grieks en / of Japans - wat te noemen. Toen ik opgroeide, hadden we buren die sprak NAVAJO als tweede taal in hun huis! Ik ben het ook eens met de Ph.D. die merkte op dat het gevaarlijk is voor een organisatie zoals de PBS om actief kinderen te gaan af op de avonturen die zij geheim houden van hun ouders. Nu de kinderen hebben zelfs NIEUWE kid Enrique houden geheimen van zijn ouders. Met vriendelijke groeten, Christianna Marga

IN ITALIANO

Sono d'accordo con i genitori che hanno sottolineato che, se PBS è veramente sincero vogliono circa la loro programmazione per essere veramente Diverse - PBS quindi dovrebbe prendere in considerazione l'aggiunta di alcuni caratteri nel loro programmi per bambini che parlano altre lingue accanto spagnolo. Nel mondo reale, è possibile incontrare persone che parlano francese, olandese, norvegese, olandese, greco e / o giapponese - per citarne alcuni. Quando sono cresciuto, abbiamo avuto vicini di casa che ha parlato NAVAJO come seconda lingua nella loro casa! Sono d'accordo anche con il dottorato di ricerca che ha osservato che è pericoloso per un'organizzazione come la PBS di essere attivamente, insegnando ai bambini di andare fuori avventure a cui sono da tenere segreti i loro genitori. Ora anche i bambini hanno NUOVO kid Enrique mantenere segreti dai suoi genitori. Cordiali saluti, Christianna MacKenzie

EM PORTUGUÊS

Concordo com os pais que têm salientado que, se STF é realmente querendo sincero sobre sua programação a ser verdadeiramente diverso - então STF deve considerar acrescentar alguns personagens da programação nos seus filhos que falam outras línguas ao lado espanhol. No mundo real, é possível encontrar pessoas que falam francês, holandês, norueguês, grego e / ou japonês - para citar apenas alguns. Quando eu cresci, tivemos que falou NAVAJO vizinhos como a segunda língua na sua casa! Também concordo com o doutor que observou que é perigoso para uma organização como a PBS a ser activamente ensinar as crianças a ir ao largo em aventuras que guardar segredo de seus pais. Agora, as crianças ainda têm NOVA cabrito Enrique manter segredos de seus pais. Atenciosamente, Christianna MacKenzie

Yeah, we're not saying "Ban spanish bilingual shows!", we're saying, "Make other languages, too!". It would be nice to learn a whole new language like Russian, or Norwegian.

I always wondered if they were trying to promote diversity with children why they do they overuse the hispanic background so much?

Its not that I am prejudice against hispanics or spanish-speaking people, but I just think it would be interesting if the kids and the dragons learned another language like German, French, Russian, Slovic, Norgeion, or Japanese?

You know, something other than spanish?

I just think PBS has overused the "spanish diversity" character for too many of thier kid programs. It just gets to be too predictable and boring.

And yeah, I agree that Emmy's catchphrase "Definitely" isn't all that too imaginative as far as catchphrases goes.

I love Wonderpets! They're much better than Dragontales and all of the other garbage being peddled to kids nowadays.

I meant to say that, instead of "Most of the garbage being peddled to kids nowadays". Sorry for the double-post.

I love Wonderpets! They're much better than Dragontales and most of the other garbage being peddled to kids nowadays.

I agree about diversity being relentlessly crammed down little kids' throats. Why does every preschooler program have to be ridiculously politically correct? Do writers really think Dragon Tales would have come under major fire if it dared to omit the bilingual crap? This is about teaching kids that assimilation is NOT important anymore, and it's also self-righteous as hell. PBS has a long history of annoying parents by challenging the nice traditional programming so many of them grew up with. (I was completely disgusted when, on an episode of Caillou, Clementine was shown celebrating Kwanzaa because she was conveniently the only African-American character on the show. Most people don't celebrate it because they know it isn't a 'real' holiday!) Kids should be distracted away from this crap and introduced to the Wonder Pets, which offers travels to many different countries without having multiculty characters or forgetting the importance of fluency in English!

