Toxic TV or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Friends

Our parents have always told us what we can or cannot do. Considering that one of the most common pastimes for children is watching TV, parents tried their hardest to make sure that what we watched taught good things. But from Spongebob to Friends, TV shows were supposedly not entirely kid-friendly.  Here are some of those erstwhile kids and the shows they might have watched through covered eyes.

Kaili Welch

TV Shows: The Big Bang Theory, Hannah Montana, SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly, Victorious

My mom thought The Big Bang Theory was too inappropriate even though everyone was watching it when I was in 4th grade. She also did not like Hannah Montana because of the way she talked to her parents, and she didn’t want me to start picking up the bad attitude from the show. My mom told me SpongeBob rots your brain and that there is no value in watching it. I remember asking to watch iCarly and Victorious, and she said no but I don’t remember her reasoning. I watched it anyways.

I watched most of the Disney and Nickelodeon shows, and I didn’t think they were that bad. Spongebob to me is just a fun show and I don’t really see the harm in watching it as a younger child. I never watched Big Bang haha.

Kimia Faroughi

TV Show: Mad Men

Well the reason was because my mom used to watch Mad Men, and she would never let me watch it with her because it was kind of scandalous for me at that age (I was 9 or 10, maybe younger).

I still haven’t watched the show. I guess I forgot about it, and I was never really interested in the content anyway, just the fact that I wasn’t allowed to watch it made it interesting. But now that I think about it maybe I’ll start watching it because it received really good reviews.

Gaurav Varma

TV Shows: Caillou, Yu-Gi-Oh!

Caillou was a brat and treated his parents with no respect. My mom didn’t want me picking up any bad habits from him. Yu-Gi-Oh! because my mom thought it was too violent.

I watched Yu-Gi-Oh! anyway a few years later when I was old enough to figure out how to find episodes on the Internet. I lied to my mom about it, but she eventually found out. I expected her to be mad,  but she wasn’t. I still occasionally watch it on Hulu or Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series (YGOTAS) on YouTube.

Isa Eugenio

TV Shows: Anything on the Disney Channel, but specifically Lilo and Stitch

Apparently the shows were causing my sister and me to talk back and be rude to our parents.

The main character of the show can be somewhat of a brat sometimes so I honestly don’t blame my parents.

Sonia Pramanick

TV Show: SpongeBob SquarePants

My parents thought the cartoon was pointless, and there were dozens of other kids shows that I could actually learn something from while remaining entertained. Other than that though, they never gave me any real reason why they didn’t like it.

Pallavi Bollapragada

TV Shows: Family Guy, Friends

These shows had content that was inappropriate for my age, as I was between 5-6 years old when I wanted to watch them.

I started watching Friends when I was in eighth grade and it became one of my favorite shows for a couple of years. I have not watched Family Guy besides one episode.

Ram Charan

TV Shows: Friends, The Office, and Psych

While I used to watch Friends and Psych at one point in time, my dad went through a phase where he enforced an ultimate level of censorship. The sexual innuendo in both shows flew over my head as a younger kid, but once I turned around 10 or 12, my father sought to protect me from their coarse humor. My dad also did not want me to watch the shows to discourage me from watching television in general. In the end, he succeeded in keeping me from watching any of them until the ripe age of 14. By this time, my mind had been tainted.

I am glad to say that I have finally watched Psych and The Office; I am not as enthralled to say I have watched Friends. While I watched Psych as a kid and then was banned, watching it as a teenager was a very enjoyable experience. The show is packed with non-stop comedy and a perfectly missing laugh track. I also finally got to watch The Office and the show has now become one of my favorite shows of all time. Both shows are two of the best shows I have ever seen and waiting to watch them made them all the more exciting.

Alexander Zhou

TV Shows: Happy Tree Friends, The Walking Dead

Happy Tree Friends was too gory, and The Walking Dead was too scary.

Kabir Samsi

TV Show: Stranger Things

My parents thought it was age inappropriate. But I catch the show but now I’m banned from watching 13 Reasons Why, which is sad. I think it’s cool but it’s mainly jump scares which is kind of boring if you ask me so it’s not really that scary. Blegh.

Rowan Tuttle

TV Shows: Silicon Valley, South Park

The characters swear a lot and say racy things and are racist and violent and sexual. But they are all awesome and honestly I take a lot of my messed up jokes and references from them.

Name: Siddharth Chavan

TV Shows: Sesame Street, Barney

Too scary when I was 14. They are scary.