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In reply to the discussion: What's the WORST cartoon show from when you were a kid? [View all]gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I was too young to realize what an insult that was to my intelligence, but I knew I didn't like it. Growing up, I guess I just figured anything put out there for entertainment was automatically worthwhile. Then the Rex Harrison version of Dr. Doolittle came out. Our teacher had read the book aloud to us, so I had a notion that I might like it. It was the first multi-level marketing vehicle I was ever aware of: The ubiquitous song, the incessant commercials, the product tie-ins, all the way up and down the line of merchandise marketed to kids.
The movie finally came out, and the kids a couple doors down went to see it right away. They weren't any more discriminating or sophisticated than me, but they came back practically retching about what a sorry spectacle it was. My brothers and I never went to see it in the theater. But it was the first time I really had got the notion that you could view an entertainment offering critically.
Some years later, Dr. Doolittle was on a weekend afternoon movie. Interrupted every couple of minutes to cram in commercials and fill the time slot allotted. I lasted about 45 minutes of the choppy presentation before realizing that I had made a good consumer choice all those years ago.