Effects of a continuing cold war on children's television?

So, how would shows like boy meets world, and others such as those on Disney channel be different with existing soviets plus the threat of nuclear war looming above?
 
I'm not so sure, but Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb would instead be depicted as Russian.

Also, Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls could easily use images of a nuclear apocalypse to threaten the other characters.

Perhaps Star Butterfly from Star vs the Forces of Evil could turn the Berlin Wall into one big stack of marshmallows.
 
I'm not so sure, but Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb would instead be depicted as Russian.

Also, Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls could easily use images of a nuclear apocalypse to threaten the other characters.

Perhaps Star Butterfly from Star vs the Forces of Evil could turn the Berlin Wall into one big stack of marshmallows.
Cool, I've always liked how cartoons can interact with the cold war since it's rarely done, but when it is it feels pretty cool, as I feel that it has a lot of untapped potential setting wise compared to world war 2.
 

CECBC

Banned
I'm not so sure, but Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb would instead be depicted as Russian.

Also, Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls could easily use images of a nuclear apocalypse to threaten the other characters.

Perhaps Star Butterfly from Star vs the Forces of Evil could turn the Berlin Wall into one big stack of marshmallows.
I think it's much more likely that children's shows would avoid references to the cold war and nuclear weapons.

That stuff would be like a kid's show referencing ISIS, North Korea or Putin-not gonna happen. It's too controversial and heavy a topic for a children's show.
 
But if you really look at Saturday morning cartoons, from the early '60s to the Fall of the Wall, only Rocky and Bullwinkle went that way repeatedly, and that was 'Pottsylvania' standing in for the USSR, and Roger Ramjet that had Soviet inspired villains too.

The rest was generic.

Well, you had more Germanic villains than Soviet, too.
 
Strange as it may sound, with a prolonged cold war, Czechoslovak children's television series like Pan Tau, Arabela or The Visitors might continue to run on western TV channels the way they did in the 70's and 80's. The valuta starved eastern european countries sold their sometimes quite decent TV productions for absolute bargain prices and some of them became popular in western countries as well. I'm honestly not aware of any post 1989 Czechoslovak / Czech TV productions being aired on western TV channels IOTL, but if any of them were they did certainly not achieve the same level of popularity the earlier shows did.
 
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Instead of Legend of Korra being made an anthology series with a villain every season, Amon is set up as the series' main antagonist and his Equalist revolution is depicted with lots of Stalinist overtones. Instead of Kuvira developing weapons from the spirit vines, it would be Amon.
 

missouribob

Banned
Instead of Legend of Korra being made an anthology series with a villain every season, Amon is set up as the series' main antagonist and his Equalist revolution is depicted with lots of Stalinist overtones. Instead of Kuvira developing weapons from the spirit vines, it would be Amon.
Slightly off topic I wish this happened in OTL. Amon was the best villain of the series.
 
I don't imagine much. Children shows produced during the OTL Cold War never referenced it, aside from the occasional appearance of sympathetic Soviet characters.
 
Slightly off topic I wish this happened in OTL. Amon was the best villain of the series.

Alas but me thinks that Mike and Bryan did not want a repeat of the Last Airbender with Korra's friends being whisked away around the world, defending the nations from a expansionist superpower. I personally would've wanted that as I grew sick of Republic City within the first few episodes.
 
Don't forget the Singing Ringing Tree, although that was from the DDR. That scared me when I first saw it on the Beeb.
With The Singing Ringing Tree, Children of the Stones and The Changes plus Crystaltips and Alistair (scary in a different way) to watch, its remarkable that British children of the 1970s grew up as well adjusted as they did.

There was a slew of East European imports on British children's TV, mostly on the BBC (English version presented by Peggy Miller) in the 1970s and IIRC most of them came from Romania.

There was a Radio Four documentary about TSRT, which was on the internet, which included an interview with the actress that played the princess. One of the things the programme said was that the Communist Block made good quality Children's TV programmes because it helped the children grow up into good communists.
 
With The Singing Ringing Tree, Children of the Stones and The Changes plus Crystaltips and Alistair (scary in a different way) to watch, its remarkable that British children of the 1970s grew up as well adjusted as they did.

Did we though?:evilsmile:
More seriously, "The Changes" badly mangled what was a fairly good trilogy by Peter Dickinson.
 
In DuckTales Moneysac collaborates with the soviets and Rockerduck with the Chinese. Only Scrooge is the honorable businessman fighting for his free homeland.
Disney productions would be especially vulnerable for anti-communist propaganda, something they continued even after the end of the cold war. Isn't there a scene in "recess" where they portray russians as the enemies or something like that?
Anyway, an awesome, because funny question. =D
 
Strange as it may sound, with a prolonged cold war, Czechoslovak children's television series like Pan Tau, Arabela or The Visitors might continue to run on western TV channels the way they did in the 70's and 80's. The valuta starved eastern european countries sold their sometimes quite decent TV productions for absolute bargain prices and some of them became popular in western countries as well. I'm honestly not aware of any post 1989 Czechoslovak / Czech TV productions being aired on western TV channels IOTL, but if any of them were they did certainly not achieve the same level of popularity the earlier shows did.
I remember The Secret of Steel City airing on BBC.
 
I am not sure if this was anti communist propaganda, but I remember this "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want to have some milk", which seemed to be at least anti welfare or hand-outs when you think about it.
 
I don't imagine much. Children shows produced during the OTL Cold War never referenced it, aside from the occasional appearance of sympathetic Soviet characters.

Well, hardly ever. One story in The Tomorrow People featured Pavla Vlasova, a Russian telepath who was forced to work the KGB but tried to escape from her handlers during a trip to London. She was killed at the end of the story when the KGB detonated a bomb that had been implanted in her body.
 
I think it's much more likely that children's shows would avoid references to the cold war and nuclear weapons.

That stuff would be like a kid's show referencing ISIS, North Korea or Putin-not gonna happen. It's too controversial and heavy a topic for a children's show.
I wouldn't be so sure. After all, Animaniacs did feature a Saddam Hussein expy in Baghdad Cafe and Hot, Bothered, and Bedeviled, though the Hot, Bothered, and Bedeviled one was a very brief cameo of him being dropped into Hell in the intro. I could definitely see them poking fun at the USSR and the Cold War in general if it was still going on at the time of production.
 
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