There comes a moment in every person's life when they look back on the things they've done, the places they've gone and the television they've watched. These memories have their high points (the 10-part miniseries "Band of Brothers") and their low points ("Mind of Mencia" is an obvious example), but all of these reminiscences eventually lead us to bemoan the decline of television from the "good ol' days" to the present.
This happens so frequently that one could think that television has devolved precipitously into the Dark Ages. Our current TV lineup is just the umpteenth reiteration of reality shows and cliched sitcoms, right? Has Nickelodeon really gone from the venerated "Rugrats" to "iCarly"? And what happened to the Disney Channel?
Most nostalgic flashbacks have to do with the early 1990s cartoon and action shows we watched as kids. All of us somehow know the cast of "Doug" or the epic theme songs from "Thundercats" and "X-Men: The Animated Series." The cartoons of yesterday seem to pale in comparison to the kitsch of today.
My TV flashback happened last week, probably sometime between deciding to start homework and actually picking up my book, as I got the sudden urge to watch cartoons. Flipping through the impressive library of Netflix's "Watch Instantly" section, I couldn't bring myself to watch another "Family Guy" rerun or the always annoying "Spongebob Squarepants".
As I scoured the Internet for some of my go-to mid-'90s favorites, I chanced upon the live-action "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers," a huge childhood obsession of mine that resulted in several action figures, dozens of hours in front of the TV and a horribly embarrassing yet epic Halloween costume.
Grabbing a cold Coke from the mini-fridge and a box of Triscuits, I threw my "History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" aside (it's not getting solved anytime soon anyway) and found episode one, season one.
Twenty minutes flew by. Something happened. I'm not sure what. There was some guy in a pickle jar named Zoron and a bunch of "teens with attitude" fighting a giant monster that somehow used to be a clay figurine? Did this stuff make sense to me when I was seven? What made me want to wear only red and green shirts so I could be like the Red and Green Rangers?
While some shows have stood the test of time "Batman: The Animated Series" and "X-Men: The Animated Series" are as good and beloved today as they were 15 years ago most of the television we watched as kids is as terrible as the stuff we deride today as pure garbage. "Captain Planet"? "Thundercats"? Hokier than anything currently on the air today.
As we deride the programming that currently graces Nickelodeon and Disney, we become more and more like the generation before us. They, too, bemoan the degradation of pop culture. Perhaps this is the fate of every generation. Despite the poor quality of our beloved "Captain Planet" or "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" these shows will, and should, continue to hold a cherished place in our memories.
