The time machine is a story I’ve known since I was a little kid. Not the actual BOOK the time machine, which is sad. No, I took in the time machine in a way that tons of kids my age did: Through Wishbone. Oh, Wishbone. The reason I randomly will picture Jack Russells as the main character of stories. Wishbone was a fantastic children’s show that where a dog (with a BIG imagination… and a much bigger vocabulary than your average pup. He makes scooby doo look like a special ed student) retells classic stories, with himself in little costumes as the lead character. Such classics as The Odyssey, Rip Van Winkle, Robin Hood, Oliver Twist, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and of course, The Time Machine. These versions are, of course, shortened and made easily digestible for children, but they still get (most of) the point across. In the Time Machine, Wishbone is the Time Traveler. We meet Weena, and the rest of her docile brethren. There ARE some things that the children’s television show skips over, like the orgies in the park that the Eloi are so fond of. And wishbone doesn’t kill any morlocs and enjoying feeling their squishy insides being bashed in by his…I don’t even know how he held stuff, he IS a dog. But I definitely remember him stringing and firing a bow several times in other episodes, which makes no sense.
When Harry Potter came out, people said it was great that kids were getting into books again. And I feel like that is only kind of true. It was getting kids into mediocre books, which is only good because they’re exercising their ability to read but not much else. Shows like this got kids into the classics, even if it was through a medium that most parents now condemn. But I think its great, and it inspires to kids to read GOOD books, which I think is much better than them just reading badly written cutesy fiction all the time. Even though both activities will keep your kids busy and out of your hair for a few precious minutes of the day.
For your entertainment:
(Also, enjoy early 90′s discussions of how cool calculators are)
