Our generation: Where the good TV shows were at

Childhood memories include memories of us hiding friends to avoid going home and pestering older brothers to no extent. However, nothing compares to spending hours on end in front of the TV watching our favorite shows.

What we watch as children deeply affects our corny jokes made on a daily basis. We cannot be thankful enough that our generation was just in time for the run of quality childhood classics.

The average childhood consisted of only the best: “Spongebob Squarepants,” “Fairly Odd Parents” and the “Powerpuff Girls” among many others. Each one was relatively simple and had a plot that was easy to follow, yet humorous through its individual style.   

It is impossible to go through a day without making at least one reference to one of the many shows we worshipped as kids. Shouting “SMASHING” as Nigel Thornberry would is a universally understood joke and is just as fun as it sounds. 

However, the decrease in the quality of children’s television shows is similar to a reversed exponential growth. John Green would describe it as “slowly, and then all at once.” Quality childhood shows disappeared with a wink of Johnny Bravo’s eye and all that is left are tears and anguish in the form of the new Disney Channel show “Dog with a Blog.”  

Today’s typical form of entertainment will follow a peppy pre-teen who deals with painfully stereotypical problems. Or in the case of “Dog with a Blog,” Disney Channel was clever to replace the ditzy best friend or exaggerated family member with a talking dog. 

“Dog with a Blog” follows main protagonist Avery as she seeks advice for her seemingly momentous problems from her talking dog who — surprise, surprise — has a blog. The show's never-ending horrendous acting and poor use of a talking dog actually make it surprisingly entertaining.

Disney Channel is the Amanda Bynes of children’s television channels as of right now. It was relatively enjoyable until something unknown caused it to devour and destroy itself from within. All we can assume is something exploded in the Disney studios, resulting in the painful, far-fetched suburban shows that air today. 

All of our cherished childhood shows disappeared so quickly; it hurts our sentimental hearts to see such a once-promising channel go to waste. 

Fortunately with us being “90’s kids,” these flawed shows are problems left to the kids born in the 21st century. We lucky ducks were able to bask in the beautiful light of such amazing shows such as “Catdog,” “That’s So Raven,” “Hey Arnold!” and so many more.

Although shorter than half a minute, the intro title is almost as important as the show itself. No one can deny singing along to “Odd Parents, Fairly Odd Parents!” or questioning “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” followed by the screaming chant of “SPONGEBOB! SQUAREPANTS!” If the title song isn’t catchy enough to make a 5-year-old jump off the couch and screech the high notes, then the show is an automatic zero in our book.

Just as TV shows were booming in our day and age, movies were in pretty good shape as well. Disney was spewing out quality movies every year by the dozen. “Aladdin,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Santa Clause” and “The Lion King” had all come out within a two year span among many other underrated but also fantastic movies.

Luckily for us, we grew up in a time when only the best  TV shows were on air. Those stuck with 13-year-olds attempting to make singing debuts on rock band-themed Disney shows might as well buy DVDs of Spongebob, or else their sense of humor will be destroyed by the painfully forced jokes. Either way, there’s no way to beat the TV shows of our childhood. Unless you count Hannah Montana as part of our childhood. VMA’s anyone?