Seventies Moralizing

What is your opinion of the moralizing that went on in children's programing during the seventies? At the time, I approved of it, and my parents approved, especially of Filmation's Tarzan. Looking back on it, I don't approve. THey seemed to be wanting to stear us on a rediculously narrow moral pathway. Tae the numerous admonishions agaisnt cheating in cartoons. I actually took those messages to heart as a kid--but an incident occurred during my childhood that left me feeling betrayed. It didn't work that way in real life. KIds today are lucky this doesn't go on.

It was Filmation, it seems that was partiularly "bad" in regard to moralizing. It also seemed like they repeatedly warned kids against the "evils" of practical joking,(wasn't there a character called "mr. Prankster" on Yogi's Gang? Don't remeber the episode, but I can guess what it was about.) when some of the most popular characters in cartoons are practical jokers. THere was one filmation character in particular who revealed the hypocrisy latent within these messages. This was the character of Hauntleroy on Groovie Goolies. I remember Hauntleroy was this fat priggish kid, who tried to stop two nasty kids (I forget their names) from playing pranks on the other Goolies. Always, Hauntlereoy ended up taking the flack for the mischeivous twosome. For the life of me, I could not understand why the "good guy" character got the worst of it. I still don't know, but it shows the hypocrisy of Filmation.

I remember the Fat Albert kids singing a song called "A joke isn't a joke if it hurts someone." I found out in real life, some jokes are really mean, but sometimes the person who's hurt is just taking the joke a little too seriously. As I often did after seeing these phony moral messages.

I have no problems with the life lessons taught in those shows. There may be times when gentle reminders might be needed on ways to handle a sensitive situation. I do not think my ego is above it all to roll my eyes at those cartoon shows and to think the lesson of the day in those shows would not apply to me at any given time. The "Fat Albert" show probably was the best example in blending the lessons of the day with nicely written humor to get the point across.

With the abundance of online trolls, psychological and physical bullying, violent video shooting and fighting games, committing infractions of the law to gain "street cred" among one's peers, insufferable egos, sports trashtalking and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and talking back at or shouting down one's parents, guardians, and authority figures who disagree...those entertaining cartoon show reminders to improve one's behavior and civility seem lacking in the media...and at home...these days.

The two kids who used Hauntleroy as their foil were Ratso and Batso. And I think the Fat Albert gang was actually saying that some jokes cause physical injuries, not just emotional ones.