"DT" wasn't that great of a kiddie show to begin with although it jumped with the addition of "Pootchie" (ie Enrique). If the writers are having problems, why introduce another character? It would have been funny, though, had more and more people showed up in Dragonland and never went back.

Now on to the gripes...
1) I'm fed up with seemingly so many kiddie shows having Spanish as a second language. As someone else pointed out, there ARE other second languages in the world.
2) Quetzl showed more than a bit of adult lack of supervision. For example, there was one episode in which some dragons were teasing Emmy mercilessly. What did Quetzl do? NOTHING. Instead of intervening, the dope doesn't DO anything. Great way to supervise, moron, and great lesson (not) to teach the kids including my daughter.
3) What's up with conjoined dragons? Did their mother live near a toxic waste dump?
4) Didn't the kids EVER want to stay home or the dragons get tired of having them show up all the bloody time?

Oh, and to the Ph.D complaining about making dragons cuddly, IT'S A TV SHOW! I think kids know the difference between an animated dragon and a real-life reptile.

I became genuinely sick and tired of all the worthless Spanish lingo thrown in the show. If my kids need to talk to the landscapers or cleaning people, they can deal with it. I will not let them watch it anymore, the show is not worth the time.

Well, for those who believe that the only adults who find MUCH to criticize in Dragon Land - let me begin by pointing out that I have a Ph.D. in counseling - and I frequently counsel children!

That said - my PRIMARY criticism of Dragon Land is that the children 'sneak' off to 'dragon land' WITHOUT telling their parents about their adventures. Sorry - folks - but ANYONE who wants kids to sneak off somewhere and NOT tell their parents where they are going is usually a VERY dangerous individual. Children should NEVER be encouraged - by anyone anywhere - to get into the habit of sneaking off anywhere - and keeping it a secret from their parents!

Next - there is the problem that the reptiles are painted as sort of cuddly stuffed toys. Some of my grandchildren live in Nicaragua. So the grandchildren are learning English and Spanish - side by side - as they attend school. My son and daughter-in-law do NOT allow their children to watch Dragon Land BECAUSE all of the lead characters are presented as fuzzy-wuzzy reptiles! In Nicaragua - most of the reptiles which the children would encounter in real life tend to be LETHAL reptiles. So my son and daughter-in-law do NOT want their children to get the idea that dragons - or any other reptile, for that matter - is something fuzzy which you can walk right up to and pet, feed or talk to! While there ARE plenty of real reptiles which are NOT lethal - children in the pre-school age group are NOT experienced enough in life to be able to tell the difference between lethal and non-lethal reptiles. Better to instruct SMALL children to stay AWAY from reptiles! In fact, I ALSO work with a number of Wildlife groups as well and NO group working with REAL wildlife wants any people anywhere (INCLUDING adults) to think of wildlife in terms of stuffed, plush toys! It is better for everyone to RESPECT wildlife and ESPECIALLY better for CHILDREN to be instructed to STAY at a respectful distance AWAY from ALL wildlife - but ESPECIALLY keep a respectful distance AWAY from all reptiles. In the event that our grandchildren visit us in the States, one of their uncles lives in FLORIDA - where it is NOT unusual for REAL alligators to turn up in the backyard. OTHER relatives in the states live in places like New Mexico, Texas and Colorado - which are ALL state where children have the likelihood of encountering rattlesnakes. Children at the pre-school age level should NOT be encouraged to approach such dangerous reptiles - NOR should children in that age group be encouraged to be thinking of ANY kind of wildlife - ESPECIALLY reptiles - as a cuddly, cute, plush toy, which should be picked up -- OR 'petted' in any way!

