What Do 5 Year Olds Watch?

I promise this won't be one of those cute 'look, my kid pooped in the potty and then said the cutest thing' posts. I'm not that blogger. What I will write about is my observation regarding changing television habits of a growing male child.
Now granted, this is specific only to the young man living under my roof and claimed on my tax return, I would never project this behavior across an entire generation. Like I said, just some localized contextual inquiry.

Life started with Baby Einstein, evolved into Noggin, moved to the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, and has since evolved to Jetix (a.k.a Toon Disney, a.k.a TDIS on Comcast).

Seriously, one day he was fine to watch Dora, Diego, Max&Ruby and Maggie -- his favorite show for a long time was 'Higglytown Heroes'. It's all very cute and innocent. But all of a sudden like 8 weeks ago he demanded Super Hero programming. Maybe I introduced it a little so that I could secretly enjoy the show as well - since most viewing involved me as well (which of course I highly recommend to provide context and to fast forward the commercials). Quick aside on that one...now that Max found commercials, I have a Hanukkah and birthday list longer than the Ken Starr report. Is that a way outdated reference? Sorry, longer than the 9/11 Commission. Some of his wish-list items contain yummy breakfast cereals and Barbies for Tessa too. And since Mommy (and for a little while Daddy) studied and worked in the 'ad game', we encourage his new-found love for the creative 30 second spot. OK, not really. But since he now knows how to fast forward and even quickly back up if he overruns the show, this is no longer an issue.

Also this -- I am not saying he is watching 8 hours a day. No way. Not going to happen. He can start doing that when he graduates college like his proud father. For now, its pretty much one to wake up with (so parents can sleep for 23 more minutes) and one to go to bed too (since his motor runs at 100 MPH and something needs to bring him down to end the day). Don't judge me. Just kidding.

So where was I? Oh yeah, so here is what we...I mean Max...likes and recommends to the bloggesphere:

-Batman the Animated Series: Saturday mornings on KidsWB. Its very innocent and cute and Robin is like a 12 year old kid and the villians like Joker and Penguin are very funny and not too scary or threatening. Green Lantern, Hawk Man, and other heroes have showed up as well.

-Spiderman the Animated Series: Can't tell you much about it, it starts this Saturday morning ahead of Batman. But hopefully it will be just as innocent.

-The Batman: This show is on Jetix about 5 times per day and is way more adult. I have to vet these first. Seriously, one day Batman is fighting Joker from robbing a bank, the next day Robin is avenging his parents murder...you catch my point. I would say about 75% of these shows are more than acceptable and kind of fun.

-Superman the Animated Series: Also on Jetix about 5 times per day and also pretty harmless. Sometimes it crosses over with Batman which is even cooler and he has guest visits from the The Flash. In one episode, Bruce Wayne started dating Lois Lane and Max thought that was very funny. Either way, the only violence in this show is Superman being thrown around once in a while (except one episode where a policeman got zapped into oblivion and there was a Jewish funeral for him complete with the mourners kaddish which to me was more hilarious than depressing).

But I will say this, it is still very refreshing every once in a while when he still asks for 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse' or 'Handy Manny' -- they grow up too fast. Would you like to hear a story about the darndest thing he said?