Scooby-Doo and TV Mama

All along, I had intended to cover television on this blog. It’s not just how pervasive TV is, but I have been covering television for over a decade for an international syndicate.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed most A-list stars and several who should remain on the D-list. Wait, is there a Z-list? I’ve been on sets from “The Sopranos” to “Sesame Street” and am yet to confuse them. I’ve listened to wonderful stories from terrific actors, and have had the chance to interview some of the greats including Jack Lemmon, Beverly Sills and Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny’s creator).

I’ll revisit some of those interviews in upcoming posts because I want to share what an incredibly nice guy Jack Lemmon was, how gracious Beverly Sills’ home was and what a riot Chuck Jones was. I’ll also write about the living.

For now, though, I want to talk about why I named this blog TV Mama. For the longest time, I was covering more children’s programming than any professional writer in the country. That’s not an idle statement; publicists representing the shows repeatedly told me this. And I talked with many of my colleagues at the Television Critics Association who bore this out.

Much of this is because there is so much television and so few employed TV critics. They are all writing a lot, and there is so much to write. Among my favorite assignments has been one called Report Card, which my editor and I devised over a drink some years back.

For the last six years, I have written a family-viewing column for Tribune Media Services. It’s been a delight, but after over 300 columns (and never missing a week) that assignment is being phased out in mid-August. I had also written a weekly column on TV kids for the Star-Ledger, more of a personal take on TV, with a weekly essay and recommendations, but that ended a year ago.

Still, I am delighted to remain a working journalist, 31 years into my career, so this is not a complaint. Rather it’s an explanation for why there will be more posts here about kids’ shows, and why this started as TV Mama.

Despite the usual refrain that there is nothing on; there is plenty on, particularly for kids. So, part of this blog is to remind us what shows are out there that are worth watching with kids or for kids alone.

Along those lines, I’m recommending “Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated” Monday, July 12, on Cartoon Network. Scooby is just a constant in life, and there are so few of those. I don’t take much for granted, but I expect Shaggy to have a permanent case of the munchies, Velma to be forced to suffer fools, Daphne to sigh over unrequited love and Fred to flex his muscles. I expect silly ghosts.

And, truly, those expectations are met in this new show.