I ALSO believe that PBS has undone ALL of their previous work by allowing these shows to be aired on KIDS SPROUT - which was formerly Kids PBS. Initially, the idea of a 24-hour station devoted to children's programming is a worthwhile idea. But Kids Sprout is littered with everything which was going wrong with commercial television which led parents to WANT PBS to provide children's programming YEARS ago! Besides the fact that there are even commercials allowed at all, I am appalled that so MANY of the commercials tell children that they 'have to be 18 or older to call!' If a product is ONLY for individuals 18 or old - WHY would the product be advertised to an audience made up primarily of pre-school age CHILDREN? Likewise, many of the products being offered are FREQUENTLY presented in commercials which are just plain out in bad taste! A primary example is the 'diarrhea' dance for Pepto-Bismol. Then - on top of the frequently offensive advertising - there are those pop-up advertisements - announcing upcoming programs! One of the reasons which led parents to object to the children's programming being offered on commercial channels was that the 'action' was frequently interrupted for commercials - and that action alone was developing a generation of children who did NOT have an attention span which was long enough to learn how to perform small tasks - such as read all the way through an entire book - which parents and educators alike believed were essential building blocks for success later on in life! PBS Sprout even ALLOWING something like pop-up advertising is bad news for children, parents and educators alike!

Many of the stories presented deal with story material which is too esoteric or vague for YOUNG children to be able to grasp. It is more like the story tellers are more interested in 'preaching' to the adults who MIGHT be watching WITH the children - rather than aiming the program at children! (Which probably explains all of the adult-level commercials being aired at the beginning and end of the stories themselves!) IF PBS wants to produce a cartoon show for adults - then PBS should just come right out and do that. Disguising an adult-level cartoon show as a show for pre-school children is just plain old-fashioned underhanded!

But, once again, my PRIMARY objection to Dragon Land is that the show appears to be ENCOURAGING children to SNEAK away from their parents in order to have 'adventures' - which they ALSO keep secret from their parents.

You know, some of the children's programming now available on some local 'independent' channels includes re-runs of shows such as Lassie, The Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, The Gene Autry Show and the Cisco Kid. NONE of these shows currently include 'pop-up' advertisements to distract children. ALL of the shows which DO include commercials are presented with advertising for products which you do NOT need to be 18 to enjoy (such as breakfast cereal, etc.) NONE of these shows which DO include commercials has EVER included a commercial which is presented in bad taste - such as the commercial for the Pepto-Bismol 'dance.' (Most of the commercials which are presented on the channels which DO include commercials are actually PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS - such as "support the Visiting Nurses' Association" or "participate in Arbor Day" or "Help Smokey the Bear prevent Forest Fires," etc.) The Gene Autry Show is presented with NO commercials at all! NONE! These television programs were produced in the late 40's, during the 50's and the early 60's. That is between 40 and 60 years ago! What struck me most was that, in recent weeks, ALL of those 'old' kids' shows included episodes about children sneaking away from their parents in order to have adventures of their own. In EACH instance, the children ran into trouble - and NEEDED to be rescued by an adult. For example, in the Lone Ranger episode, a rancher's son and his Native American friend decided to go off alone to capture some bandits. Of course, they DID find the bandits - but were soon in trouble. AFTER the Lone Ranger and Tonto arrived to rescue the children, BOTH the Lone Ranger and Tonto lecture the children about how foolhardy it was to 'sneak' away from their parents in order to have their own 'adventure!' There were episodes similar to this one - which were presented on The Lone Ranger (1949), Gene Autry Show (1951), Lassie (1955), Cisco Kid (1953) and Daniel Boone (1968). Likewise, a number of those shows recently presented episodes during which someone was bitten by a snake - and the children were instructed in ways to care for the injured person until that person could receive proper medical attention! IF commercial television programs a half century ago WERE capable of producing episodes which warned children about the dangers of sneaking away from their parents in order to have adventures of their own AND also about the dangers of getting too close to ANY kind of wildlife - then it seems to me that PBS could do at least as well in those areas! It is PREDATORS who PREY on children who want children to believe that it is OK to sneak away from their parents to have adventures of their own. And it is likewise PREDATORS who PREY on children who want children to believe that it is OK to keep secrets from their parents!

