How Canada is a children's TV powerhouse, from ‘You Can’t Do That On Television,’ to ‘Paw Patrol’
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Sunday, July 23, 2023
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Retail sales of Paw Patrol merchandise have surpassed US$14 billion.
Key Points:
- Retail sales of Paw Patrol merchandise have surpassed US$14 billion.
- Yet, there is little awareness here in Canada of the country’s global reach in children’s television content production.
Near and dear to our hearts
- Many of these shows are near and dear to our hearts and we hold deep nostalgia for them.
- Children’s media is massively under-researched or ignored in scholarship about Canadian cultural industries, and similarly in overlapping areas like Canadian media studies, media history, children’s studies or even Canadian children’s history.
Redefining values and representation
- Passe-Partout originally ran between 1977-92, featuring playful human characters and a family of puppets that are still cherished today.
- These are featured alongside documentary film clips of Elders and local artists teaching Inuktitut and Inuit culture.
- In the past 70 years, many of these aforementioned shows have contributed significantly to redefining national values and symbols and contributed to a fuller picture of cultural and racialized diversity.
- But as research from the Children’s Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University indicates, there is still a ways to go with representing children across the country.
Canada as hub
- Canada is also an international hub for the children’s entertainment industry.
- For example, the children’s media program at Centennial College is world-renowned, as is Sheridan College’s animation program.
- And Kidscreen — the top trade publication for the global children’s entertainment industry — is produced in Toronto, demonstrating the depth of cultural capital here.
Children’s media and policy, funding decisions
- Canadian children’s television has shaped children’s media around the world and has had a big impact on how media should tell stories to child audiences.
- For example, much of Nickelodeon’s early programming was Canadian children’s TV often produced by local TV stations.
- Without an appreciation for Canada’s long history of children’s media production, the danger exists that the industry won’t be prioritized in policy decisions or in funding opportunities.
Museum exhibits: telling the stories
- If you are looking for something to do this summer, there are two museum exhibits that rectify this oversight in unknown stories of Canadian children’s media.
- The Canadian Museum of History, in Ottawa-Gatineau, is currently holding a special exhibit called From Pepinot to Paw Patrol — Television of our Childhoods, until Sept. 1, 2023, covering 70 years of Canadian children’s TV from coast to coast to coast.
- Featuring 100 shows and 85 artifacts, the exhibit aims to create an intergenerational and intercultural experience for the whole family.