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Posts tagged ‘Childhood’

Feb 3

Power Rangers for Everyone

Power Rangers in the 1990's

One of my favorite T.V. shows throughout my childhood was the Power Rangers. The series started in 1993 and shortly after become a nationwide phenomenon with many different toys and costumes for children. It started as a series in Japan and Americans then adapted in in 1993 to become a show on the Fox network. It has many different series that have played throughout the years but they all revolve around the same concept. Power Rangers is a superhero show that consists of a few young normal people who are trained to become super heros and fight villains. They transform and fight as a team wearing suits and helmets. For 3 years in a row I dressed as the pink Power Ranger for halloween and many other kids I know would dress up as Power Rangers and we would play fight at the playground. The costumes range in price from around $20-30.

The Power Rangers became a huge pop culture icon throughout the 1990’s. In class discussion, we tried to define pop culture and what can be classified as pop culture. I think pop culture can be different depending upon where you live and the society you are in, but is something that a large majority of people can identify with. The creators of Power Rangers were very smart when trying to decide how to target a broad range of children. By creating characters that appeal to both girls and boys the target market can double. If you look at a lot of toys or television shows geared for children they typically tend to appeal towards one gender or the other. Power Rangers used color and characters to appeal to both. Power Rangers was a big part of my childhood and created unity on the playground for boys and girls alike to wear their different costumes to school and fight the villains of the playground.

 

Feb 3

The Big Comfy Couch

Ever since I was a child, one of my favorite shows was The Big Comfy Couch. I distinctly remember I loved the show so much that my parents even bought me the doll Molly, the sidekick, which was priced around $19.99. Every day I would sit on my couch and pretend that I was sitting on “The Big Comfy Couch” with Molly sitting right next to me. The Big Comfy Couch was aired from 1992 to 2006 and was a Canadian children’s television series. Cheryl Wagner created this television series about Loonette the Clown and her doll Molly, who solve their everyday problems on this big comfy couch. Each episode focused on a different aspect of movement that children were encouraged to partake in, such as stretching, jumping, or dancing.

The Big Comfy Couch on Treehouse TV

In Gary Cross’s article entitled, “Modern Childhood, Modern Toys” he discussed how gender had a tremendous affect on the toys presented to either young boys or young girls during that time. He says, “Girls’ playthings were almost exclusively dolls and their accessories” (49). This was presented in the show The Big Comfy Couch by the doll Molly which appealed to young girls. It showed that a doll can be your best friend, which was represented by the relationship between Loonette, the clown, and Molly.

Through the continued watching the television show every day, seeing the Big Comfy Couch started to become a routine. Whenever the afternoon rolled over, my mother would always know to turn on the television for me. Just as in Gary Cross’s article, he says, “Toys did not cease serving the needs and imagination of adults, but they began meeting adults’ ideas about the needs of children” (47). Therefore, my mother knew what had then interested me, and through modern technology it became a source for parents, like my own, to entertain their children.

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