My personal opinion is that adults and children alike need to give DRAGON LAND a WIDE berth!

Sincerely, Eleanor Hamilton, Ph.D.

This show...ugh.
First off, we have one of those dime-a-dozen biligual shows where the second language is spanish (spanish isn't the only second language in the world, people!). But, at least I learned Los Pollitos Dicen from it. Then, we have that Quetzal thing who acts and sounds like a pedophile. It would have been cool if they were modeled after oriental dragons and instead of spanish, they spoke chinese or japanese. Instead, they look like lumbering alligators who walk on two legs. And they act like morons, and they SING! Augh! At least it's not as bad as Dora.

OBVIOUSLY EVERYONE ON HERE POSTING COMMENTS ON THIS SHOW ARE ADULTS. WHY DO YALL CARE SO MUCH ON THE THEME OF THE SHOW. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEIR BEING CONJOINED TWINS AND SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHAIR? I THINK IT'S GREAT. I HAVE TO USE A WHEELCHAIR AND THIS IS THE ONE SHOW I'VE SEEN THAT THEY HAVE SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHAIR AND THEY'RE NOT MAKING FUN OF THEM. ANY OTHER TIME I SEE SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHAIR THEIR ALWAYS USED TO TEACH SOME LESSON ABOUT HOW TO TREAT SOMEONE IN A WHEELCHAIR AND THEN YOU NEVER SEE THEM ON THE SHOW AGAIN. THAT IRRITATES THE CRAP OUT OF ME. THE CONJOINED TWINS DRAGONS DOES NOT CONFUSE KIDS ABOUT SEXUALITY IF YOU TELL THEM THAT THERE REALLY ARE KIDS BORN LIKE. HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN THE COMJOINED TWINS BRITANEY AND ABBEY? THEY'RE JOINED THE SAME WAY. ALL I'M TRYING TO SAY IS THAT THIS SHOW IS GREAT AND LITTLE KIDS DON'T CARE IF IT REPEATS THE SAME THEME OVER AND OVER. ALOT OF LITTLE KID SHOWS DO THAT. ALSO EMMY SAYING DEFINITLEY ALL THE TIME ISN'T ANNOYING TO LITTLE KIDS. IF YOUR KIDS LOVE THE SHOW THEN WHAT ARE YOU SO WORRIED ABOUT? I LOVED THIS SHOW WHEN I WAS A KID. THE SHOW WASN'T MADE FOR ADULTS SO REALLY YALL HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE IT LIKE THAT.

Does EVERY SINGLE PBS kids' program have to feature illegal-alien Mexican children?Also,if Ord isn't actually mentally retarded,he is,at the very least,dimwitted and cowardly.Fat kids can identify with him and develop lousy self esteem,and MOST American kids are overweight.Dragon Tales is not funny,cute,clever,or educational in the least.YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK...

Good point.
Kids need to learn life lessons, and PBS is too treacly (Geez, and people call Disney treacle!!). But PBS does have some violence in their kiddie shows...

One Dragon tales episode involved Max hitting people because he was angry at them. Until Quetzal told him you don't hit others.

And, there was the Arthur episode in which Binky punched Arthur and wound up teaching Arthur (who hit his sister earlier in the episode) that hitting hurts.

