
Just another day for Bay City's finest detectives.
So, what do you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon when your 1 year old is napping? Why, you grab the crayons and coloring books, pop in season 1 of “Starsky & Hutch” and start the pop culture education of your 4 year-old daughter.
I am not embarrassed to say that I adore that show. And I don’t think it’s ever too early to introduce the classics to your children. We’ve read Runaway Ralph, Beezus & Ramona, Jack and the Beanstalk. We’ve seen To Kill a Mockingbird, Rear Window and Casablanca.
And now, on to classic t.v. My daughter loves watching cartoons and other kid shows, but she also loves watching the stuff that mom and dad watch. We don’t let her watch anything graphic, so calm down. She doesn’t understand half of it, but she asks a lot of questions and we are more than happy to answer them in a way she can understand. For instance, when she asked, “Mama, who’s your favorite, Starpsky or Hutch?” I replied, “Mama likes the good looking Jewish man, honey. That’s Starsky.” Her response was, “Oh, I think I like the yellow haired man better.” It’s okay. He did have a pop song on the charts at one time. She’ll come around.
You see, when I was a kid, I watched the stuff my parents watched, too. I watched Barney Miller and WKRP and I loved watching Creature Feature with Dr. Sanguinary. We watched old movies on public television. I listened to my parents’ albums. And I loved it. And I’m thankful now that I did. I’m not stuck in some weird current events rut. I get the jokes that smart shows have – that wink at the audience.
I refuse to let our children move forward without knowing where it all started. I’m not trying to turn her into a Mini Me-good lord, I’m not that cruel. I just want her to know that there’s more out there than just reality shows and iPods. I don’t want her to be a twenty-something who turns her nose up at anything that was created before she was born. And when you know about all that stuff that happened a long time before you were born, you can actually have conversations with all kinds of people – older people who will think you’re pretty cool for knowing that kind of stuff. Not that being cool is the be all end all, but you can meet some pretty interesting people that way.
Also, I’m preparing my children in case they decide to hit the game show circuit. Ever heard of Ken Jennings? He was on Sesame Street for Pete’s sake! And what about all the radio station giveaways? I bet you didn’t think about that. They could then become part of pop culture themselves. Blows your mind a little doesn’t it?
Those shows also taught us lessons. Not many shows now have “Very Special Episodes” anymore. I miss after school specials too. Remember when Scott Baio fell in with the wrong crowd and started smoking weed? Or when Dudley and Arnold were invited into the back room of Mr. Carlson’s (he wasn’t Mr. Carlson at the time, but I can’t remember his name in that episode) bike shop to watch “movies”? Scared the crap out of me, those shows.
So her “Starsky & Hutch” education has taught her that detectives get to wear their own clothes, that policeman are there to help us and that you should always have your partner’s back. Pretty good lessons, I think. Now, if we could just find episodes of “The Facts of Life” she could understand the importance of female friendships, regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic backgrounds. And how to fix your motorcycle, courtesy of Jo Polniaczek.