E/I E/I Oooooh!!!

[JDWeil]

The E/I designation on cerain childrens programs indicate that the show has educational or instructional qualities init. This makes sense for the kid's programs on PBS, but by what criteria do such shows as Magical Do Re Mi, Winx Club, Sonic X and Trollz deserve this designation? How to play video games? Are fairies for real? Completely clueless here.

[mojokingbee1]

The E/I designation on cerain childrens programs indicate that the show has educational or instructional qualities init. This makes sense for the kid's programs on PBS, but by what criteria do such shows as Magical Do Re Mi, Winx Club, Sonic X and Trollz deserve this designation? How to play video games? Are fairies for real? Completely clueless here.
Why E/I? Teaching the same obligatory, Pro-social lessons every children's show teaches.
They're one of the main reasons why I hate animation today.

[Brettfern]

It is not just on toons where you see that E/I. Disney Channel shows like Phil of the Future, That's So Raven, Suite Life Of Zack & Cody to name a few have it on during ABC Kids SatAM broadcasts...

[Dark Fact]

Why E/I? Teaching the same obligatory, Pro-social lessons every children's show teaches. They're one of the main reasons why I hate animation today.
The E/I system has been around since the 70's. It's just more greatly enforced these days. :sad:

[Tintin]

The E/I designation on cerain childrens programs indicate that the show has educational or instructional qualities init. This makes sense for the kid's programs on PBS, but by what criteria do such shows as Magical Do Re Mi, Winx Club, Sonic X and Trollz deserve this designation? How to play video games? Are fairies for real? Completely clueless here.
Sonic X are E/I? I think it's not very educational

[Michael24]

Thank you. I've been wondering what that E/I thing was for months.

[Jeff Harris]

The E/I system has been around since the 70's. It's just more greatly enforced these days. :sad:Umm . . . well, yes and no. Although networks began creating mandates for Saturday morning programming in the 70s as a result of the boycotts and censorship practices of Peggy Charren's watchdog group the Action for Children's Television, educational and informational programming wasn't mandatory in that decade. After the syndication explosion of 1978 (which continued until the creation of the Fox Kids network block in 1990), broadcast television slowly began to lose viewership. Meanwhile, ACT continued monitoring broadcast outlets and monitored cable programming.

Though the FCC had no sayso as to what cable networks can and cannot show (the cable industry polices itself the majority of the time), they could mandate what could be shown on broadcast television, and with enough lobbying by the ACT, the Children's Television Act of 1990 was passed and signed into law years later. One of the provisions of the CTA was that there had to be no less than three hours of educational/informational programming for children between 6 AM and 10 PM EST/PST. Broadcasters could no longer label non-educational fare like The Jetsons as educational programming, but that doesn't mean that they haven't tried (see ABC Kids' current lineup for examples).

Recently, an additional provision that an E/I label be placed on all programs branded as such.

Like we needed more clutter on the screens.

[j32885]

Good points Jeff as always. :)

The whole E/I thing has gotten really annoying lately though. :shrug:

[Classic Speedy]

This may not be 100% accurate, but...

They're putting the E/I tag on otherwise non-educational programs to justify to the big wigs that they're airing the designated amount of educational programming every week.

Atleast that's what I always got out of it.

[Alex Toon]

Yes, Sonic X and Trollz are educational - how not to dub anime, and how not to make a toy-based cartoon.;)
But I think we should only put E/I with only subtle shows like Veggietales. But it's the parents who should be educating the kids, not the TV.

[Hordesman]

DiC seems to be reaping the biggest benefits from E/I. Last year, they had a morning block of such educational shows as "Sherlock Holmes in the [upcoming] century" and "Mummies Alive!" And now their Trollz qualifies too! So why not their Strawberry Shortcake? It's somewhat vaguely almost education in a sort of home ec kinda way . :p

[Freedom Fighter]

Sonic X does not have an E/I designation, folks, the only two shows 4KidsTV currenty airs that do are Magical DoReMi and Winx Club.

And to my knowledge, most, if not all of, the Dic syndication package's shows are given an E/I designation.

[The Weed Of Cri]

The wording of the Children's Television Act leaves the definitions of "educational" and "instructive" vague, since even its strongest supporters could not decide what they should mean (remember, Action for Children's Television was never about improving the quality of kidvid, but rather the elimination of what its members considered harmful). So networks can employ a kind of poetic license in deciding what meets the criteria. Winx Club can be seen as showing the virtues of teamwork, Sonic X could be a lesson in doing what's right, and Magical DoReMi can be interpreted as teaching kids to work toward positive goals. Given enough effort, you could probably think of some way that South Park or Family Guy can be seen as "educational".

[Fone Bone]

The wording of the Children's Television Act leaves the definitions of "educational" and "instructive" vague, since even its strongest supporters could not decide what they should mean (remember, Action for Children's Television was never about improving the quality of kidvid, but rather the elimination of what its members considered harmful). So networks can employ a kind of poetic license in deciding what meets the criteria. Winx Club can be seen as showing the virtues of teamwork, Sonic X could be a lesson in doing what's right, and Magical DoReMi can be interpreted as teaching kids to work toward positive goals. Given enough effort, you could probably think of some way that South Park or Family Guy can be seen as "educational".South Park, maybe. Family Guy, no.:p

CTA always bugged me.

[rhudson765]

DiC seems to be reaping the biggest benefits from E/I. Last year, they had a morning block of such educational shows as "Sherlock Holmes in the [upcoming] century" and "Mummies Alive!" And now their Trollz qualifies too! So why not their Strawberry Shortcake? It's somewhat vaguely almost education in a sort of home ec kinda way . :p
But most of DIC's shows are garbage. Even the REALLY OLD ONES!!!! Truest me Kidd Video was the ONLY thing that DIC produced that was CLOSE to being good!

[ThePeterNetwork]

I think the whole E/I designation has got to go, and the CTA has to be abandoned. It's killing TV animation as we know it. It's like the animation industry has no place on broadcast TV. :sad:

[Anthonynotes]

I think the whole E/I designation has got to go, and the CTA has to be abandoned. It's killing TV animation as we know it. It's like the animation industry has no place on broadcast TV. :sad:

Actually, I think other factors---particularly these days the emphasis local stations place on airing talk shows, judge shows, infomercials, reruns of "Bernie Mac"---anything *but* kids shows---is doing more to kill off broadcast kids' cartoons...