think the reason they have all these things in kids shows like Arthur, Clifford the big red dog, etc, and they won't talk about stuff like Boyfriend and Girlfriends, politics, and not even have violence is because PBS wants to protect little children. I can't believe that. After all, for everybody who has seen Yu-Gi-Oh, you all know that show is intended for the same age group as the cartoons on PBS. Yet, they won't allow bad stuff like that because they think it will hurt the children. You know what??!!?? Let's see PBS take a survey about how many of the same kids who watch Clifford the big red dog, Arthur, and all those other shows, watch Yu-Gi-Oh as well. I believe that they would be surprised. I know this one friend of mine who says he watches the PBS cartoons and he wants to make a story to continue the lives and the plots of these cartoon characters, but he is afraid PBS won't publish them because of their so called "guidelines" to protect children. Does PBS even know how many children who watch their shows even watch or have seen Yu-Gi-Oh, and yet Yugioh seems more popular then the pbs shows. GEEZ, I wonder why, Maybe if those buttholes wouldn't always be so concerned about protecting people and letting people know the truth about friendship, maybe, they would see the logic. Yes, PBS talks about friendship, but say Arthur and friends needed to use teamwork to stop a monster from taking over Elwood City, sure the lesson involves teamwork, but unfortunately, PBS doesn't want to show a ***** or movie like that because they fear it will show violence. You know what though, when good and evil collide and they fight each other to try to gain control, violence happens. It's a fact of life. Even the kids show, Dragon Tales, the show is good, but what is the moral of the story? That there is never any violence ever and that you will always have it good. Well picture this, what if after seeing that show, That person hears gunshots outside his house and then he rushes to see what is going on, he sees people crying, and then he hears the sound of the sirens of EMS vehicles, then he sees the medics carrying out someone who has been shot and needs medical care, then he sees the EMS drive away, WHAT DO YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT HE IS GOING TO THINK???!!! Come on people, wake up, this isn't a hard question. He's going to think, wait, PBS and their so called cartoon said that this type of stuff was never going to happen? HMMMM, I believe PBS is going to get some nasty e-mails, don't you think?? In fact, I believe that the reason Older people make fun of little people watching PBS cartoons is because the older kids, by doing that, are kind of saying, "Watch out kid, you are falling into the exact same trap that I did. So, they don't do it to be mean, but since they can't tell the little kids because they won't be able to understand that, they laugh at them. That's a form of insecureness that they must have went through. For another example, shall we say, September 1st, 2001, they did a special (That's what they called it, supposedly) on Reading Rainbow that askes the kids how they feel about the airplanes hitting the buildings and how the kids felt. Then, when the first kid tried to answer, they blotted her out and moved on to the next kid. I think PBS is scared becasue they had no reason to block out what the girl was going to say. That is just plain rude, oh, and they teach us not to be rude. I guess that actions really do speak louder then words. PBS can be defined as, Today's World Confederacy. Yep, the same Confederacy that is in the Starcraft universe. For those of you who know Starcraft, you know that the Confederates make promises and don't ever keep them. They promise to protect the people from the Zerg, yet when the Zerg come, the Confederates run away with "their tail between there legs" But what happened? you may ask. Oh, there is more to the confederates that meet the eye. Then they make up the excuse that they were outnumbered and had no other choice. How could this be describing the faults of PBS? Remember that reading rainbow thing, I told you about? How they asked the girl of her feelings about the tragedy, yet when she opened her mouth to try to speak, they blotted her out because they wanted to protect little kids. Okay, tell me something, how can blotting out someone when they are trying to tell you their feelings be respectful. The company and everybody else associated with them should be ashamed of themselves for what they did. You know, I wouldn't doubt one bit if every person who signs up to work at PBS is signing a document that they don't know about, and it says:
"I promise to tell every kid who watches these shows the truth, up to a certain point. If anybody gets suspicious, we will make it so that they will no longer be suspicious of us and our motives."

Really hard to believe huh? Well, after you watch PBS for a little while and then you see and hear about everything that is happening, it will no longer be hard to believe. My friend is mad about this and quite frankly, so am I. So, to all of you who want to write a story about the continuing adventures of a cartoon character and want to make it a good vs. evil showdown, let the adventure continue and if PBS tries to make you stop writing it or they won't publish it, don't ever give in. If PBS does that to you and you read everything that I have written, chances are, that they are hiding something and that they are going to keep acting like this, but you can't take it and give in to it.

I'm looking forward to the episode where the Dragonland INS deports the Mexican kids for entering Dragonland illegally.